Category: Uncategorized
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Painting the Landscape with Fire
The history of land management co-evolved with the ecology of fire. Tens of thousands of years ago, Native Americans burned tracts of land. Amongst the reasons were clearance for sight lines, setting up villages, protection from enemies, and the cultivation of land through agriculture. These fires, especially in the southeastern United States, regenerated the land…
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Sycamore Park, Pennsylvania
Everyone has a favorite garden, park, or natural lands getaway. This is mine. Sycamore Park in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania on the borderline to Philadelphia is a small community park showcasing one very large, very old Sycamore tree, surrounded by turfgrass and within a perimeter of brick row houses. I grew up near this 300-350 year old…
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Coastal Trillium
Trillium! Marvel of the woodlands. Jeffersonia, Trout Lily, Thalictrum, the mighty Bloodroot. These are the spring ephemerals. These are my plants during days when nothing else really happens. Their emergence signals that the cyclical circle of seasons has not been disrupted. Everything is in order and all has been restored. Trillium. Three leaves, three sepals,…
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the Ballad of the Saguaro
Driving east from Phoenix, it began to rain and started to smell of Creosote. Fully aware that many things do not live up to preconceived ideas and expectations, sometimes things do. For years, I have wanted to see Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) but never had the opportunity to experience the plant in its habitat of…
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Fragrant Swamps
(the story of the Venus Flytrap and the Green Swamp) Each Spring, while others look ahead to upcoming plant sales, I think about the Green Swamp. Southeastern North Carolina’s Green Swamp is the home of a variety of carnivorous plants and the native range of the Venus Flytrap. The presence of Pines, specifically Longleaf Pines,…
Green Is The Color 