By Julie Moore
Save the date of October 15 for a highlight of the North Carolina Native Plant Society, its Annual Fall 2022 Field Trip. It will focus on Longleaf Pine ecosystems of the Sandhills, including the diversity of plants that grow with longleaf pines and management practices needed to sustain these ecosystems. We will visit properties within close proximity in western Moore County in the western Sandhills, that are only open by invitation.
Fall is the time to see the highest number of blooming plants in the Sandhills. Particularly noteworthy are the striking Pinebarren gentian (Gentiana autumnalis), several distinctive sandhills milkweeds including (Asclepias humistrata), blazing stars and gayfeathers, goldenrods, numerous asters and Threadleaf Gerardia (Agalinis setacea).
Editor’s Note: An annual Fire in the Pines festival at Halyburton Park in Wilmington will be hosted October 8 by The Nature Conservancy, where the public can watch a controlled Longleaf Pine forest burn up close (but not too close). For more information, read the Native Plant News article by Shelagh Clancy, “People Protect Plants: It takes a Fire to Grow a Forest.”
By Julie Moore
Native Plant News – Summer 2022
Julie Moore, botanist and ecologist, is an active member of the Margaret Reid Chapter of the NCNPS (Triangle region.) Julie has a long history of professional and personal involvement in native plant conservation organizations and land trusts in North Carolina and nationally, with a particular interest in longleaf pine ecosystems. Her current project is the Venusflytrapchampions.org to encourage management and conservation of the species.