{"id":712,"date":"2010-06-24T06:28:47","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T10:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=712"},"modified":"2010-12-20T16:14:12","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T21:14:12","slug":"pollination-on-jones-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2010\/06\/pollination-on-jones-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollination on Jones Street"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11186\" style=\"width: 172px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-11186\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=11186\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11186\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11186   \" title=\"Milkweed-pods\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Milkweed-pods.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"162\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11186\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Baby seed pods of common milkweed are the result of successful pollination of the earlier flower clusters. Photo by Ken Moore.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Ken Moore<br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Pollinator Week and we pause to honor pollinators. We  should do it every week; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how important they are.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to this Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pollinator Celebration from 10 a.m. to  2 p.m. on the grounds of Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro, plan a visit  to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, anytime, to learn more  about the importance of insects as pollinators.<\/p>\n<p>Your museum visit begins on the outside. The half-block-long north  side of the museum along Jones Street is a wild garden, a dramatic  contrast to the lawn and shrub monoculture of the North Carolina  legislature across the street.<\/p>\n<p>The museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wild garden is, by design, an assemblage of native  plants representative of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s botanical diversity from seacoast  to mountains. Though many of the plants from far reaches of the state  will not survive on the museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harsh north bank, some, surprisingly,  do, like the native mountain bush honeysuckle, <em>Diervilla  sessilifolia<\/em>, which occurs naturally only at very high elevations. I  wonder that there may be some similarities between the harshness of the  museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s urban site and the extremes of high-mountain conditions.<\/p>\n<p>That wild garden attracts a great diversity of wild critters. Several  species of birds nest there and feast on the variety of seeds, fruits  and insects associated with the native plants. Praying mantises hunt  atop the flower heads of Joe-Pye weed, <em>Eupatorium fistulosum<\/em>.  Common buckeye butterflies linger on the flower heads of rattlesnake  master, <em>Eryngium yuccifolium<\/em>. Leaves of common milkweed, <em>Asclepias  syriaca<\/em>, provide sustenance for monarch butterfly larvae.<\/p>\n<p>Museum curators frequently visit the wild garden to selectively  harvest flowers, fruit and leaves to feed the living critters displayed  inside. Most importantly, foliage, flowers and fruit and seed of the  wildflowers, grasses and native trees and shrubs provide necessary food  and cover for countless pollinating insects.<\/p>\n<p>Folks walking by frequently pause to take closer looks at the color  and movement in the wild garden. They express appreciation for such a  different garden in the urban setting. But not all are so appreciative.  On her way to work in the Legislative Building, a pleasant lady  inquired, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why does the museum have all those weeds?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I responded, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When  those weeds are blooming, we call them wildflowers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She lingered to explain to me how, growing up on a farm, her daddy  always called those wild plants \u00e2\u20ac\u0153weeds,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the children had to help  keep them away from the house to make room for the nicer cultivated  plants.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<dl id=\"attachment_11185\" class=\"wp-caption  alignleft\" style=\"width: 190px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-11185\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=11185\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11185  \" title=\"Wild-garden-on-Jones-Street\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Wild-garden-on-Jones-Street.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">PHOTO BY KEN MOORE. Pink phlox and orange  butterfly weed attract pollinators to the Natural Sciences Museum wild  garden in downtown Raleigh.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<p>When she noticed a butterfly weed, <em>Asclepias tuberosa<\/em>, she  acknowledged that it made a pretty garden plant. Then she reflected on  how her granddaddy took her walking in the woods and fields, talking  about all sorts of wild plants. Some are good to eat, some make useful  herbal medicines and some are just downright pretty. As she continued on  her way, she acknowledged, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, all things considered, maybe we  should all learn to appreciate those weeds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>After she left, I spied a mockingbird relishing the berries of  pokeweed, <em>Phytollaca americana<\/em>, some unidentified warbler  flitting about catching insects and butterfly larvae chewing milkweed  leaves.<\/p>\n<p>Then I appreciated that, largely unnoticed, the whole wild garden was  alive with a host of insects visiting plants, unknowingly engaged in  that vital function we call pollination. Thankfully, this action occurs  every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Flora Columnist It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Pollinator Week and we pause to honor pollinators. We should do it every week; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how important they are. In addition to this Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pollinator Celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the grounds of Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro, plan a visit to the Museum of Natural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[283,625,111,115,622,624,108,621,107,626,333,620,623],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-summer","tag-asclepias-syriaca","tag-asclepias-tuberosa","tag-butterfly-weed","tag-common-milkweed","tag-diervilla-sessilifolia","tag-eryngium-yuccifolium","tag-eupatorium-fistulosum","tag-honeysuckle","tag-joe-pye-weed","tag-phytollaca-americana","tag-pokeweed","tag-pollinator-celebration","tag-rattlesnake-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}