By Ken Moore Last summer, I described the elusive cranefly orchid, Tipularia discolor (see Flora in the Aug. 2, 2007 issue of The Carrboro Citizen). I’m as excited about its once-a-year flowering recurrence now as last summer. If you didn’t catch them last year, I encourage you to search for them now while they’re in…
Category: Flora
A big-leaved threat
by Ken Moore I’m always impressed by those large round leafy stems that seem to have grown six to 12 feet overnight along roadside banks and ditches. This fast-growing plant is promoted by the nursery industry as a miracle tree, the fastest growing one in America. For the homeowner, this exotic (non-native) royal paulownia, royal…
A flower that makes you smile
By Ken Moore Every time I walk by one of these little flowers, I feel a smile inside and my instinct is to pause long enough to say: “Hi, how you doin’?†Early this week, I took one of these little flowers to Padgett Station, one of my Carrboro coffee spots, and set it in…
Power-line botany
By Ken Moore Several days ago, I spied lots of yellow flowers along the edge of the power line crossing Poplar Avenue in west Carrboro. Infrequently cleared power line right-of-ways are great places to observe a diversity of both native and exotic plants and the critters that depend on them. This past weekend, I walked…
False-foxglove?
Now, how can a flower be false? A flower either is or it isn’t! It seems irreverent to call any plant “false.†But I’m getting ahead of myself. I was all set to focus on yellow roadside composites (flowers in the aster and sunflower family) for this week’s Flora when I was redirected by a…
The art of nature
By Ken Moore Perhaps it’s really the nature of art! Art and nature were inseparable during the recent two-week Session 3 at Penland School of Crafts in Western North Carolina. Fifteen different studios — including glass blowing, metal sculpture, ceramics, photography, weaving and sketching — demonstrated that images and experiences of nature were dominant sources…
Flora: A native vine for hummingbirds and goldfinches
by Ken Moore Staff Writer Right now I celebrate the native trumpet vine, Campsis radicans. Some folks call it trumpet creeper or cow-itch vine. There are likely other names associated with this common weedy vine with bright-orange, tubular flowers that are guaranteed to attract hummingbirds. Keep an eye out for the occasional peach- or yellow-colored…
White flowers of early summer
By Ken Moore They began flowering weeks ago and they are still making a show along roadsides and wherever folks allow them on their lawns and in their gardens. I give native daisy fleabane, Erigeron annuus, freedom to grow wherever it suits itself in my wild landscape. Masses of tiny white daisy flowers on multi-branching…
Touching is believing
By Ken Moore Last week, I rushed to the Botanical Garden for a quick photograph of those Carolina Blue spiderworts. Walking quickly out, I made the mistake of glancing over the surface of those water lily tanks behind the Totten Center. The other aquatic plants usually go unnoticed, but this time my eye was captured…
Spiderworts’ many colors “curiously lurking amongst the grassâ€
Spiderworts’ many colors “curiously lurking amongst the grass†In spite of the early heat wave, cool shades of spiderwort flowers continue to cheer up the early morning hours. The one moving around my yard is most likely Tradescantia ohiensis, Smooth Spiderwort, with leaves having a somewhat whitish cast (glaucous) to them. The pair of leaves…
Beauty and drama is where you find it!
By Ken Moore Another reflection on catalpas! Remember the Northern and Southern Catalpas? The taller, northern one flowers earlier than the broader, southern one. Last week, some of you may have inspected the southern one finishing its flowering, overhanging Weaver Street in Carrboro. Now the bigger, broader specimen set back on the cool green yard…
Penstemon Fields
By Ken Moore Last week, I described my delight in finding a snakeroot with two flowers. This past weekend, my gardening friend, Sally, was downright apologetic in inviting me over to see several snakeroots growing in her wild garden. They were not only taller than ones I have seen, but at the base of one…
The catalpa of blackberry winter
By Ken Moore As usual, Mother’s Day and the university’s commencement have been accompanied by the typical cool stormy weather of “blackberry winter,†signaled by the flowering of wild blackberries along roadsides and woodland edges. This past weekend’s blackberry winter weather was particularly stormy, as it delivered more needed rainfall, hopefully not the last before…
Holly flowers
By Ken Moore Holly flowers are really neat. Though not big and showy like dogwoods and magnolias, once you have looked closely at a cluster of holly flowers you may get hooked on looking forward to them each spring. And you’ll feel really special when you can determine for your neighbors and friends whether or…
Ill-natured Agnes
By Ken Moore The Haw River Assembly’s Earth Day walk along the Haw River revealed a spectacular display of an ill-natured plant. No sooner had we entered the forest on the northeast side of the US 64 bridge than several walkers inquired about the heavy, perfumed fragrance wafting on the spring breeze. We eventually became…