As described in last week’s Flora, you want to avoid close contact with ornamental smooth sumac’s viney cousin, poison ivy, Rhus radicans.
Category: Flora
FLORA: Appreciating sumac
I am thankful for the sumac that volunteered along our Carrboro roadside. It’s now well established and I look forward every year to finding where new stems emerge.
Go out after dark to see this one
Jimsonweeds will volunteer wherever there is open ground.
FLORA: Here’s a flower you won’t pick!
Durham resident Parker Chesson recently captured the above image of a swallowtail on a bull thistle flower head.
FLORA: Another spectacular Piedmont wildflower display
I jump for joy when I view a field of wildflowers, especially here in our Piedmont region.
FLORA: “Mother Nature’s daily specialâ€
Brian’s daily “closer looks†at the local flora called to my attention several common but seldom-noticed wildflowers of particular beauty.
FLORA: Poke, my favorite plant
While most folks frown on common pokeweed or poke salad, Phytolacca americana, sophisticated gardeners like my friend Sally Heiney admire and grow this giant native perennial.
FLORA: Plantain leads us to dock
You know, folks, I generally have two or more stories and photos queued up for Flora ahead of submission deadlines.
FLORA: Trumpet creeper, one of our fine native vines
Recently, I was queried by a Citizen reader about why I never write about vines.
FLORA: Plantains have it all!
After recently seeing some handsome specimens of common plantain, Plantago major, up in the Carolina mountains, I was happy to arrive home to find my own wild population showing off impressively …
FLORA: Bottlebrush grass
For years and years, I’ve been admiring bottlebrush grass, a wild grass of the open forests and woods’ edges, and now I enjoy it all around me day after day.
FLORA: Purslane mulch
Several years ago, purslane, Portulaca oleracea, began appearing in my vegetable garden. Just last week, I noticed tiny yellow flowers nestled in amongst all the succulent leaves.
FLORA: Peppergrass
This week, I’m spicing up my yucca flower dishes (see last week’s Flora) with peppergrass harvested from the edge of the drive.
FLORA: Not just a pretty flower
Now that yuccas are very noticeable as they approach full flowering, I remember a camping trip of a few years ago.
With luck, you’ll spot a yellow one
During the past week, I’ve been catching glimpses of little white flowers hovering just above the tops of grasses in rural areas outside Carrboro and in some of the unmowed roadside edges closer into town.