Spring Forward

Signs of spring abound around me this week. The haze of red maple flowers adorns roadside trees, non-native daffodils nod cheerful yellow heads, and plants all around show signs of change to those that look for it. I walked through the yard yesterday to see what I could find.

Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) flower buds expanding

Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) buds are beginning to elongate and you can see the individual flowers begin to take shape. Leaves come later.

The chokeberry (Photinia pyrifolia) and southern crabapple (Malus angustifolia) are two woody plants that have new leaves already; their flowers will come after the leaves have expanded.

Erythronium umbilicatum

Trout lilies (Erythronium umbilicatum) are emerging from thick leaf blankets. Their spotted foliage appears first. A pair of leaves means the plant is mature enough to bloom. Today's bright sun has opened up this flower; it was just a bud yesterday. Nearby, toothwort foliage (Cardamine angustata) is up.

Fly poison (Amianthium muscitoxicum) foliage is 2 inches up, as fresh and bright green as anyone would hope. Blooms won’t appear until early summer and thankfully the deer will leave this foliage alone (one of my favorite reasons to have this plant).

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima)

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima) buds are just beginning to reveal the soft purple flower buds. They will expand rapidly now; it is one of the earliest flowers along streamsides.

One of the Carex in the woods has blooms on it already, but it will be mighty lonely until some others join it. As a wind-pollinated plant, it needs company to be successful.

Pieris phillyreifolia

Pieris (Pieris phillyreifolia) is already flowering. The translucent white blooms support early pollinators. The evergreen leaves make a beautiful foil for the early flowers.

Aplectrum hyemale

Plants that are evergreen all winter are still there: evergreen ginger (Hexastylis arifolia and H. shuttleworthii), green and gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor) and this puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale).

These are good plants to use if you like to see a bit of green in your shade garden during the colder months. Look for them at native spring plant sales.

Viburnum acerifolium

Not everyone is ready – the buds of this mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) are still tight and will wait for warmer days and longer sunlight hours before they are ready to make their move.

I'm enjoying every plant's awakening in its turn.

Plant a Tree for the Future

My closest plant friends know that if I had to name a favorite “category” of plants it would be trees. Trees are amazing organisms – strong, long-lived, graceful, colorful, beautiful, and a pillar of support for almost every creature around them.

Tuliptree, Liriodendron tulipifera

Arbor Day is here again, and it is an excellent time to reflect upon all that trees do for us. The list is a simple but important one, and it is one that I shared with many kids over the years during Arbor Day celebrations. They give us shade, shelter, food, materials, and beauty. Their roots hold the soil together. Their leaves clean the air and give us oxygen.

I doubt we could live without them. 

So Arbor Day is also a good time to plant a tree. Georgia’s Arbor Day is celebrated the third Friday in February. It is earlier than the national Arbor Day because our mild climate allows us to plant trees earlier in the year. Woody plants like trees and shrubs can be planted now, well ahead of the hot summer weather.

Trees also benefit wildlife - especially native trees. They provide shelter for birds, small mammals and even bugs. They provide food for them in many ways. Their fruit and nuts are excellent food, of course. But even their leaves are food for many bugs, especially the larval forms of caterpillars, flies, wasps and many others. And as I've said many times, those bugs become bird food later.

So for all the good reasons for humans and the wildlife we live with ... plant a native tree.

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” - Anonymous

Wetland Woes

Wetlands are a very special environment both for the ecosystems that they support and the plants that call them home. As you may know, wetlands are areas that absorb excess water from runoff, rivers and creeks. Wetlands may stay wet for all or part of the time. They help filter out pollutants from the water that passes through them; they also help control erosion.  The plants and animals that live in wetlands are specially adapted to these conditions.

Boardwalk through Heritage Park wetland

Sometimes they become homes to opportunistic plants that appreciate plentiful moisture. Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is one such plant in the southeastern U.S. Privet thrives happily in moist areas like wetlands and streamsides; it also does just fine during dry spells. The plant spreads by both seeds and roots and can take over an area in just a few years. Activities known as “privet pulls” are conducted in many natural areas in attempts to clear out the thickets of privet that crowd out native plants.

Privet fruit

That picture of a boardwalk over a wetland shows the "cleared" area. The rest of the boardwalk was crowded by large stands of privet, much of it dripping with fruit even this far into winter. While birds will eat some of the fruit, it is not their favorite. Berries from the native spicebush, elderberry, winterberry and swamp dogwood are long gone, preferred by the birds for both taste and nourishment.

The picture to the right shows an area of Nickajack Creek (just past the boardwalk) that is so choked with evergreen privet that you can't even see the banks. Visitors to the park probably think that is what a "native" woodland looks like.

Yesterday the Georgia Native Plant Society held its annual privet pull at an adopted section of Heritage Park in Mableton, GA. GNPS members have been pulling privet out of this area since 2001, one section at a time.

The progress has been remarkable and it has inspired the county to eradicate more privet using other volunteer groups.

Privet tagged for removal

GNPS has also introduced a program to help visitors both learn more about this invasive and become active in removing it. Signs are posted explaining the infestation and advising that plants marked with pink tape can be removed by anyone that wants to help. GNPS volunteers come back and dispose of the plants pulled up and tag new candidates.

I spent part of the day removing pulled up plants and tagging new ones. I also removed other plants like English ivy and Japanese honeysuckle.

Cleared area on left, still infested on right

But I also spent time enjoying the park, appreciating the cleared areas and the native plants that are recovering their territory.

Betula nigra saplings on streamside of path;
green behind is privet

The trees of the area are typical of wet areas: river birch (Betula nigra), sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), boxelder (Acer negundo), red maple (Acer rubrum), and beech (Fagus grandifolia) plus some more upland trees like tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Somewhere there was an oak (Quercus) in the red oak group; I saw the leaves on the ground.

Elderberry leaves come out early in the season

Shrubs include spicebush (Lindera benzoin), elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis), winterberry (Ilex verticillata) and swamp dogwood (Cornus amomum). Also some evergreen ferns and rivercane (Arundinaria gigantea) were present, but it's hard to tell what other perennials are here because they are dormant now.

GNPS volunteers have planted some perennials in cleared areas based on what is found on adjacent properties: ginger (Hexastylis arifolia), trout lily (Erythronium umbilicatum), toothwort (Cardamine), and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). All were visible today (although not yet blooming).

Sycamore trees arch over the ruins

I walked further along the wide 1.7 mile trail, following Nickajack Creek all the way to the ruins of the Concord Woolen Mills. The spread of privet varied widely, sometimes unbearably thick, other times very sparse. I hope that continued volunteer work with reduce it over time, allowing the native shrubs to return and support the wildlife. I heard very few birds in the woods, but I know they'd come back. 

Concord Woolen Mills was burned during the Civil War in July 1864 but rebuilt and destroyed two more times before being abandoned. The steel reinforcements were added by Cobb County to preserve it.

Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)

As I walked back, I spied a few yellow blossoms lying spent on the trail. Looking up (way up!), I saw the evergreen Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) growing in the trees. It is an aggressive native vine that, properly sited, provides late winter blooms among it's glossy green leaves.

Although this was the annual privet pull, GNPS volunteers pull privet year-round. Come help on one of our monthly workdays. It's a good way to learn more about native plants and environments at the same time you are helping.