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Take a closer look!

2007 April 26

Your best landscape plants may already be in place

Frilly flowers of the Fringe tree hang like clouds. Photo by Ken Moore.


By Ken Moore
Flora Columnist

A group of folks on the Haw River Assembly’s Earth Day walk along the new Haw River Natural area this past Saturday were happy to discover one of those pawpaw patches described in last week’s Citizen. A few of the flowers had survived the recent cold, so the walkers got a good look at the seldom-noticed burgundy flowers, and, sure enough, the main tree had suckered so that numerous stems had indeed formed a patch.
In the woods that day we also noticed the beautiful flowers of the wild azalea, sometimes called wild honeysuckle because the native azalea flowers do resemble the long flowers of that fragrant vine that is such a weed in our gardens and natural areas. Our local forests are filled with beautiful shrubs and small trees that make handsome landscape specimens. Two such shrubs in full flower now are the Downy Arrow-wood (Viburnum rafinesquianum) and the Fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus). The arrow-wood, one of four species of native Viburnums growing in our local woods, displays a profusion of flat-top clusters of tiny white flowers. A good place to view an extensive natural population is the Botanical Garden’s visitor parking area. Frequently, you will notice them when in flower along roadsides where mowing crews can’t get to them. A particularly nice such specimen is on West Poplar Avenue at the base of a power pole cable just around the corner from the Carrboro Fire Department. Dramatic specimens of the Fringe tree, looking like fleecy white clouds, can be seen in yards throughout Carrboro. Some of these may be large specimens, relocated from the local woods by Carrboro citizens decades ago.
It is sad to see our forests cleared so completely for new residential construction and the all-too-frequent “tidying up” of wooded properties throughout our neighborhoods. Unknowingly, homeowners are eradicating fine landscape plants already set in place by nature. One should never “tidy up” one’s property without first making an inventory of what plants are growing there. In addition to the obvious dogwoods and redbuds, you may discover Fringe trees, wild azaleas, some of the four arrow-woods, strawberry bush, blueberry and deerberry already in place, and numerous other potentially fine shrubs and trees plus a variety of ferns and wild perennials.
To help you identify your native plants, there are numerous good guides in local libraries and bookstores, frequent classes and walks led by knowledgeable individuals, and you are welcome to take specimens for identification by master gardeners and the staff at the Botanical Garden during noontimes on weekdays. Staff members at the Botanical Garden know the merits of our native plants and they feature many of them from time to time at the plant sales. You will most likely find the Downy Arrow-wood there now, and the local nurseries in our area are offering more and more of our native plants as good landscape and garden plants.
Now the next time you walk in your woods or along a forest trail, take a closer look and imagine the unaltered forest as a pleasing landscape and focus on the interest and beauty of individual elements from a little clump of wood rush or wild sedge to the dramatic bark textures of the big trees. Begin now to learn the local plants; knowing them and the stories they tell is like making new friends.

Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.

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