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Native plants show off in spite of drought and heat

2007 May 31

A group of local folks stopped in their tracks on the edge of one of Mason Farm’s Penstemon fields. Photo by Ken Moore.


By Ken Moore
Flora Columnist

Summer has not officially arrived, but the summer heat made its dramatic entry this past Memorial Day weekend. And we are well along into the predicted drought; without ample rainfall soon, that anticipated bumper crop of “4th of July blackberries” will be sparse indeed.
While we’re having to provide supplemental water to maintain the health of our cultivated gardens, the native plants along our roadsides and woodland borders are continuing to put on a show without the additional help from our watering hoses.
I was happy to be joined this past Saturday by a small band of other energetic older locals for a walk around the Botanical Garden’s Mason Farm Biological Reserve, where nature’s flower show was evident in both spectacular and subtle ways. The occasion was an annual visit to take in the vast vistas of Beard Tongue (Penstemon laevigatus) in several of the open areas of the old Mason Farm. Fields full of the white spires of thousands and thousands of Penstemon plants were a spectacular contrast to one field with very few Penstemon. This one particular field, with a wide-open vista of tawny and copper-colored grasses and dried stems of last year, was spotted throughout with the bright yellows of our local Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa), making for a less intense visual experience, but quietly spectacular in such a subtle way.
Another notable native in full flower was the Elderberry, that exuberantly spreading shrub with masses of giant Queen Anne’s lace-type white flower heads. Also present in the same wet ditch edges is Swamp Dogwood and some significant patches of Lizard’s Tail growing in the mucky bottoms of ditches, with lower than normal water levels due to our early drought. Buds of the upright-drooping tight clusters of white flowers of Lizard’s Tail are now evident and will be making a dramatic show in another couple of weeks.
The Mason Farm Biological Reserve is a real local treasure. The story of the return to nature of the former working farm belonging to the Morgan and Mason families of past centuries is beautifully described in John Terres’ From Laurel Hill to Siler’s Bog. In the early 1960s, Terres, in residence in Chapel Hill to complete the American Encyclopaedia of Birds, became sidetracked when he fell in love with making daily and nightly forays to observe the natural histories of plants and animals of the old farm. His account has become a classic, and is well worth reading to make your visits out there more exciting. The area is open to the general public by obtaining a yearlong renewable permit from the Botanical Garden. If you are intent on walking your dog, however, don’t plan on visiting; dogs are not permitted because natural history academic research is actively conducted there.
We are indebted to the dedication and expertise of Dr. Johnny Randall and his team of staff and volunteers at the Botanical Garden who are active throughout the seasons with various habitat management techniques, including controlled, winter-season fires that help maintain the great natural diversity of the reserve.
Plan now to visit within the next several days and you’ll most likely catch the waning spectacle of this season’s Penstemon fields. Whenever you visit, there are always wonderful sights and sounds to surprise and thrill you.

Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.

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