Johnny Randall, assistant director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden and neighbor, has two articles in today’s (Sunday’s) Chapel Hill News. One “Take advantage of bare branches” is a brief bit about finding and removing non-native annuals and invasive evergreen shrubs like privet. This is important of course, but it was the other that attracted me. And of course that’s the one article not online. Luckily Johnny points us to the NC Herbarium site and the great orchid resource there so we can learn more.

“Find Orchids now to enjoy summer flowering”
describes NC’s three native terrestrial orchids and how to identify them. They are rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), putty root orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) and crane-fly orchid (Tipularia discolor). All three occur at the NC Botanical Garden.