North Carolina
Native Plant Society
Southern Piedmont Chapter
September 2020 Meeting
Butterflies of the Carolinas with
Will Stuart
Virtual Meeting Free Open to the Public
Sunday
September 13, 2020 2:00pm
In this newsletter... Butterflies of the Carolinas September Meeting
Paula and Larry's Picks
Making Your Neighborhood Friendly to Native Plants
NCNPS Shinn Grants Join NCNPS
NEW! Follow us on Instagram
Follow Us on Facebook Native Plant Stars
NCNPS Handouts
NCNPS Website: Improved Plant Search
UNCC Native Plant Studies Classes
Butterflies of the Carolinas with Will Stuart
Southern Piedmont Chapter Meeting September 13 2:00pm
Butterflies clockwise from top left: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Frosted Elfin, Diana Fritillary. All photos courtesy of Will Stuart.
Join us on September 13 as our favorite photographer, Will Stuart, presents Butterflies of the Carolinas. We only have about 200 species of butterfly in North Carolina and only half of these are common.
Will spends countless hours in the field photographing butterflies and other insects foraging and feeding on our native plants. His presentation will include the art of butterfly observation. Like wildflower observation, Will will teach us the basics of butterfly anatomy, how to navigate a field guide and how to differentiate Monarchs from Viceroys, Painted Ladies from American Ladies, Clouded from Cloudless Sulfurs and one Fritillary from another.
Come prepared to drool over Will’s beautiful photography.
Will Stuart has been photographing wildflowers since the mid-1970s when he began supplementing his botany lectures with up-close portraits of the local flora of upstate New York. He is a certified native plant specialist, a member of the North Carolina Native Plant Society, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation and the Carolina Nature Photographers Association. He is also a contributing photographer to NameThatPlant.net and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Paula and Larry's Picks
New to gardening with native plants?
The photo above shows Sweet Coneflower (Rudbeckia subtomentosa), a sun-loving perennial recommended by Paula Gross and Dr. Larry Mellichamp in their talk this month about best plants for going native in your garden. According to Paula and Larry, this stunning and easy to grow plant has 4" wide yellow flowers, is 3-5' tall and blooms profusely for two months.
You can learn more about the best native plants for your garden in their new book The Southeast Native Plant Primer. The UNCC Botanical Gardens offers copies of their book to purchase at this link: https://bit.ly/3h8QoiF
Making Your Neighborhood
More Friendly to Native Plants
Have you ever wondered how you could encourage more widespread use of native plants in your own neighborhood? Does your community have a homeowners association that is oblivious to what they are planting in common areas?
Lynn Richardson, a Durham resident, decided to tackle the problem in her subdivision. She organized a pioneering committee that is working to increase the use of native plants and control invasive plants in her neighborhood's yards and common areas.
Listen to Lynn discuss her efforts in this video from the North Carolina Botanical Garden called Biodiversity at Home. https://bit.ly/3kXIECI
Read the plan her committee created here. https://bit.ly/2YesFGt
Fulfilling an important mission of the North Carolina Native Plant Society, Shinn Grants support university students who are conducting basic or applied research in botanical or horticultural research. Laura Harmon is the recipient of successive grants to study the most important pollinators of the Venus Flytrap and increasing seed set in this rare plant.
Not a NCNPS Member?
Don't miss out on members only hikes. Join us now and become a Southern Piedmont Chapter Wildflower Warrior.
The Southern Piedmont Chapter is now on Instagram. Follow our posts at ncnps.spchapter.
Follow us on Facebook. This is what people have been talking about this summer on the NCNPS Southern Piedmont Chapter page.
Photos of common roadside wildflowers have included common cup-plant, False Foxglove, Scaly Blazingstar, New York Ironweed, Stemless Ironweed and Pencil Flower.
Head over to our Facebook page for more information about each native plant.
Click to LIKE our Facebook page and join the conversation.
NCNPS has four handouts to help you select native plants for your garden. They are Favorite Native Plants for the Garden, A Native Plant Color Palette for the Garden, Native Groundcovers for the Garden and Ferns. You can download a copy of these handouts at this link: https://ncwildflower.org/native_plants/handouts/
Improved Plant Search on NCNPS Website
You will find a new improved plant search function on ncwildflower.org, the NCNPS website. Search by scientific or common name, plant type, bloom color, light, moisture, native plant type, height, leaf form or type.
Search for native plant knowledge this spring at this link: https://ncwildflower.org/plant_galleries/all_fields_search
UNCC Certificate in Native Plant Studies
UNCC Botanical Gardens has new classes in its Native Plant Studies certificate program. They include basic and advanced botany, sustainable gardening, landscape design, soils and wildflower ID. Click on this link for more information and to register for classes.
