Category

Plants

online event, Past Events, Plants

Prospecting for Plants – The Western Carolina Botanical ClubFeatured

Tuesday, June 13, 7 p.m. / Reuter Center Manheimer Room

Please access the recording and transcript download here. The recording will be available until July 13.  https://unca-edu.zoom.us/rec/share/ngU5DXtewwy2X2GKaQ8RzU9HD_gOTYKJ81ZSVncMW028-un8vHBrN4LV6MHwS0CB.2_6-rSAeeVoYUyul

Have you ever wondered where and when to find our most interesting and rare wildflowers at their peak? Have you wanted to discover some new and interesting trails loaded with botanical curiosities? If so, you’ll want to join this program to learn more about the Western Carolina Botanical Club.  Now celebrating its 50th year, the Western Carolina Botanical Club connects people who are passionate about the plants of the Southern Appalachians.  Representatives of the club will discuss its history, mission, and the tremendous amount of data they’ve collected on our local plant species. We will also learn about its weekly field trips to some of our most interesting local biodiversity hotspots, illustrated with photos of favorite wildflowers, woody plants and mosses.

Past Events, Plants

Big Creek Wildflower Walk

A lovely, warm spring day welcomed our group of 27 BRNN Wildflower enthusiasts to our annual outing at Big Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Our group featured some of the founders of the Blue Ridge Naturalist program – Jesse Wilder, Scott Dean, and Dan Lazar, as well as no fewer than three current and past presidents of the Blue Ridge Naturalist Network.  Our gang divided into three groups, with Scott Dean and Jim Poling leading wildflower-intensive explorations, and Randy Richardson leading a group on a longer hike to Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls.  While some of early spring wildflowers were past their prime, the Big Creek trails did not disappoint.  Botanical highlights included Yellow Trillium, Fernleaf and Fringed Phacelias, Showy Orchis, Dwarf Crested Irises, and plenty of Fire Pinks.  Selected photos from the event follow:

Members gather for walk– photo by Jim Poling
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Past Events, Plants

Invasive Plants: What’s the Problem?

Presenter: Bob Gale, Ecologist and Public Lands Director, MountainTrue

Tuesday, May 9, 7 pm at the UNCA Reuter Center and on Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting

https://unca-edu.zoom.us/j/95732119316?pwd=OC9sMnVDb3hjL2NBSEZmNTJRREQxdz09

Non-native species have invaded our forests, yards and open spaces. These invasive plants with aggressive growth habits are rapidly displacing native plant species and imperiling the local fauna that depend upon them.

Bob Gale has served MountainTrue for 25 years, where he has worked on a broad range of issues affecting forests and rural lands. He leads MountainTrue’s non-native invasive species program and is a member of the NC Invasive Plants Council. His talk will illustrate the problems created by invasives on public lands and in our yards and offer solutions for species of greatest concern. 

“We have allowed alien plants to replace natives all over the country. Our native animals and plants cannot adapt to this gross and completely unnatural manipulation … Their only hope for a sustainable future is for us to intervene to right the wrongs that we have perpetrated.”― Douglas W. Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home