Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier

I could probably talk about Amelanchier until my voice gave out (at least an hour!). It's such a great multi-season plant in the garden, and brings so much value to wildlife, as well. It's also a great example of how native plants convey a "sense of place" that is not imparted by conventional, non-native plants in the garden.

Although the Genus is distributed across the Northern hemisphere, the greatest diversity is found in North America. As you can see from the BONAP distribution map, Amelanchier diversity is the greatest in the Northeast. New York State hosts 14 species, varieties, natural hybrids, and subspecies. And New York City is home to 6 of those.

Amelanchier in my garden

Amelanchier was one of the key plants I included in my backyard native plant garden design in 2009. To fit my design, I needed a tree form with a single trunk and broad canopy.

Native Plant Profile: Adlumia fungosa, allegheny vine, climbing fumitory

A species new to me that I picked up at yesterday's plant sale for the Manhattan Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society (MCNARGS). Since I don't know anything about it, I researched it to figure out what it wants and find a place for it in my garden.

Adlumia fungosa, climbing fumitory, scrambling into Clethra in the backyard in July 2015

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Adlumia fungosa is a biennial vine in the Fumariaceae, the fumewort family, or Papaveraceae, poppy family, depending on the accepted taxonomy. It can grow up to 12 feet in length by scrambling over other plants and rocks in the moist, wooded slopes it requires. Common names include allegheny vine, climbing fumitory, and mountain fringe.

Its primary native range is New England and northeastern United States. Following the mountains, its range extends as far south and west as Tennessee and North Carolina. It's also found in scattered counties as far west as Minnesota and Iowa.

Biota of North America Program (BONAP) floristic synthesis county-level distribution map for Adlumia fungosa. In this map, yellow and light green highlights counties where specimens have been recorded. Dark green shows state-/province-level nativity.


Although not native to New York City, it is native to adjacent and nearby counties in NY, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The New York Flora Association (NYFA) Atlas lists its endangered/threatened status as as S4: Apparently secure in New York State. Other sources, including the New England Wildflower Society (NEWFS), list it as threatened or endangered throughout its range.

I'm going to try this plant on the north side of my garage. That area is consistently moist from runoff from the garage roof. There's no slope there, but it's densely planted with shrubs and perennials, so this plant should have lots to scramble over. If it's really happy, there's also the nearby arbor.

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Links

NYFA

Connecticut Botanical Society
NEWFS GoBotany
USDA PLANTS
BONAP
NPIN
Wikipedia

Other Garden Blogs:
Cold Climate Gardening

Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier x grandiflora

Jump to How to Plant a Tree.

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Today I planted Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance', Apple Serviceberry, in my backyard native plant garden.


I chose my backyard as my final class project for Urban Garden Design at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last year. Serviceberry is one of the two key plants I specified for my planting scheme. Serviceberries are multi-season plants. They bloom in early Spring, before the flowering cherries. The berries ripen in mid-summer; they are edible and tasty, and attractive to birds. Fall color is excellent. Branching structure and bark provide winter interest.

Here are the initial sketch and final design for the project. The Amelanchier is the second smallest circle on the left (north) of the plan. In this design for an urban woodland garden, the Serviceberry plays the role of an understory tree. The larger circle on the right is Sassafras albidum, the canopy tree, which is proving even more difficult to source than the Amelanchier.

Asimina triloba, PawPaw

2010.08.30: Added information about BBG's 2010 Signature Plants source, Blossom Nursery.
2010.02.08: More on the Staten Island Pawpaws.

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Asimina triloba, Common Pawpaw, is a native fruit true in the Annonaceae, the Custard-Apple Family. The Pawpaw fruit can be up to 12cm/5" long, the largest fruit native to the U.S. Its taste is likened to a combination of banana and mango, or papaya. Two plants are needed for pollination.

Photo: Scott Bauer, USDA.


Pawpaw is the common name for plants in the genus Asimina, with several species native to  eastern North America. A. triloba has the most northern range by far of the genus, reaching into New York, and even southern Ontario, and west to Nebraska. This wide range is attributed to cultivation and distribution by Native American people, including the Cherokee and Iroquois.

Asimina triloba Distribution Map. Credit: eFloras, Flora of North America


Locally, its status is threatened in New York, and endangered in New Jersey. It's hard to tell from the NY map, but it has been found on Staten Island, New York City. More on this below.

New York counties distribution map. Credit: USDA PLANTS


Pawpaw grows as a large shrub or small understory tree, maturing to about 25' tall in 20 years, rarely to 30-40'. Pawpaw is prone to spreading by suckering, sending up new stems and trunks from the roots, to form a thicket. This tendency decreases as the plant ages, so removing the suckers while the plant is young will promote a single trunk.

Wildflowers in a Flatbush Backyard

Last week was NYC Wildflower Week. Appropriately, here are some wildflowers blooming over the past week in my backyard native plant garden.

Wildflowers blooming near the gardener's nook in my backyard for last May's Garden Blogging Bloom Day.

• Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern Columbine
  
• Chrysogonum virginianum 'Allen Bush', Green-and-Gold
  
• Dicentra eximia 'Aurora', White-flowering Eastern Bleeding-Heart, Turkey Corn
  
• Iris cristata, Crested Iris
• Phlox stolonifera
• Viola striata
  
• Zizia aurea, Golden Alexanders
  
• Brunnera macrophylla, Large-leaf Brunnera, Siberian Bugloss
  

Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern Red Columbine

Somehow, I have no photos of this from my garden in Flickr. Yet it's been a favorite of mine for decades.

Native range is eastern North America. Widespread in New York state. Native to all five boroughs of NYC.

Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern Red Columbine, 2006-05-31

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Chrysogonum virginianum 'Allen Bush', Green-and-Gold

A great groundcover for partial shade. Several cultivars are available. To my eye, all vary only slightly from the species, though I haven't grown them side-by-side.

Individual flowers look like shaggy sunflowers.



Native range is Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. Native to only one New York upstate county. Not native to NYC.

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Dicentra eximia 'Aurora', Eastern Bleeding-Heart, Turkey Corn

A white-flowering cultivar of the native Eastern Bleeding Heart. Not every white-flowering form of a plant is successful. This is one that is equally lovely as the species, bringing its own graces to the structure of the inflorescence and individual flowers. Also a good choice for the shady white garden.

This plant is maybe three years old now. Not only has the original plant spread in size each year, this Spring I've noticed little seedlings cropping up around the mother plant. I'll be curious to see how these develop, and what the flower color wil be in the children.

Dicentra eximia, Bleeding-heart, 2006-05-22
Dicentra eximia, Eastern bleeding-heart (Flickr photo set)

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Iris cristata, Crested Iris

Really beautiful, if a bit of a finicky grower. It seems to be at its best when grown on a slight slope with ample mulch. The stems trail through the mulch, the fans oriented down-slope. Sulks during the summer. Needs consistent moisture during the hot summer months and good drainage during the winter or it will disappear. Where it's happy, it makes a great groundcover.

Native to Mid-Atlantic and interior Eastern United States, but not New York.

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Phlox stolonifera, Creeping Phlox

One of the best wildflower ground covers you can grow in the garden. In the trade, you're more likely to find cultivars selected for flower color - such as 'Bruce's White' and 'Sherwood Purple' - rather than the unqualified species. They all seem equally fine to me. (Mine is also a cultivar, but its name escapes me at the moment.) The flowers are usually fragrant, reminiscent of grape jelly.

Native range is most of Eastern United States, but only found in two upstate New York counties, not NYC.

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Viola striata, Pale Violet, Striped Cream Violet

The "oldest" plant in this post, this population came from my second city garden on 5th Street in Park Slope. The original plants were given to me 8-10 years ago by a gay couple who lived across the street. They have a beautiful shady backyard garden growing many wildflowers collected from their home in upstate New York.

Native to Eastern North America. Native to several counties in New York, but not NYC.

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Zizia aurea, Golden Alexanders

This plant is a recent discovery for me. I had never heard of it before picking it up from Gowanus Nursery last Spring. Now I see it all over the place, and it's a fine groundcover. You can't see it in this photo, but the foliage is also handsome.

Native to NYC, but not Brooklyn.

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Brunnera macrophylla, Large-leaf Brunnera, Siberian Bugloss

Okay, Brunnera is not a native wildflower on this continent - it's native range is Eastern Europe - but it is blooming in the backyard and it's so pretty I had to take a picture of it. This plant is a refugee from the sideyard of Frank, a neighbor, professional gardener and fellow garden blogger at New York City Garden.

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Growing a Native Plant Garden in a Flatbush Backyard, August 6, 2007

Viburnum dentatum, Arrowwood

When we moved to our new home in Flatbush four years ago, my garden moved with me. Rather, the plants from my garden. All were planted hurriedly, with the intent of moving them "later in the season." In some cases, "later" has become four years later. Case in point: Viburnum dentatum, Southern Arrowwood. (Some botanists recognize a separate species, V. recognitum, Northern Arrowwood, for variants with smooth twigs.)



Very handsome, but not what I thought I had acquired. This individual was supposed to be V. dentatum 'Christom' (Blue Muffin®), a dwarf cultivar reaching 4-5 feet in height and 3-4 feet in breadth. (The species is highly variable, height can range from 3 feet up to a maximum of 15 feet.) It's now over 6-1/2 feet high and has extended across the narrow concrete path at its feet. So I can be forgiven some poor planning on my part that the plant has far exceeded its expected bounds.

I needed to move it from this location because it was blocking the path. However, in this location it was doing an excellent job of screening some "necessaries": cans and bins for garbage, recycling, and composting. And that suggested I could solve two problems at once by transplanting it to the backyard to screen the gardener's nook from the street.

Folks walking by on the sidewalk get a straight view into this corner of the backyard. I want this to be an intimate, sheltered location.


When I did the garden design for my backyard, I doubled the depth of the bed along the north edge of the property, visible on the left of the photo above and the plan below.


Earlier this season, I executed that part of the plan. On the right, the gardener's nook is located where the deck will extend to accommodate a bench, as shown on the upper left of the plan above.


I transplanted the Viburnum to roughly the location indicated by the shrub marked "L" in the plan. I had specified Lindera benzoin, which I don't have, for that location, but the Arrowwood should do as well there. You can see that it does a great job of screening the view, even though it hasn't fully leafed out yet. During the summer, the nook will now be completely shielded from the street.


It also dramatically changes the character of the space. Compare these before and after shots. The backyard now has a sense of enclosure it didn't have before, even within the parts of the backyard that are not visible from the street. This validates a key strategy of the design: enclosing the space with shrubs to create the feeling of being in a woodland garden.

Before


After

Related Content

Woodland Garden Design Plant List, 2009-02-18

Native Plant Profiles

Links

Viburnum dentatum

Connecticut Botanical Society
MOBOT
NPIN
OSU
PLANTS
UConn
UIUC
VT

V. dentatum 'Christom'

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Propagation of Sassafras albidum (Sassafras)

Propagation of Sassafras albidum (Sassafras)

General characteristics

Sassafras albidum, Sassafras, is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the Lauraceae, the Laurel family. This is a family of mostly pantropical, evergreen shrubs and trees; Sassafras has the most northern distribution of the Lauraceae.

Native range and habitat

Sassafras is widespread in eastern North America, from Maine to Ontario and Michigan, south to Florida and eastern Texas. It's most common as a successional plant in disturbed areas.

Because of its wide natural range, select a local ecotype, or acquire from a local nursery, for best adaptation to your conditions.

Asexual/vegetative propagation

Sassafras can form pure stands through suckering. Specimens propagated by apparent transplantation from the field may actually be suckers separated from a parent plant or stand. These progeny are prone to suckering from lateral roots. To minimize this, do not transplant from the wild. Plant only container-grown seedlings. [Cullina, DIRR1997, Flint]

Propagation from root cuttings is possible.

Sexual propagation

Plants are dioecious.

Flowering and Pollination

Clusters of flowers with bright yellow sepals appear in early Spring, just before the leaf buds break. Flowers are pollinated by bees and flies.

Fruit

Fruit are produced every year or two after the plant reaches maturity at about ten years of age. Fruit matures in the Fall. The fruit is an oil-rich, oval, blue-black drupe held on a red stem. Sassafras fruits are eaten by many species of birds.

Seeds may be gathered when fruits turn dark blue. Cleaned seeds may be stored for up to two years at cool temperatures. 120 Stratification - prechilling - for 120 days is required for germination. [USDA]

References

Cullina, William. Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines. 2002. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN-13: 978-0-618-09858-3
[DIRR1997] Dirr, Michael. Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs. 1997. Timber Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-88192-404-6
[DIRR1998] Dirr, Michael. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Revised 1998. Stipes Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-0-87563-795-2
Flint, Harrison. Landscape Plants for Eastern North America. 1983. Wiley. ISBN: 0-471-86905-8
NPIN
Sullivan, Janet (1993). "Sassafras albidum". Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory

Links

Floridata
Missouri Botanical Garden
Plants For A Future
PLANTS, USDA
University of Connecticut
Wikipedia
Wikibooks

Sassafras albidum, Sassafras

Sassafras albidum, Sassafras, is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America. It's easily identified by its leaves which vary in shape from simple (unlobed) and elliptical, asymmetrically two-lobed (left- or right-handed "mittens"), and three-lobed.

Two forms of Sassafras leaves. Photo: Patrick Coin (Flickr)


Several features of Sassafras led me to select it as the focal point for my backyard garden design planting plan. Although I've lived in the Northeast most of my life, it's only in the past several years that I've come to really appreciate Sassafras. I now recognize it as a four-season plant.

Dicentra eximia, Eastern Bleeding-heart

Dicentra eximia, Wild Bleeding-heart, Eastern Bleeding-heart, in the Native Flora Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden


I first grew this plant in Garden #1 in the East Village. It was extremely long-blooming, blooming for months in the partial shade of the widlflower garden there. It forms a large clump over time. The ferny foliage is very effective and interesting when the plant is not in bloom.

This plant is probably NOT native to New York City. The NYFA Atlas notes:

The native status of this plant is questionable. It is clearly planted and escaping in various areas. Some of the populations on Staten Island, and possibly elsewhere in southeastern New York, appear in "natural" areas. These may represent native populations, or they may be escapes from nearby residential developments.

Slideshow

Related Content

Flickr photo set

Links

NYFA Atlas: Plant ID 1531
USDA PLANTS Database: Symbol DIEX

Liatris spicata, Dense Blazing Star

Liatris spicata, Dense Blazing Star, Marsh Blazing Star, Dense Gayfeather

You gotta love a plant called "Gay Feather"!

I first grew Liatris in Garden #1 in the East Village. It grew well even in the partial shade of that garden. The tall purple spikes were effective for a couple of weeks, and always drew comments from visitors.

Note that both the NYFA Atlas and USA PLANTS maps for this species show scattered distribution among New York counties, and only in Queens within New York City. NYFA Atlas list this species as NOT native to New York state.

References

NYFA Atlas: Plant ID 258
USDA PLANTS Database: Symbol LISP

Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern Red Columbine

Macro photo of a single Columbine flower blooming in the backyard at Garden #3 in Park Slope.
Photo taken: May 8, 2004

Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern Red Columbine

One of my favorite native plants and wildflowers. It looks so delicate, yet it blooms early spring, when temperatures are still cool.

Tips for growing, based on my experience growing Columbine in several gardens over many years:

• Columbine likes to grow among rocks. In the garden, bricks, stepping stones, and paths are good substitutes.
  
• Blooms early-mid spring, before trees have fully leafed out. If you keep the seedheads pinched back, you can keep it blooming for two months.
• Larger plants don't transplant well. Columbine has a fleshy root which is easily damaged in transplanting. It tends to not form a root ball, which makes it difficult to avoid damage and get the plant re-established in its new location.
• Columbine is not a long-lived plant. Five years is a long time for a single plant. However, you can easily get more plants than you need through seed propagation.
  
• Where you want Columbine to grow, plant one plant and let it go to seed. You can also collect seed from your plant and scatter it where you want more. Seed must winter over to germinate. It may take a year or two for new plants to establish themselves before they bloom.
• Leaf-miner can be a problem; I find it's less of a problem with the species than with hybrids. The miners tunnel inside the leaves, beween the upper and lower surfaces, as larvae. They create distinctive widening, wandering trails; hold a leaf up to a light and you can actually watch the larvae chewing away inside the leaf. When they've had their fill, they cut a hole through the underside of the leaf, pupate, and drop into the soil. They emerge as flying adults to mate and lay eggs in new leaves. Dispose of affected leaves in the trash; don't compost leaves or affected plants or soil unless you know your compost gets hot enough for sterilization.

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Links

NYFA Atlas: Plant ID 2583
USDA PLANTS Profile: Symbol AQCA