Profile avatar
oldirtybotanist.bsky.social
Ecologist, Botanist, Native Plant Enthusiast. At home in and around them Appalachian mountains! Assistant curator at the State arboretum of Virginia.
23 posts 102 followers 33 following
Regular Contributor
Conversation Starter
Posts 11 Comments 16

Medicaid is not for sale. NASA is not for sale. The Post Office is not for sale. America is not for sale. We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.

submitted 6 days ago • 2512 comments

My volunteers and I built these cages of bamboo and dormant Rubus stems last year to protect young native shrubs from deer browse. I really like this solution because the woven, thorny stems are not so unlike the natural thickets that would protect developing trees from grazers in the wild.

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides) and Cricket (Very goodboy) in the George Washington national Forest! Christmas ferns are a reliable, flexible evergreen ground cover that grow in lots of different kinds of forests.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

False Boneset (Brickellia eupatoroides) seedlings are starting to germinate in the greenhouse! This native beauty surprised me on the edge of the meadow this summer and I had to collect some seeds to propagate. Some might be for sale at Blandy's garden fair this year! #nativeplants #wildflowers

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

This white oak fell and died in the summer. Now, it still has all its leaves attached while the surrounding living oaks have dropped theirs. This illustrates that dropping leaves in autumn isn't just a passive process - trees must grow a layer of cells at the base of the leaf to 'push' them off!

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

A wall of moss and lichen like this is just amazingly beautiful to me. So many different species jam packed into one little area. The composition of species shift and respond to the changes in weather, surrounding forest, and the substrate beneath. You could study one spot for hours.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

I've been hearing tons of barred owls in the woods lately. Like several owls chatting back and forth. I guess mating season is upon us? Don't forget to go spend some time in the woods and listen for these noisy goofs!

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Just look at them voluptuous hips. 10/10 would eat. Her name is pasture rose, aka Rosa carolina. She really is a phenomenal Virginia native wild rose that looks great all year. #nativeplants #roses #foraging

submitted 28 days ago • 2 comments

A lovely old red maple on our native plant trail died after the drought in 2023 and had to be removed. While we were sad to see that tree go, a huge patch of this beautiful flat-topped white aster sprung up around where it had been, no longer suppressed by its shade. Nature always surprises.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Rock polypody (Polypodium virginianum) on a sandstone rock outcrop in a nearly sub-zero day. Look at those little brown sori on the bottom of the fronds! Gotta love the tenacity of these ferns. #nativeplants #ferns

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

The flowering dogwoods drenched in snow and morning sunlight.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments