Latin for Gardeners: November 2025

Latin for Gardeners
Novembers’s Native Maryland Plant

Carex pensylvanica Lam.
(KAY-reks pen-sill-VAN-ee-ka)
Common Name: Pennsylvania Sedge

Carex pensylvanica is an upland sedge, semi-evergreen and a groundcover that is often used as a grass substitute in part-shade to full-shade areas. It tolerates moderate foot traffic and once established, it can easily be spread through division.

Ground cover sedges are beneficial for many reasons. They are generally cool-season plants, they emerge in early spring and help to suppress weeds. Some of them, like C. pensylvanica, are water-wise plants; they do well in dry shade, forming an attractive semi-evergreen layer when planted under shade-loving shrubs. Sedges are considered low-maintenance and another great benefit - deer tend to avoid them.

Carex pensylvanica is host to many moths and butterflies. Be sure to allow fallen leaves to stay on any sedges you plant. It will improve the soil, protect overwintering insects, and the plants will have no difficulty emerging in the spring.

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013
Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
alison@lifewithnativeplants.org

Latin for Gardeners: October 2025

Latin for Gardeners
October’s Native Maryland Plant

Aralia spinosa L.
(ah-RAY-lee-ah spih-NO-sah)
Common Name: Devil’s Walking Stick, Prickly Elder

Anyone visiting one of the many trails in Maryland’s deciduous forests in late summer and early fall, is certain to see a remarkable plant lighting up the woodland with its massive plumes of flowers – the highly thorny and very tall shrub, Aralia spinosa, commonly known as the Devil’s Walking Stick. Its blooms can be enjoyed from a distance; they appear as clusters of floating clouds and yet, upon closer inspection, they are inflorescence of 5-petaled creamy white flowers, teeming with pollinators, a wondrous sight to behold.

Aralia spinosa is known for its extremely prickly branches and petioles, its bark and roots can cause skin irritation, putting it on the short list of native plants to ‘look at, but don’t touch’. It’s a notable plant in other ways as well - its leaves can reach up to 4’ long, giving it the distinction of having the largest compound (1) leaf in North American temperate forests. As the forest fills in, the occurrence of A. spinosa will decline, it’s shade intolerant so it is most often seen along forest edges.

Although people may want to avoid getting too close to Aralia spinosa, that is not the case for wildlife. This plant has high wildlife value - its flowers and fruit provide food for pollinators, birds and mammals. Deer may browse the leaves, but they aren’t known to favor this plant.

There are plenty of things to scare you in October, don’t let the Devil’s Walking Stick be one of them!

(1) Consists of multiple small leaflets that are physically separated from one another, all of them are attached to the same rachis (main axis). Together they create one leaf.

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013
Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
aligmilligan@gmail.com

Latin for Gardeners: September 2025

Latin for Gardeners
September’s Native Maryland Plant

Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash
(skiz-ah-KEER-ee-um sko-PAR-ee-um)
Common Name: Little Bluestem

Get ready for it! The changing of the seasons brings about some of the finest displays of color in nature.  As we move from summer to fall, many plants will turn deep red, purple, orange or yellow.  Others, like Little Bluestem, will change to a more subtle reddish tan, providing a calming effect when planted in drifts, as in the Delaware Botanic Garden, a fabulous place to observe the changing of the seasons. 

However, as watershed stewards, we know it’s not about looks when choosing what to plant.  How a plant functions and fits our site conditions is a more important consideration. Is it providing value to our watershed?  In the case of Schizachyrium scoparium, the answer is a resounding, yes!  In fact, Little Bluestem is used in many stormwater best-management practices (BMPs).  It has an extensive and fibrous root system that can reach over 5’, making it drought tolerant and good for erosion control.  It’s excellent at stabilizing slopes and at filtering runoff, improving water quality. Its heat tolerance makes it useful along driveways or in parking lot islands where access to water is difficult or non-existent.  It’s a low-maintenance grass; unlike a lawn, it requires no fertilizer and only a single pruning in late winter or early spring to look its best in a home or community landscape.  

By itself, Schizachyrium scoparium is an attractive grass that can serve many functions.  Its ability to grow in poor soil conditions makes it one of the most widely occurring grasses in the U.S.   It may come as no surprise that it is native to all but four states (California, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada). The cultivar, ‘Standing Ovation’, is found at most nurseries, and is known for its wider, red tipped blades, and a more upright habit in improved soil conditions.

Planting it alone is common but there are also many native perennials that can serve as excellent companion plants to Little Bluestem.  It is often used to provide a soft contrast to the seedheads of coneflower and other native perennials.  It’s a common prairie plant so most native plants that can tolerate dry, full sun sites can make a good companion – it does especially well in sandy soil.  S. scoparium is a native grass that “is least adapted to growing in close proximity to broad leaved species1”; planting among shrubs would not be the most effective use of this grass.

What about supporting life? There’s a lot to tell there too.  Little Bluestem is host to 9 skipper butterflies. And the small tuft at the base of S. scoparium provides cover, nesting material and sometimes a home for ground nesting birds. And to top it off, the fluffy, white seedheads that form on its spikelets provide winter food for overwintering birds like finch, grosbeak, and towhees. 

I’ll admit, the fact that it has lovely summer and fall color is, indeed, a great feature of this plant, but there’s a long list of other reasons to use it in your garden too.

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013
Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
aligmilligan@gmail.com

Latin for Gardeners: August 2025

Latin for Gardeners
August’s Native Maryland Plant

Eutrochium fistulosum (Barratt) E. E. Lamont
(yoo-TRO-kee-um fist-yoo-LOW-sum)

Common Name: Trumpetweed, Hollow Joe-Pye-Weed

Some plants just amaze you when you’re in their presence - Trumpetweed is one of those plants. It’s a staggeringly tall plant that towers over observers and almost any neighboring perennial or shrub. With many weeks left before the end of summer, Trumpetweed is still going strong, its long bloom period is another of its awesome features. The mauve to purple flowers sit atop hollow but robust stems – the stems lack the spots that are found on a related plant, Spotted Joe-Pye-Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), and are one of the ways to differentiate the two species.

Eutrochium species, in general, are magnificent at attracting butterflies due to their abundant nectar and wide, flat flower heads that offer a stable landing pad. They’re an excellent alternative to the invasive Butterfly bush (Buddleia spp.) since they not only supply nectar, but as we’ve learned from Dr. Doug Tallamy (1) , they “also provide food for the larvae of more than three dozen species of Lepidoptera.” The plight of butterflies has been in the news for some time but a recent study underscores just how dire the situation has become. This research was focused on butterflies, but we know moths and other pollinators are similarly suffering dramatic losses. Planting host plants, lots of host plants, is one way to help reverse this trend - reducing the use of pesticides is another.

The height of Eutrochium spp. can be intimidating to most gardeners – do not be afraid. There are many smart methods you can use to add this species to your garden. Below are just a few of the ways to keep the plant upright, if this is one of your concerns. There are also cultivars of some of the other already shorter Eutrochium species that may be more acceptable to gardeners. E.g. Eutrochium dubium ‘Little Joe’.

The history of this plant’s common name, Joe Pye Weed, has long been discussed, with several different stories describing its origin. Interestingly, in 2017, two scholars did their research and published a paper in the Great Lakes Botanist journal. They established that the plant was likely named for Joseph Shauquethqueat, an esteemed Mohican sachem, known to his white neighbors as Joe-Pye. Having spent my youth in New England, the original home to the Mohegans (often confused with the Mohicans), I am somewhat familiar with this Hudson River Valley (present-day Eastern New York and western Massachusetts) tribe and their place in history.

I’m wondering, since many botanical names have been changed due to modern DNA analysis, including this genus, Eutrochium (2) , would there be any objection to changing the common name from Joe-Pye-Weed, to Shauquethqueat, thus removing the ‘weed’ and providing a more accurate provenance for this remarkable species?

(1) ‘Bringing Nature Home’, Doug Tallamy

(2) Known previously as Eupatorium fistulosum. Bonesets which have opposite leaves are still Eupatorium spp.

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013
Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
aligmilligan@gmail.com