Latin For Gardeners: March

Latin for Gardeners

March’s Native Maryland Plant

Salix discolor L.

(SAL-iks DIS-kol-or)

Common Name: Pussy Willow

Pussy willows, a harbinger of spring, are not a common landscape plant - rather they are most often encountered in nature, usually wetland environments, and if spotted viewed as a pleasant surprise. Best known for providing catkins¹ for home decoration, most people now recognize their importance as a food source for bees - just as the earth is thawing and bees are emerging from their nests. Leaving the branches on the plant not only provides food for early pollinators, but also food and habitat for many other animals, as this plant is a keystone species².

Many home landscapes would be acceptable sites for this tall shrub. It requires sun and consistently wet soil; it is fast-growing and has a lifespan of 20-30 years. I planted a male Salix discolor in a wet and sunny area in my yard in 2016 and have anticipated and enjoyed its blooms each year since. The leaves emerge well after the flowers and are dark green on one side, pale grayish on the backside, the explanation for the specific epithet: discolor.

Pussy willows are also excellent for live staking, a low-cost method you can use at home or for restoration projects. Have any of you tried this method? I may attempt it next year in another area of my yard where I will also be planting other wet-loving plants. Pussy willows are dioecious, the male and female flowers are on separate plants; if you want to purchase and select the sex of your plant you should do this while they’re in bloom so you can tell the difference. The female catkins are considered less showy, mostly green and produce nectar but no pollen. Whichever you prefer, having a keystone species in your landscape will guarantee you’re supporting biodiversity in a big way.

¹ a cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated as in Salix discolor

² a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013

Watershed Steward Class 7, CBLP

aligmilligan@gmail.com

Latin For Gardeners: February

Latin for Gardeners

February’s Native Maryland Plant

Ilex glabra (L.) A. Gray

(EYE-lecks GLAY-bruh) 

Common Name: Inkberry

It’s February, the ground is still cold and mostly brown, covered with a thick layer of leaves that dropped months ago – but not Inkberry leaves. This adaptable Coastal Plain shrub that is growing in many places across my yard guarantees they’ll be some green in my landscape year-round. 

Evergreen Inkberry makes for a welcome addition to almost any site and can be used on slopes or in swales, in sun or shade, sand or clay.  It requires slightly acidic soil to prevent chlorosis¹ and well-draining soil to prevent fungal disease.  Ilex glabra provides berries and year-round cover for birds; it is a larval host plant for Henry’s Elfin butterfly (Callophrys Henrici) and its inconspicuous flowers feed many pollinators - importantly it’s also host to a plasterer (aka cellophane or polyester) specialist bee, the Colletes banksi.²

Ilex glabra is dioicous, there are male and female plants, both are required to produce berries and nurseries do not label the sex of this plant. Because this plant can grow to 10’, many cultivars were created that offer several shorter options – all cultivars are female. Most nurseries offer ‘Shamrock’, a popular cultivar that after 8 or so years can become leggy, losing the attractive fullness of leaves at its base; in my experience, plants in full sun tend to stay fuller longer.  ‘Gembox’ is the shortest cultivar that I grow, it has retained its fullness and small stature of 2 ½’ after 8 years and is useful for providing evergreen in very small places.  

Inkberry plants that become leggy can be ‘thinned’ or vigorously pruned to produce a fuller plant – late February through early March is recommended to stimulate a full-year of new growth quickly. Thinning involves removing a select number of branches (<1/3ʳᵈ) while deep pruning means cutting the entire plant to ~10”. I’ve chosen to deep prune the Ilex glabra along my front porch multiple times; they are planted in layers so reducing the height of one plant doesn’t impact the privacy the others provide - the result has been better than anticipated.  To keep branches from breaking it’s also good practice to remove snow from the leaves of evergreen plants.

Spring is just around the corner and I’m anticipating many pollinators. In the meantime, I’ll be watching the birds in my yard flit in and out of the branches of Ilex glabra – a highly beneficial plant for many reasons.

¹ yellowing of leaves

² Short-tongued bees that line their brood with cells of a cellophane-like substance. 

https://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Colletes

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013 

Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper

Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)

aligmilligan@gmail.com

2024 Consortium Member of the Year

2024 Honoree: Bill Bower 

Senior Project Manager, Atwell, LLC

WSA is thrilled to honor Bill Bower, environmental engineer and newly certified Watershed Steward as the 2024 Consortium Member of the Year.  

WSA’s Consortium of Support Professionals  extend and expand the impact of WSA’s training by  providing expertise and guidance to Stewards as they develop and execute projects. Bill has done just that and more!

As a professional engineer, professional land surveyor and pervious concrete technician  who has worked on many local stormwater projects, Bill brings timely, practical, in the trenches examples of projects - both successful ones, and projects gone wrong. Bill lends his professional expertise to help improve,  inform and instruct the Stormwater Success Course, a short course for HOA leaders and property managers to improve maintenance of stormwater BMPs, and provides continuing education  for Stewards on soils, erosion and non-plant solutions for residential stormwater problems. As a member of  WSA’s Watershed Steward Class 15, Bill consistently connected class topics to real world examples and answered the many Steward questions, providing insights, resources and illustrations to make stewardship topics come alive. Bill also helps Stewards from Class 15 and beyond to develop projects, attending site visits, reviewing documents and brainstorming solutions for difficult situations.  

Bill truly embodies the critical partnership between the professional restoration community and engaged community leaders to make change in the landscape. Clearly Bill has had an impact on our Stewards, and that is why they voted him Consortium Member of the year!

Congratulations Bill and Thank you!

Latin for Gardeners: January 2024

January’s Native Maryland Plant

Quercus falcata Michx.

(KWER-kus fal-KAY-tuh)

Common Name: Southern Red Oak

Most New Year’s begin with merriment, anticipation and oftentimes resolutions. I generally don’t make resolutions, but this year is different. In December of 2023 I attended Doug Tallamy’s talk, ‘Nature’s Best Hope’ based on his book of the same name; it was the 3rd time I’d heard this talk, but I’m an avid fan of Tallamy - I’m always invigorated after hearing him speak and on this occasion, I was anxious to have him sign my copy of his latest book, ‘The Nature of Oaks’. He didn’t disappoint and I left the venue very resolute – in 2024 I will plant more oaks.

As a naturalist, I believe the primary role of the plants in my yard is to support a diversity of life.  Since oaks are keystone species¹, they have pride of place. They are the first genus I consider when an opening becomes available on my property and they’re the first tree I recommend when helping others. There is an oak for any site condition, and oaks are easily found at nurseries. Throughout history, “The uses of oak include almost everything that mankind has ever derived from trees - timber, food for man and animals, fuel, watershed protection, shade and beauty, tannin, and extractives.” ²

Of the six species of oak on my property, the Southern Red Oak is the one that still has most of its leaves in January. In spring the petioles will push new growth and the leaves will drop – if a strong wind doesn’t take them first.

This tree has a range that extends north to Long Island, NY, south to Florida and west to Texas.  It commonly grows where the climate is humid and temperate e.g. hot summers, mild and short winters.  It’s easily identified by its shiny, bell-shaped, bristle tipped leaves which turn brown in winter; interestingly, it has a much shorter lifespan (~150 years) than the white oak saplings that are growing near it.

For those of you who missed it, the USDA Hardiness Zone Map was updated on November 15, 2023.³ The zones (ranges of 10∘ F) represent what’s known as the “average annual extreme minimum temperature” at a given location during the past 30 years and are used by gardeners and growers of perennial plants. The new map shows that about half of the country shifted to the next warmer half zone – this includes Maryland where much of Anne Arundel County is now Zone 8a – including my neighborhood.

The new map will not directly impact the Quercus falcata in my yard, nor will it discourage me from planting more native plants. However, warmer winters do mean that this plant and many others’ ranges are slowly creeping north; rising temperatures will mean more periods of drought and an increase in invasive species that I will need to monitor – both plant and animal. Oaks are resilient plants that symbolize wisdom and endurance. With a bit of research, I will choose the next species to add to my property – likely one in the red oak group, at this point I’m thinking Quercus marilandica would be a fine addition.

As you’re making your list of what to plant this spring, keep in mind, “a yard without oaks is a yard meeting only a fraction of its life-support potential”. ⁴   I hope you’ll also be resolute and plant an oak.

¹ a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed, the ecosystem would change drastically.

² U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook

³ https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

⁴ Doug Tallamy, The Nature of Oaks

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013

Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper

Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)