Native Plant Gardening

Been loading up on milkweed seeds and have managed to obtain some that are not in my native bioregion of North carolina.

Are you, dear reader, living in a place where these are native? I will mail them to you. Check these images and leave a comment, I will DM you.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/27546872

Not my photos.

Some friends in the Amazon recently discovered a new native fruit growing near their place, and they are now planting it in their food forest. The fruits that they found were already damaged, but the one shown in the thumbnail photo was mostly okay, and they said that the flavour reminded them of sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) and mango. The outer layer of pulp is sweeter than the segments around the seeds.

Immediately after ripening the fruits, the tree is flowering again, which is very fortunate for ID purposes.

I'd say that it's Porcelia mediocris based on the photos. Those flowers are clearly Annonaceae, and the shape of the fruit resembles other Porcelia fruits that I've seen. I arrived at the ID using these sources:

• list of Porcelia species
• This one is native to their region.
• visual confirmation of the fruit

Can anyone confirm? Does anyone think that it's something else?

I've wanted a butterfly weed plant for years and this year I finally just decided to buy some small ones and remove any guesswork. That night the idiot squirrel that lives on my property dug them both up, so this is my solution to protect the new one i was graciously given for free from the same nursery i got the others.

I used like ten 6" landscaping staples to anchor the wire, and if the squirrel gets through that I'm gonna lose my shit

The grapes should be the one with the parallel lines all over it, porcelainberry does not have that. Anyone have thoughts?

I was curious if planting milkweed would really bring in a monarch. Hadn't seen one since I moved in 3 years ago. Planted swamp milkweed and butterfly weed this spring. Worked great, lots of caterpillars and monarchs already on just 8 plants. They just needed a reason to visit.

Phoebes and cardinals been liking it.

I like this place. I want to contribute some natives from my stock or maybe volunteer to remove invasives.

Found a liverwort in the wild, by one of my flower patches!

Gently spreading the word on the street.

Planted a bunch of the park and more will go to friends and my yard.

I spent the last six months anxiously awaiting the bountiful bloom of what I believed were gaillardia pulchella, or blanket flowers

Come to find out they're lance-leaf coreopsis, but it's still a good number of flowers, and the locals appreciate them either way

Been doing various native plantings for years but there's a lot of clasping coneflower in there which is a new one for me. Pretty stoked about that.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21477992

What did you harvest recently? Post photos if you like, and brag about what you grew or foraged.

Does anyone else find it ridiculous when people claim that a particular non-native plant is part of the "traditional diet" or "traditional medicine" of a particular culture? For example, I've heard many times that sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is the main staple in the "traditional" Okinawan diet, or that aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower curry) is part of "traditional" Indian cuisine. If "traditional" is arbitrarily defined as going back only to the start of the use of the plant rather than the start of the culture, it seems to lose its significance. "Our culture has used this plant ever since our culture began to use this plant" does not convey anything meaningful. If people like to eat/use a non-native plant, fine, no problem at all, but to claim that it's a cultural tradition seems disingenuous.

The way that I see it (as a plant nerd), the only case in which this would make sense is if the founders of a particular culture brought the non-native plant with them when they first permanently settled the place. Does this resonate with anyone?

My pawpaws saplings I planted last fall are still alive!

They have started budding leaves. I know I'm a few years away from fruit production but I am curious if anyone has found good ways to attract pollinators outside of rotting meat. Not sure the city would be very excited about that prospect.

I am considering making a native carion flower plant garden near the trees to make area more attractive to pollinators prior to the pawpaws flowering. Was wondering it anyone else had tried that idea. I've found 3 somewhat promising options in my area of Ohio.

These seem to be an especially symbiotic options https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_sessile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_erectum

And this could be grown if you have a bog garden https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplocarpus_foetidus

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20534437

Thorn forest once blanketed the Rio Grande Valley. Restoring even a little of it could help the region cope with the impacts of climate change

I'm currently hunting down pawpaw trees, Blueberry bushes, black raspberry, and other native fruits for my garden.

Looking for suggestions.

I looked into black cherries, but they get too large and too easily wind damaged for the proximity I'd have to plant them to my house.

I've been waiting so patiently all year, hoping the plant in my backyard was butterfly weed. It probably isn't, but I found this little guy in my front yard a couple days ago!