Events
Research Triangle Park, January 2006
NCNPS member, Pete Schubert discovered several stands of Dirca palustris in the Research Triangle Park area while surveying a future lake site. Dirca is more common further west in the Ozarks for example but is not often found this far east. Further surveys in lake foot print revealed that there were several stands that would wind up under water so it was decided to rescue these plants and move them to a location where they would survive.
Pete enlisted the help of Johnny Randall from the North Carolina Botanical Garden at Chapel Hill to help rescue, pot and tend the plants until an appropriate home can be found.
Pete had the foresight to tag the plants when their foliage was out, making it easy to ID them.
The day was a success as the plants were carried out of the woods
Back at the Bot Garden the work continued with potting up all the refugees
In the end there were 92 pots of varying sizes with 100 Dircas in them.
There will be additional rescues so rare North Carolina plants will survive.
back to top
back to Picture Albums
