This morning Hugh read from Barbara Kingsolver, "Small Wonder" (2002), anthologized in Bill McKibben, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, " page 947.
People need
wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we do. We need to be able
to taste grace and know once again that we desire it. We need to experience a landscape that is
timeless, whose agenda moves at the pace of speciation and glaciers. To be surrounded by a singing, mating,
howling commotion of other species, all of which love their lives as much as we
do ours, and none of which could possibly care less about our economic status
or our running day calendar.
Wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and
somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in
those cases in which our plans might
influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet earth,
we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of
lives that are not our own.
Given heavy rains that
have muddied up the nature trails, and the recent herbiciding and cutting down
of woody plants in the Power Line Right of Way, we decided to ramble in the
Garden hitting the native plant sections.
In the Southeastern
Wildflower section we saw Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana),
ironweed (Vernonia gigantia), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), as well as Bee Balm (Mondarda
didyma), and Wild White Indigo (Baptisia alba). Crossing the International
Bridge, we viewed the lovely lotus in full bloom with a grasshopper. Next were the buckeyes of the bottle-brush
buckeye (Aesculus parviflora). The long leaf pine (Pinus palustris) was not
doing well, but the dawn redwood (Metasequoia
glyptostroboides) was doing
great. What i thought of as a surprise
lily was the golden spider lily (Lycoris
aurea).
In the endangered plant
garden we discussed the Alabama snowreath (Neviusia
alabamensis), which in Georgia is
found on Pigeon Mountain on limestone ledges on the opposite side from the
Pocket. A few scraggly royal catchfly (Silene
regia), the plum leaf azalea (Rhododendron prunifolia) was about at its end, as was the white meadow beauty (Rhexia mariana). Here we also noted
the Oglethorpe Oak (Quercus oglethorpensis) that Wilbur Duncan was
the first to identify.
The pitcher plant bog was
full of meadow beauty (Rhexiana alifanus?), yellow trumpets (Sarracenia flava), white-topped pitcher plants (Sarracenia leucophylla),
parrot pitcher plant (Sarracenia psittacina).
Around the corner was
coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora) from rock outcrops as well
as Wild Blue Indigo (Baptisia austrias) in fruit, and Hairy Rattleweed
(Baptisia arachnifera) that only grows in one county in Georgia and nowhere
else.
In the Indian plant
section was some kind of Lobelia sp., Black Cohosh (Actea racemes) going to
seed, and the deciduous wild ginger (Asarum
arifolium).
We then proceeded to the
Physic Garden and found Joe-Pye-Weed (Eupatorium
sp), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium), common mullein (Verbascum
thapsus). In the Dr. Durham section we found a green
basil, purple coneflower, and feverfew.(Tanacetum
parthenium). In another patch we found eyeball or
toothache plant. The flower was like an
eyeball and the leaves were used for easing toothache pain. A great find was an
american toad that Dale showed us how to tell a toad by a gland behind the eye.
Taking the path to the
Heritage Garden we noted that the PawPaw (Asimina
triloba) still had some fruits. Nearby was a blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) which is from China, but has become naturalized in our
area. Passed some luscious looking figs
and came to the tall corn "As high as an elephant's eye," which Avis
thought should be a Mastodon's eye they were so tall.
Going down steps into the
flower garden we passed the grape vines; Don found a St. Peterswort or St.
Andrews Cross (Hypericum crux-andreae);
we stopped at the Xeric Meadow which did not have that many blooms. But we did see blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella), partridge pea (Chaemecrista
fasciculata), and gray-headed
coneflower (Ratibida pinnata). In the aster garden only a few were blooming
including the Purple coneflower (Echinaceae
purpurea).
Whizzing by the beautiful
native grasses we came to a crab apple tree, and around the corner in an
uncultivated section were a dozen or more rose pinks (Sabatia angularis). Behind the stage were beautiful Hibiscus
plants, especially prolific were the Hibiscus
coccinius). On the boardwalk we noted the black willow (Salix nigra). We walked up the
steps by the border plants, some of which were salvias and monardas passed
bloom time.
On the way back to the
Visitor Center we noted the fruit of the Cherokee Rose.
After which we went to
Dondero's for snacks and conversation.
Hugh
