Issue 3 2025 Sempervirens

In the latest Sempervirens

Fredericksburg chapter redux, unearthing hidden history, "Botanizing with Marion," podophyllotoxin, and more.
Sempervirens
VNPS Ballcaps Now On Sale
VNPS Logo Ballcaps
Are Now On Sale In
5 Vibrant Colors!
 
Winter 2025 Sempervirens

In the Spring 2025 Sempervirens

Anna Finch's vision of inclusion, new Natural Heritage staff, Allodus podophylli, and more.
Sempervirens
Slider_Mayapple_shirt
Annual Workshop 2025
Winter 2025 Sempervirens

In the Winter 2025 Sempervirens

Mayapple nomenclature, Smooth Coneflower research, millipedes, trip reports and remembrances.
swamp milkweed
Mayapple illus

Introducing the 2025 Wildflower of the Year, Mayapple. Read all about it, and wear the t-shirt.

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For just $5 a month, you can help to protect Virginia's Native Plants for generations to come.

 
Join a community of supporters across the Commonwealth who value Virginia's rich heritage of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Virginia Plant Names Website
VNPS Statement on Utility-Scale Solar
VNPS Statement on
Utility-Scale Solar

Utility-scale solar facilities in the right place are a necessary and important variable for Virginia to achieve a future with clean energy. Read about the risks and recommendations.

1.3MW Solar Array on Landfill in Rehoboth, MA. Photo by Lucas Faria, US Department of Energy

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Give a VNPS Gift Membership!

Photo by Brigitte Hartke

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News & Updates

🌻The latest Sempervirens is ready for you! 16 September 2025

🌻 Registration is open! The 2025 Annual Meeting will be 19 through 21 September. 19 August 2025

🌻 Now with its own menu pick: Botanizing with Marion.  20 June 2025

🌻The Spring 2025 Sempervirens is up! 25 May 2025

🌻Watch video recordings of the 2025 Annual Workshop sessions. 4 April 2025

🌻Introducing the 2025 Wildflower of the Year, Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum). Read all about it, and wear the t-shirt. 4 April 2025

🌻 Help Us Support the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora. Donate now to expand its reach and effectiveness. 5 November 2024

• A New Online Dictionary of Virginia Botanical Etymology. This dictionary, compiled and edited by Michael Charters, lists Latin, Greek, and other derivations of botanical and biographic names in Virginia. View the Online Dictionary here. 20 August 2024

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Generation Y Won’t Garden Because of Fear of Failure?

October 11, 2015 |

Millennials, especially the Gen Y batch, are proving a hard target for the nursery industry to get a bead on. They have a fear of failure, said a recent article written for professional growers. Furthermore, the article states that Gen Yers were urged to their best in school every day, (surprise!) to beat the competition;…

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Adding Land to Cedars Natural Area Preserve

October 3, 2015 |

From Chris Ludwig, Chief Biologist, Virginia Division of Natural Heritage: “I understand that we are almost 90% of the way towards our fundraising goal for additional acreage on the tracts to enhance The Cedars Natural Area Preserve in Lee County Virginia. WAY TO GO VNPS!!!!  Many of you will never see this preserve; it is…

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Report From A Tagalong Spouse

September 18, 2015 |

Hosting the VNPS Annual Meeting at the Frontier Culture Museum was a great choice. If you haven’t been to the museum, it consists of about twelve exhibits of typical homesteads, (houses, barns, fields, etc.), of the people who originally inhabited North America, including the American Indians and those people who immigrated to the Atlantic coast…

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Rescue, Reclaim, Restore: Annual Meeting 2015

September 12, 2015 |

In the unusual setting of a dairy barn, VNPS President, Nancy Vehrs, opened the 2015 Annual Meeting in Staunton with the quarterly gathering of the Board. After the traditional business session, (the nuts and bolts that keep VNPS running), Rod Walker, from the Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) was on hand…

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The Importance of Preserving Our Natural Areas

August 3, 2015 |

This year members of the Virginia Native Plant Society will continue their support of natural area preservation throughout the state. These efforts take place at the local and regional level, and VNPS as a whole will focus on raising funds to support land acquisition to expand the Cedars Area Natural Area Preserve. The importance of…

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Trees Bring People Together

July 22, 2015 |

Last Saturday five concerned groups joined forces to show their appreciation for a small park in the city of Alexandria, a park where the biggest shade trees are in danger of disappearing. VNPS members were joined by Tree Stewards, Master Naturalists, members of the local Gladiators basketball team, the West Alexandria Rotary Club, and the…

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Can Invasive Plants Be Valuable?

July 5, 2015 |

Our Capital Naturalist, Alonso Abugattas, recently took action in response to a misinformed  article that ran last week in a Virginia paper touting the benefits of invasive, non-native plants. We thought his comments deserving of a wider audience and he has kindly given us permission to print his letter to the editor of that paper,…

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Native Moths, Native Plants, Natural Connections

July 1, 2015 |

My interest in natural history started with birds – their form, color, shapes, and diversity fascinated me! But then in 1981 I got my Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide and that was all she wrote! Plants were my new love –  like birds, there was form, color, shape, and diversity; unlike birds, they kept still! I could…

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How To Start A Native Plant Garden

June 27, 2015 |

How do I start? Many people wrestle with this question after deciding they want to transform their existing yard into a native plant garden. When Susan and Jim Graham first made that decision they described their existing yard as “ mostly turf grass with an azalea mustache;”  a look  typical of many of the landscapes…

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Plant Profile: Horseweed, Conyza canadensis

June 25, 2015 |

The common name may refer to the size of this plant, a robust, coarse summer annual in the Aster Family.  Horseweed grows 1 to 6 feet tall on a stout stem often covered with long white hairs.  There are a lot of narrow leaves crowded on the stem, which becomes branched near the top.  …

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The Right Kind of Pollinator Garden

June 14, 2015 |

A couple of reminders, if folks will, regarding pollinator gardens, especially those to attract and host Monarch butterflies: The overarching principle for all ecological restoration plantings (i.e., those involving the correct use of native plants in parks, waterways, and natural areas) is to “Do No Harm” to the native flora, communities, wildlife, and natural landscape…

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Specialist Bees Need Special Plants

May 30, 2015 |

Sam Droege, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Biologist, and a bee expert who has studied native bees all around the world, gave a presentation on specialist bees and the plants that support them at the Arlington Library on May 11, 2015. The talk was sponsored jointly by the VNPS Potowmack Chapter, and the Arlington Regional…

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