Winter 2025 Sempervirens

In the Spring 2025 Sempervirens

Anna Finch's vision of inclusion, new Natural Heritage staff, Allodus podophylli, and more.
Sempervirens
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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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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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News & Updates

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

🌻Save the dates! The 2025 Annual Meeting will be 19 through 21 September. 15 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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Sundial Lupine, Lupinus perennis

May 24, 2024 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society Every spring I look forward to seeing the lovely lavender-blue spires of Sundial Lupine rising above distinctive pinwheel foliage along sandy roadsides and open woods. Also known as Wild Lupine, this member of the Legume Family is found throughout the Eastern and Central United States. In Virginia…

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Lyre-leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata

May 5, 2024 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society A few weeks ago, driving north from Florida, we passed mile after mile of waves of lavender-blue flowers gracing the highway shoulders in South Carolina. We were thrilled to see Lyre-leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, creating a gorgeous spectacle along an otherwise barren straight stretch of road. Later…

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Downy Rattlesnake Plantain: Winter Woodland Orchid

March 17, 2024 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society One of my favorite sights while walking in winter woodlands are the beautiful evergreen leaves of Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens. This eye-catching beauty is one of our most common woodland orchids and instantly recognizable by its exquisitely etched leaves with an intricate network of fine white…

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Wildflower of the Year 2024 White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

February 12, 2024 |

VNPS offers White Turtlehead artwork on T-Shirts and other apparel.  Visit our Online Store to order. White Turtlehead is a perennial herb rising from a rhizomatous rootstock. The smooth stems are only sparingly branched above and attain heights 0.5 to 2 m. Leaves are opposite, narrow, linear to lance-ovate, and up to 15 cm long,…

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Native and Invasive Plant Legislation in the 2024 General Assembly

January 18, 2024 |

The Virginia General Assembly convened January 10, 2024 and several bills were introduced in the Senate and House of Delegates that deal with native and invasive plants. The first step is to assign the bills to committees, then to subcommittees. Bills must pass the committee to be referred to the House or Senate for a…

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Gorgeous Goldenrod Blooms Through Fall

December 20, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society Slender Flat-top Goldenrod (Euthamia caroliniana) is a beautiful deciduous, perennial closely related to goldenrods and is an underused but superior pollinator plant. Its nectar-rich flowers bloom over a long period from September into late fall, often lasting into November or even December. It is particularly important to…

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Beautiful Bushy Bluestem

September 17, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Chapter Fall is the time that our warm season grasses shine in the garden by adding movement, color, and drama to the landscape. Andropogon glomeratus, or Bushy Bluestem, also called Bushy Bluebeard, is a compact, beautiful native grass often reaching only 2 – 4’ high, with attractive foliage and distinctive…

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Pause for Pickerelweed

August 12, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Chapter Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) is a standout in any garden pond, or freshwater coastal stream or river when its showy lavender-blue flowers are held above the foliage on tall stems. This perennial grows in shallow water where it tolerates up to 2’ of occasional flooding but prefers less than one…

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Stunning Sweetspire

June 28, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Chapter Virginia Sweetspire, Itea virginica, is a stunning deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub and the perfect choice for our May Plant of the Month as the long racemes of white flowers are just beginning to open on this first day of May. Typically growing from 3 – 5’ high and 4…

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Carolina Jessamine: Coastal Beauty

May 9, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society Chapter Carolina or Yellow Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, is a stunning evergreen vine native to the southern United States and Mexico south to Guatemala. In Virginia, Carolina Jessamine is a coastal beauty, common along the southern and central Coastal Plain north to the counties of Lancaster and the…

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My Discovery of the Eastern Prickly Pear

April 3, 2023 |

By Emily Byers, Jefferson Chapter I enjoy the surprise of blooms in my garden each year and always add new native species. Last Fall, I received two eastern prickly pears, Opuntia humifusa, from a fellow gardener. I planted both cacti in a “problem” area of my garden. The area is shaded, gritty stays dry, and reminds…

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Hepatica Heralds Spring

February 25, 2023 |

By Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Native Plant Society Chapter One of the earliest signs of spring is the bloom of the Round-lobed Hepatica or Liverleaf, Hepatica americana. The lovely small flowers of this woodland wildflower look fragile but this hardy perennial blooms in the face of winter often as early as February. An array of…

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