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
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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

🌻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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Wildflower of the Year 2020 Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

January 22, 2020 |

Wild Geranium is a woodland perennial herb. Plants emerge from stout, shallow, rhizomes bearing knobby leaf scars and thin roots. Aerial stems attain heights of 2 to 7 dm; stem hairiness ranges from a few scattered trichomes to densely pubescent. Leaves are crowded basally, but well separated and opposite on flowering stems. Overall leaf shape…

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Downy Lobelia: An Overlooked Garden Native

January 7, 2020 |

By Betsy Washington Several of our native Lobelias are well loved and absolutely beautiful. Cardinal Flower with its brilliant red flower spikes, and Great Blue Lobelia with its crowded spires of deep blue flowers, are familiar to many gardeners. Downy Lobelia (Lobelia puberula), which is less well-known, graces roadside ditches, low and upland woods, riverbanks…

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Trees & Sky - Photo by Mike Belknap

VNPS Funded Research Reveals Which Trees are Dying and Why

December 29, 2019 |

Editor’s Note: This post describes the 2019 research project conducted by Alyssa Terrell and supported by a VNPS Research Grant and was edited for publication. Our Research Grant Program awards funds for well-defined projects whose results can be evaluated and which address the VNPS Mission and Goals. Learn more about the Grant Program and how…

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Pawpaws And The Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

October 9, 2019 |

By Mary Lee Epps Pawpaws have a great deal to offer—handsome flowers in the spring, delicious and highly nutritious fruit in the early fall, plus they are the only host plant of one of our most beautiful butterflies, the zebra swallowtail. Our pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is the northernmost member of the mostly tropical Annonaceae (or…

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Native Plant Conservation Campaign Logo 131x400

Save Plants, Save The Planet, Save Ourselves — Native Plants and Nature Based Solutions to Climate Change And Other Threats to Humanity

July 25, 2019 | Comments Off on Save Plants, Save The Planet, Save Ourselves — Native Plants and Nature Based Solutions to Climate Change And Other Threats to Humanity

By Emily B. Roberson and Doug Tallamy for the Native Plant Conservation Campaign Sea level rise, record breaking heat waves, floods, pollution, mass extinction — 2019 is frightening! What if there were one simple thing individuals, businesses and communities could do to address these problems? There is! Plant native plants! Native wildflowers and trees are…

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Chris Ludwig Retirement 20190304 Photo by Jason Bulluck

‘Spirit of Inquiry’ drove Chris Ludwig

June 20, 2019 | Comments Off on ‘Spirit of Inquiry’ drove Chris Ludwig

Chris Ludwig, botanist, zoologist, and general all-arounder with the Virginia Natural Heritage Program, is off to greener pastures after 30 very busy years in the conservation community. And I do mean actual pastures right now since, as I write, Chris and his wife, Jolie, are staring out across the Serengeti as wildebeest swarm and flocks…

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Jack-in-the-pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Preaches Preservation

May 17, 2019 |

Unlike many wildflowers that make a beautiful but brief spring appearance, the perennial Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) appears later in April and continues to add interest to moist woodlands until late fall. The hooded inflorescence which resembles a pulpit (a spathe) has a “Jack” (a spadix) standing in the center as if delivering a sermon. Perhaps…

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VNPS Member Catherine Ledec Named Fairfax County Citizen of the Year

April 19, 2019 | Comments Off on VNPS Member Catherine Ledec Named Fairfax County Citizen of the Year

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a banquet where VNPS member Cathy Ledec was honored as Fairfax County’s 2018 Citizen of the Year. How gratifying it is to see someone recognized for efforts in preserving our natural environment! This prestigious award has been presented for the past 69 years by the Fairfax County Federation…

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Ceanothus americanus - VNPS 2019 Wildflower of the Year - Illustration by Betty Gatewood

Wildflower of the Year 2019 New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus)

February 6, 2019 |

New Jersey Tea is a low shrub, generally less than 1 m tall and often profusely branched. Stems are finely hairy, but may become smooth with age. Vegetative stems are perennial, but flowering stems persist for just a single year. Leaves are mostly 5 to 10 cm long; leaf shape varies from narrowly to widely…

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New and “Resurrected” Endemic Plants of Virginia’s Shale Region

January 2, 2019 |

Back in 2014, John Townsend, VNPS Director at Large and Staff Botanist for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, wrote about A Tale of Shale: Virginia’s New Violet describing unique plant populations in north central Virginia. In this new report, John provides an update on the Viola and the discovery of two new potential taxa…

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Virginia Sneezeweed (Helenicum virginicum) by Sally Anderson

VNPS Grows Two Virginia Natural Area Preserves

October 30, 2018 |

Mount Joy Pond Natural Area Preserve Update: January 24, 2019. Several VNPS members visited our newly-acquired site and the adjacent DCR property. Check out the photo album on our Facebook page! We can’t wait to see what it looks like in the spring. The Virginia Native Plant Society has become a landowner! On October 23, 2018…

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Nancy Vehrs and Jim Waggener

VNPS Members Honored by Prince William Conservation Alliance

September 30, 2018 |

The Prince William Conservation Alliance recently honored two long-time members of the Virginia Native Plant Society, Nancy Vehrs and Jim Waggener, for their service, contributions, and advocacy for conservation. The Alliance works to explore, enjoy and protect our natural areas, and increase community involvement in stewardship opportunities. Nancy Vehrs received the 2018 Heart of Gold Award.…

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