News & Updates
• Reduced end of season pricing at our weekly Wednesday native plant sales at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria. 9-21-2020
• Did you know the Potowmack Chapter is the chapter sponsor for seven VNPS Registry Sites in our area, including Great Falls and Turkey Run National Parks? 8-10-2020
• Now online: A History: Potowmack Chapter 1982 - 2002. 7-15-2020
• New Video: Marion Lobstein and Sally Anderson present an Overview and How To on the Flora of Virginia Mobile App. 7-13-2020
• New Blog Post: Rediscovering Barbara Stewart's Potowmack Chapter Logo. 7-11-2020
• Potowmack Chapter Plant Sales are back! Come by every Wednesday between 10am and 1pm at Green Spring Gardens behind the Horticulture Center. 7-1-2020
• Due to COVID-19 all Potowmack chapter in-person group events, including walks, are cancelled until further notice. View our chapter event calendar for more information.
• Potowmack chapter Member Toni Genberg's home "Ecological Oasis" was featured in a recent Yes! Magazine article.
• The Winter 2020 edition of the Potomac News has just been published. Read about "Love and Stiltgrass," our new email discussion group and forum at Groups.io, and lichen at Fraser Preserve.
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Rediscovering Barbara Stewart’s Potowmack Chapter Logo
You’ve probably seen the VNPS Potowmack chapter logo in publications or online over the years. Did you know this beautiful drawing of Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) and Common Violet (Viola sororia) was created by Barbara Stewart in the early 1980s and adopted as the Potowmack chapter logo in 1985? With some research and lots of… [Read More]
Watch Out for Spotted Lanternfly!
I recently attended a workshop focused on early detection of Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) (SLF) in Fairfax County. Speakers represented the Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Department of Forestry, and the Fairfax County Urban Forest Management Division. Spotted Lanternfly is native to China, and has also been found in India, Vietnam, and Japan. Introduced in Korea… [Read More]
Meet the Plants of Dyke Marsh: Plants of Value to Wildlife in Winter
Many of the plants that grow in Dyke Marsh are of value to wildlife, providing one or more of the animals’ basic needs: food, water, shelter, and a place to raise their young. This article highlights just a few of these plants that help support wildlife in winter. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). In late summer… [Read More]
The Furlough and the Graupel
By Susan Jewell Of all the negative aspects of my furlough from the Department of the Interior under the Federal government shutdown, one event will make me smile whenever I think of it. On Day 19 (January 9), I took a rare weekday hike with a furloughed friend from the State Department. Destinations to choose… [Read More]
Notes from the Understory
June 2018—Leaps and bounds The next wave of flowers have bloomed, adding small dashes of yellow, white, pink, and purple to the vivid green of the leaves that dominate now. Each species seems to have its own personality. Some protect their flowers by closing up every evening: the Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) balances its purple… [Read More]
Notes from the Understory
Recreating woodlands in your backyard Our (under)story For the past several years, we have been working on a garden inspired by the natural community that might have been here before residential development—probably a Piedmont Oak-Hickory Woodlands. The idea was to use native plants to help support wildlife, from the microbiome all the way up to the… [Read More]
