Category Archives: Plants

Candling Longleaf

In case you wondered why the growing bud on a longleaf pine is called a candle:

Candle

This nine foot loblolly is about 3 years old, as you can see since John S. Quarterman can reach 8 feet high and it’s a foot higher than that: Continue reading →

Elsie Quarterman Glade Festival

Some of you may remember my aunt, Elsie Quarterman, born in Valdosta, played basketball for Hahira High School:

Cedars of Lebanon State Park will host its annual Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade Wildflower Festival April 30 – May 1. Held in partnership with The Center for Cedar Glade Studies of Middle Tennessee State University, this event will offer visitors an opportunity to learn more about the area through seminars, guided nature walks, exhibits, guest speakers and naturalist displays. All events are free and open to the public.

“We are honored to be hosting this 33rd annual event and excited about the roster of experts on hand during this two-day festival,” said Park Ranger and Naturalist Wayne Ingram. “We have numerous activities and educational opportunities planned for all ages and encourage everyone to join us – rain or shine.”

Dr. Elsie Quarterman was professor Emeritus of Vanderbilt University and pioneered cedar glade research in the early 1950s. Coupled with her extensive research at this site, Dr. Quarterman has been an advocate for natural area protection throughout her distinguished career. Her efforts helped Tennessee in 1971 become one of the first states to pass legislation to protect natural areas in the U.S.

At 99 years old she won’t be outwalking everybody like she used to, but she will be there. Road trip to Lebanon, Tennessee? Y’all come!

Echinacea tennesseensis, the Tennessee coneflower, thought to be extinct until Elsie rediscovered it: Continue reading →

The superb magnolia

It’s towering, all right:

A magnolia and jsq

“DURING a progress of near seventy miles, through this high forest, there constantly presented to view on one hand or the other, spacious groves of this fine flowering tree [the dogwood], which must, in the spring season, when covered with blosoms present a most pleasing scene; when at the same time a variety of other sweet shrubs display their beauty, adorned in their gay apparel, as the Halesia, Stewartia, Æsculus pavia, Æsc. alba, Æsc. Florid. ramis divaricatis, thyrsis grandis, flosculis expansis incarnatis, Azalea, &c. intangled with garlands of Bignonea crucigera, Big. radicans, Big. sempervirens, Glycine frutescens, Lonicera sempervirens, &c. and at the same time the superb Magnolia grandiflora, standing in front of the dark groves, towering far above the common level.”
—William Bartram, 1773
Picture of John S. Quarterman in front of a magnolia by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 Dec 2006.

Wild azaleas

Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens), native to the U.S. southeast. Often confused with honeysuckle, but that’s a vine from Japan, and this is a bush from here. These azaleas are growing in the woods in Lowndes County, Georgia.

Azaleas

A sky full of azaleas: Continue reading →

Treat’s Rain Lily

Treats Rain Lilly You may know these as Easter lilies, or “those lilies that grow in the ditches by the road in the spring.” It turns out their real name is Treat’s Rain Lily, and they are a native of south Georgia and north Florida, plus a bit of Alabama, and don’t grow anywhere else. We’ve seen them in Georgia counties along the Florida border as far west as Cairo, but not any farther north. Here’s much more about these lilies.

They really like where we burned this spring in the woods:

Hundreds of them in the woods

The red flags mark where we transplanted some longleaf pine seedlings.

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 2-3 April 2010, Lowndes County, Georgia.