A tiny flash of yellow draws the eye to the bloom of a low-lying plant — one that is otherwise growing rather inconspicuously on the floor of the Beech Forest. […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Roll of the Dye
Baptisia tinctoria is a plant so nice they named it twice. Both the genus name and specific epithet refer to the native perennial’s use as an agent in dyes — […]
GARDEN TOUR
Roses to Redbuds, and a Few Hydrangeas, Too
Five Eastham gardeners show off their artful outdoor spaces
Artist and gardener Alex Tureaud never wants to mow the lawn again. “Having a lawn is a very demanding chore to have to do at a beach house,” he says. […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Love Is Like a Butterfly Weed
If Dolly Parton were a flower, she might just be a butterfly weed. Just like Dolly, Asclepias tuberosa is small in stature but bursting with life (native bees and bugs […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Ovals of Opuntia
There’s something kind of human about a mature patch of Opuntia humifusa, the Eastern prickly pear cactus. Maybe it’s the plant’s new growth and round fruits that attach along the […]
NATURAL SELECTION
A Yarrow for Gray Gardens
Perhaps the kookiest character yet from the storied Camelot Court is currently in charge of the nation’s health and perhaps out to kill it with a thousand cuts. So maybe […]
NATURAL SELECTION
A-Dime-a-Dozen Daisy
Maybe the cattle of Europe and western Asia, where Leucanthemum vulgare is native, once upon a time had striking yellow eyes with thick white lashes. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine […]
GROWING WILD
A Trust Tends a Sanctuary of Native Plants
At the Garden in the Woods (and meadows and bogs), ideas that will thrive in a Cape Cod garden
“Right plant, right place.” This mantra, good for muttering to oneself at the nursery so as not to waste money on temptations that, though beautiful, have absolutely no business being […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Bare Berries
The pictured shrub, scientifically classified as Viburnum nudum — presumably for the smoothness of its shoots — has endured many a christening. Someone more focused on its fruit than its […]
NATURAL SELECTION
The Way to Groove Me, Cherry
Prunus, the cherry genus, is second only to Quercus, the oaks, when it comes to providing essential wildlife services, as they say, to birds and insects. (Photo by Joe Beuerlein)Prunus […]
GROWING WILD
A Novel Assemblage of Species, at Home on Cape Cod’s Sandplains
Keeping oaks and pines at bay for the butterflies and birds
Not far into the Audubon sanctuary’s Bay View Trail, which skirts the shore on South Wellfleet’s bay side before making a long loop back to its starting point, a side […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Frogs and Worts
The Virginia marsh St. John’s wort is no longer placed in the Hypericum genus with the others; its pink-blooming flowers each have three orange glands and nine stamens grouped in […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Starflower Power
Though Lysimachia borealis is a diminutive plant in the understory, found in colonies that help roll out the spring carpet along with Canada mayflower and wild sarsaparilla, its beauty is […]
WALK IN THE PARK
Pitch Pines on the Path to Eastham’s Forest Primeval
New clearings and pioneer species were probably always part of our old oak forests
The idea behind Eastham’s rather grandly named 1651 Arboretum was to cultivate the sort of mature forest that the first European settlers might have encountered and, theoretically, enjoyed before subsequent […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Fringe Festival
The trail that leads down to Wellfleet’s cedar swamp, where majestic Atlantic white cedars grow from a bed of standing water, begins up on the heathland. There, the path winds […]
