There are two species of the New World genus Hudsonia, or false heather, on the Cape: a woolier one with fuzzy leaves and flowers that don’t have much of a […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Good for a Pain in the Apse
The smooth red-brown buds opening like hatches across from the Methodist Church in Provincetown may belong to Salix discolor, the native pussy willow, or they could belong to an introduced […]
NATURAL SELECTION
A Catkin of Another Kind
In the summer, the speckled alder, Alnus incana, hides in plain sight along the Beech Forest trail in Provincetown; its leaves look almost identical to those of Fagus grandifolia. This […]
NATURAL SELECTION
The Grandeur of the Beech, for Now
Within Fagus grandifolia, the American beech tree, as the millennia-old processes of spring try to get under way, an unwelcome guest is disrupting things. The nematode that causes the new […]
NATURAL SELECTION
A Huckleberry’s Close (But Not Kissing) Cousin
The native shrub Lyonia ligustrina is a close relative of blueberries and huckleberries in the Ericaceae family that makes a name for itself by producing hard capsules around its seeds […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Invasion of the Pretzel Sticks
The brown pretzel sticks seen trailside at the Twine Field in Truro are the thick twigs of Ailanthus altissima, the so-called tree-of-heaven, an infamous invasive that has established a grove […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Beware the Burr
There’s a lone specimen of rough cocklebur on the edge of the low marsh at the Audubon Sanctuary in Wellfleet that’s just waiting to be bumped into. The burrs of […]
GROWING WILD
Starting Native Seeds From Scratch
It’s not too late to coax purple poppy mallows and pussytoes through hibernation
The bounty of our native flora, with all its beauty and ecological benefit, is available to home gardeners at quite an inexpensive price — if we can just figure out […]
NATURAL SELECTION
The Birches Stay Forever Young
You can spot plenty of native gray birch trees in the brush next to Bound Brook and Pole Dike roads in Wellfleet: just look for the chalky bark with the […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Brambling On
The Rubus genus of blackberries is so enormous and complex — there are nearly 30 species found in New England alone and they love to hybridize — that telling them […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Old Lace, Hold the Arsenic
The winter remains of Queen Anne’s lace, Daucus carota, add dark structure to the meadow at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, the once-delicate umbels dried and contracted into shapes that, […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Shadow Dancing With the Pines
If you see a young pine growing in the dim understory, it’s not likely to be one of our iconic pitch pines — Pinus rigida, a pioneer species, is intolerant […]
NATURAL SELECTION
She’ll Be Green, Come Spring
What future does Cassandra see for herself in the winter reflection of a Wellfleet kettle pond? Probably one that involves rain or snow. Or ducks. The ericaceous shrub Chamaedaphne calyculata, […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Never Too Soon for Sunscreen
Last week we marked the winter solstice, the daylight’s yearly nadir; now, each subsequent day will bring with it incrementally more sunshine. Xanthoria parietina is ready. The orange coloring of […]
GROWING WILD
Nap Time for a Fancy Fern
The local ferns in the Dryopteris genus all have feather-like fronds, but they can be differentiated by their varying degrees of frilliness. The compound leaves of D. marginalis, the marginal […]
