Category: Mystery Plant

Mystery Plant! #721 John Nelson Posted 5/4/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comAll the leaves seem to be unfolding or already expanded around us now, or just about, and it’s time to discuss…again…a tree with very distinctive foliage.Now, I must report that this past Friday I was leading a field trip for a crowd...

Mystery Plant! #720 John Nelson Posted 5/2/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comWhere exactly is the “enchanted forest” that you sometimes hear about? I’ve come to realize that for me, it was that little patch of woods right next door when I was growing up. But you’ve probably been in an enchanted forest, too. Enchanted...

Mystery Plant! #719 John Nelson Posted 4/25/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comThe following story is true. (Or make that “stories”.)There was a botanist named Henry Oosting who was born in 1903. Upon acquiring his PhD, and at the age of 29, he was hired as an ecologist within the botany department at Duke...

Mystery Plant! #718 John Nelson Posted 4/18/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comPetruchio: “Nay, come, Kate, come: you must not look so sour.”Katharina: “It is my fashion, when I see a crab.”Petruchio: “Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour.”                                                The Taming of the Shrew. II, 1.(More humor from Shakespeare! This time, you...

Mystery Plant! #717 John Nelson Posted 4/11/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com “Nemo me impune lacessit.” {In English: “Nobody messes with me and gets away with it.”]                                                                                                     --motto of the Scottish Order of the Thistle.                                       Scottish history?  Tradition has it that, a long time ago, an invading band of Norwegians took off their...

Mystery Plant! #716 John Nelson Posted 3/30/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comThe amaryllis family is a large group of herbaceous species, many of them producing large bulbs, plenty of basal slender or strap-shaped leaves, and most with a tropical distribution, but a good many are native here in the Southeast. Many of these...

Mystery Plant! #715 John Nelson Posted 3/23/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comDon’t worry about kids falling out of this tree. It’s terrible for a tree house, or just for climbing, and for pretty obvious reasons.It is a native deciduous plant, fairly common from New York through the lower Midwest, and south to Texas...

Mystery Plant! #713 John Nelson Posted 3/7/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com            Here’s an easy one. It’s easy because it is very common, and very distinctive.            This is a shrubby species, usually a multi-trunked woody plant, with smooth gray bark, often getting to be a tall shrub, or even a small tree. It...

Mystery Plant! #710 John Nelson 2/21/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com  We had a Mysterious pine tree not too long ago, and here is another. There’s always a new pine species that’s worth learning about.This one is growing in a small park not far from my house, in the Shandon area of Columbia, where...

Mystery Plant! #708 John Nelson 2/2/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comWhich plant group displays the showiest, most flamboyant flowers? Sunflowers and daisies?  Lilies, daffodils, and amaryllis? Or maybe the iris family? (It’s fun to ponder this weighty question now, as spring is about to erupt, and not too soon!) But many of us...

Mystery Plant! #707 John Nelson 1/26/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com             A few days ago I was up at the herbarium here are USC; they let me come in now and then and putter around, helping to prepare and file away specimens. That day we all gathered around...

Mystery Plant! #706 John Nelson 1/19/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comLots of people in the Southeast --and beyond-- grow this plant as a shrub or hedge without really knowing its identity. It is a native evergreen, and it is widely cultivated as a popular yard plant, especially in the South; there are several...