The Glencarlyn Library Community Garden coordinators have created a new series of short videos highlighting the beauty of native plants. We will be sharing these videos as well as additional resources on our website every month as well as glossary words that go along with each month’s topic.
While most of the Glencarlyn videos have a science-based, instructional focus, the series on “Beautiful Native Plants” was created to simply celebrate the ornamental characteristics of many species that are either native to the Mid-Atlantic region or are environmentally friendly and grow well here. Based on a personal library of still photos and a few video clips, each presentation introduces viewers to around a dozen plants, providing scientific and common names and illustrating their full forms as well as details of buds, flowers, and foliage through the seasons. The videos are designed to be viewed with audio on to provide a background of music and the sounds of nature. You are invited to fall in love with beautiful native plants.
Beautiful Ground Covers
Featured Plants
- Asarum canadense (Wild Ginger) *
- Chrysogonum virginianum (Green-and-Gold) *
- Eurybia divaricata (White Wood Aster) *
- Heuchera villosa (Hairy Alumroot) *
- Iris cristata (Dwarf Crested Iris) *
- Mitchella repens (Partridge Berry) *
- Opuntia humifusa (Eastern Prickly Pear) *
- Pachysandra procumbens (Allegheny Spurge) *
- Packera aurea (Golden Ragwort) *
- Phlox subulata (Moss Phlox) *
- Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple) *
- Rhus aromatica ‘Gro-Low’ (Fragrant Sumac) *
- Sedum ternatum (Wild Stonecrop) *
- Silene caroliniana (Wild Pink) *
- Tiarella cordifolia (Foamflower) *
- Viola spp. (Violets)
*Tried & True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Master Gardener Virtual Classroom
Related Illustrated Glossary Terms
- crest – [ krest ] – noun: an area of contrasting color, usually yellow, on the fall of an iris in the place of a beard. The signal patch of some irises, like native Iris cristata (dwarf crested iris), has ridges or cockscombs called a crest.
- glochid – [ GLOH-kid ] or glochidium [ gloh-KID-ee-uhm ] noun, plural glochids or glochidia: small barbed hair (modified spine) found only on members (like prickly-pears and chollas) of the cactus subfamily Opuntioideae
- node – [ nohd ] noun: the point on a stem where a leaf or leaves are, or have been attached; the point at which subsidiary parts (buds, adventitious roots) begin to grow; the solid construction on a culm; a knot, swelling, or enlarged lump
- peltate – [ pel-tayt ] adjective: 1. describing a flat surface, usually a leaf, which has its stalk or petiole attached at the center of the lower surface rather than at the edge or base 2. shaped like a shield
- procumbent – [ proh-KUHM-buhnt ] adjective: describing a plant stem that grows along the ground without taking root
- rhizome – [ RAHY-zohm ] noun: a modified plant stem growing horizontally at or just below the surface that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes
- stolon – [ STOH-luhn ] noun: a long horizontal plant stem or branch (runner) that arises from the central rosette and droops to the soil, where it may form another plantlet from nodes or buds at its tip
- villous – [ vil-UHS ]: covered with long, soft hairs, often curved, but not matted
