The turk's cap

THE TURK'S CAP

Volume 16, Number 2
Summer 2013

The Newsletter Of The Delaware Native Plant Society

WWW.DELAWARENATIVEPLANTS.ORG

In This Issue

Page 1

Natural Quotes
DNPS Vision

Page 2

Notes from Newcroft
Update on DNPS donated trees

Page 3

DNPS Annual Meeting

Page 4

Gardening with Native Plants
Resources and Reviews

Page 5

Feature Article continued
DNPS Plant Sale

Page 6

Bombay Hook Symposium
BBG Native Garden Opening

Page 7

Upcoming Events

£3

Natural Quotes

''Only American natives should be
used. Mt. Vernon was to be an
American garden where English
trees were not allowed.

'Founding Gardeners'
by Andrea Wulf

How Can I Get Involved?

The Delaware Native Plant Society is open to everyone
ranging from the novice gardener to the professional
botanist. One of the primary goals of the society is to
involve as many individuals as possible.

The DNPS is working on some significant projects at this
time. We have completed four reforestation projects in
the Prime Hook area, at Blackbird Creek in New Castle
County and Cedar Creek in Sussex County where we
have installed tree tubes around newly sprouted seed-
lings, and are performing annual management of the
sites. Help is also needed at our native plant nursery at
the St. Jones Reserve with the monitoring and watering of
plants along with many other nursery activities.

Summer at Newcroft

For more information, visit our website at
www.delawarenativeplants. org. Our very informative, up
-to-date website has all the contact information for the
Society, along with a section on native plants, volunteer-
ing, and links to other environmental and plant related
organizations.

The DNPS
Vision

T he purpose of the
Delaware Native
Plant Society (DNPS)
is to participate in and
encourage the preservation,
conservation, restoration,
and propagation of
Delaware's native plants
and plant communities.The
Society provides

information to government
officials, business people,
educators, and the general
public on the protection,
management, and

restoration of native plant
ecosystems. The DNPS
encourages the use of
native plants in the
landscape by homeowners,
businesses, and local and
state governments through
an on-going distribution of
information and knowledge
by various means that
includes periodic

publications, symposia,
conferences, workshops,
field trips, and a growing
statewide membership
organized by the DNPS.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 2

Notes from Newcroft

This issue is all about
trees, especially
sassafras. The best
outing this spring
was joining the
Delaware Nature
Society's The Great
Oak Tour in May-
part of the Copeland
Native Plant Series. Pictured above is the small group in front
of the mighty London Grove oak, the second largest white oak
(Q. alba) in PA. The tour was led by William Ryan, an
ecological consultant and doctoral student at the University of
Delaware, whose research is focused on the biological
responses to restoration techniques in temperate eastern
North American serpentine barrens. Several of the 16 oak
species we saw, included Quercus marilandica , Q. stellata , Q.
ilicifolia , and Q. prinoides, that are strongly associated with
serpentine barrens in the Piedmont of DE, PA, and MD. A
great day and a great tour.

Current reading includes Andrea Wulf's "Founding
Gardeners". Benjamin Franklin from London and George
Washington from Valley Forge used their horticulture interests
during the search for independence of the colonies from
England as a welcome distraction from the rigors of war.
Letters home included directions about plantings they were
thinking about. Once home Washington, thinking he would be
home for good, redesigned his gardens. Included in his
plantings were sassafras trees collected from his woods. On
the bare branches clung delicate yellow flowers which
Washington thought "would look very pretty" mixed with the
eastern redbud.

Edwin Way Teale wrote about sassafras in his 1951 "North
with the Spring" of his visit to The Greer Company a medicinal
drug company in Lenoir, NC. "The bark goes into making
perfumes as well as medicines." (See pg. 4 of this issue for
Bob Edelen's column about sassafras's carcinogenic nature.)

In Teale's "Autumn Across America" he remembers growing
up on his grandfather's farm in the dune country of northern
Indiana observing the golden mittens of the sassafras.

So, you might want to plant sassafras in your landscape for it's
beauty— just don't eat it.

Cindy Albright

cindy@cindyalbright.com

Update on Trees Donated to
DE Wild Lands

Last year, 2012, Jim Mackenzie, DNPS
member and Octoraro Native Plant Nursery
President and Operations Manager,
donated over 50 native plants to Delaware
Wild Lands, Inc.(DWL) and the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service (USFWS). The DWL staff
and DNPS member Rick McCorkle visited
the nursery and picked up 13 bald cypress,
4 black gums, 24 white oaks, 2 swamp
white oaks, and a small number of native
shrubs (e.g., sweet pepperbush, highbush
blueberry). All of the trees were planted in
or adjacent to Great Cypress Swamp (GCS).

Update on June , 2013

Andrew Martin amartin@dewildlands

reports from DE Wild Lands that nearly all
of them survived and are in the ground and
doing well in the Great Cypress
Swamp. Most of the Cypress were planted
in a grove at the Roman Fisher Farm which
serves as the base of operations in the
Great Cypress swamp, and the rest of the
trees were planted at various locations
throughout the ~10,500 acre property.

Andrea Wulf's "Founding Gardeners:
The Revolutionary Generation. Nature,
and the Shaping of the American Na-
tion". 2011.

For the Founding Fathers, gardening,
agriculture, and botany were elemental
passions: a conjoined interest as deeply
ingrained in their characters as the
battle for liberty and a belief in the
greatness of their new nation.

Founding Gardeners is an exploration of
that obsession, telling the story of the
revolutionary generation from the
unique perspective of their lives as gar-
deners, plant hobbyists, and farmers.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 3

Wetlands project installed 2012

Chestnut tree sapling

Warm season grass meadow

DNPS Annual Meeting
Abbott's Mill Nature Center
June 15, 2013

Walking the Lindale Loop Trail

John Harrod's "Shady Natives" talk

FROM SHADY NATIVES TO A SHADY TRAIL
By Rick Mickowski, DNPS Secretary

Saturday, June 15 turned out to be a beautiful day for the 10 DNPS members and 2 guests who made
their way to the Abbott's Mill Nature Center south of Milford. President John Harrod gave an informa-
tive presentation on native plants that will grow in the shade or at least tolerate some shade. Some of
the species he covered included Juneberry (also known as Serviceberry or Shadbush), native colum-
bine, wild ginger, musclewood, American chestnut, redbud, sweet pepperbush, native dogwood, pago-
da dogwood, American hazelnut, white wood aster, American strawberry bush, sweet bay magnolia,
ostrich fern, native witch hazel, swamp pink, inkberry, spicebush, sensitive fern, skunk cabbage, Christ-
mas fern, lyre leaf sage, blood root, bluestem goldenrod, maple leaf viburnum, and bellwort.

After the presentation, Jason Beale took our group on a guided hike of one of the outdoor trails across
the street from the nature center. It is being developed into the Chestnut Trail. The first stop was an 11
acre meadow installed three years ago through a USDA- Natural Resource Conservation Service pro-
gram. A warm season grass meadow with wildflowers was planted to serve as wildlife habitat. Nearby
there was a collection of purple martin houses. We hiked through the woodland noting various fenced
in American Chestnut trees that have been identified on the property. Another interesting stop was on
the boardwalk wetland trail. The beavers have dammed the upper end of the Abbott's Mill pond so
there is more water in areas where it used to dry up more frequently. We saw many dragonflies flitting
about. The final stop was a newly created wetland project that was completed last fall. It was created
from a low spot in a field adjacent to the woodlands. Over 200 trees and shrubs were planted in the
open space area.

We finally made our way back to the Nature Center for a pot luck lunch out at the picnic tables where
John Harrod gave a brief update on DNPS activities and the upcoming fall symposium and plant sale. A
big thank you to Eric Wahl, Rick Mickowski, Rick McCorkle and Flavia Rutkosky for providing the sand-
wiches, deviled eggs, baked beans, pasta salad, chips, brownies and beverages for our lunch. We also
thank Jason Beale for being our host for the day.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 4

Gardening With Native Plants
Sassafras ( Sassafras albidum )

NATURAL HISTORY

My first experience with Sassafras was as a youth visiting
relatives in the hills of Virginia for a family outing. One of
the 'treats' prepared by my cousins was a large jug of
sassafras tea made as I recall by steeping the dried root bark
in boiling water. As I recall, it tasted somewhat like -
sassafras, but that was a long time ago and I haven't taken
the opportunity to repeat the experience! But I still manage
to grasp a leaf from a sassafras tree and crush it to share its
yummy fragrance with grandchildren when they come for a
visit. The name 'Sassafras' applied by the Spanish botanist
Monardes in the sixteenth century is said to be a corruption
of the Spanish word for saxifrage with albidum, meaning
white. More recently a whole slew of common names have
been applied depending on geographical distribution or
perhaps just the observers view or use of the sassafras!
Some common name include sassafras, common sassafras,
smelling stick, saloop, white sassafras, ague tree, cinnamon
wood, gumbo file and mitten tree. The latter applied to the
form the leaves take, all resembling mittens!

Sassafras is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree
occurring from southwestern Maine west to southern
Ontario and southwest to eastern Texas and east to central
Florida. As a tree, sassafras can attain an average height of
40 to 60 Feet. The top three trees in the 'Big Trees of
Delaware' are 59, 65 and 70 feet tall! Left to its own
devices, the sassafras will spread by root suckers to form
large colonies. Attractive, greenish-yellow flowers appear in
clusters at the branch ends in spring. Flowers on female
trees give way to small pendant clusters of bluish-black
berries (drupes) which are borne in attractive scarlet cup-
like receptacles on scarlet stalks. Fruits mature in the fall.

Sassafras is invaluable to wildlife! Sassafras leaves and
twigs are consumed by white-tailed deer in both summer
and winter. Sassafras leaf browsers include woodchucks,
marsh rabbits, and black Bears, and Beavers will cut
sassafras stems for winter forage. Sassafras fruits are eaten
by many species of birds including bobwhite quail, eastern
kingbirds, flycatchers, phoebes, wild turkeys, catbirds,
flickers, woodpeckers, woodpeckers, thrushes, vireos, and
mockingbirds. Some small mammals also consume the
fruits and sassafras is a larval host or nectar source for
Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, Promethea silkmoth, and
pale swallowtail butterfly!

For years, Sassafras was grown for the supposedly-medicinal
properties of the fragrant roots and bark but it is the
outstanding fall display of foliage which should bring it into
the garden today. The large, multi-formed, five-inch leaves,
fragrant when crushed, are bright green throughout the

summer but are
transformed into magical
shades of orange/pink,
yellow/red, and even
scarlet/purple in the
cooler months of autumn,
brightening the landscape
wherever they are found.

These colors are especially
prominent when Sassafras
is planted as a specimen
or in a mixed shrubbery
border, with a background
of dark evergreens.

The flowers, which are
among the earliest in spring, are very popular with
honey bees and other insects. Songbirds devour the
fruits as fast as they ripen. Sassafras (along with other
members of the laurel family) is the host plant for
the spicebush swallowtail butterfly. Sassafras foliage
brightens the landscape with yellows, oranges and reds
in autumn, and the winter silhouette is appealing with its
horizontal branches in tiered layers.

WHERE TO GROW

Given its excellent value to wildlife, ease of care,
delightful fragrance, and beautiful yellow, purple and red
fall color, sassafras deserves a place in your landscape!
Naturally occurring in wood margins, fence rows, fields,
thickets and roadsides, sassafras is easily grown in
average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part
shade. It is excellent for naturalized plantings or screens
where they are given lots of space to colonize or can be
grown as a lawn specimen if root suckers are removed!
Since both male and female trees are required for
pollination, you will need trees of both sexes for fruit
setting.

PROPAGATION AND CARE

Sassafras can be propagated from seed or root cuttings,
but note that the large, deep taproot makes
transplanting of established trees difficult. To propagate
from seeds, collect the fruits when they are filled out
and dark blue, but note they are quickly devoured by
birds and other critters, so you will need to act fast!
Macerate, clean and air dry the seeds briefly. The seeds
may then be directly sown outdoors or cold stratified in
sand over winter to break dormancy and then planted
out in early spring. Sassafras freely produces root
suckers which may be taken in early spring before the
plan leafs out.

(Continued on next page)

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 5

Resources and Reviews

Sibley Guide to Trees

David Allan Sibley, 464 pgs.

With the same attention to detail given in his bird guides, Sibley's book offers several illustrations of flowers,
leaves, bark, fruits and seed pods for each tree species

Gardening With Native Plants

Continued from page 4

LORE

Native Americans used sassafras extensively
for many purposes. Infusions were used to
kill parasitic worms, to treat syphilis, colds
and measles, to reduce fever, control
diarrhea, and relieve constipation. A tea was
made from the bark and roots and the dried
leaves used as a spice to flavor foods. Early
European settlers quickly adopted sassafras
tea and oil of sassafras extracted from
sassafras root bark was used as a food
flavoring and was the basis of root beer. File
powder, made from the ground, dried leaves
of sassafras was used as a condiment and
soup thickener in gumbo and other Cajun
dishes. More recently, sassafras oils have
been determined to contain a carcinogenic
substance (safrole) and many of the former
uses for the oils are now banned by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration.

Sassafras wood has been used for cooperage,
buckets, fence-posts, rails, ox yokes, cabinets,
interior finish, and furniture and Native
Americans used the wood for dugout canoes.

Oh, and don't forget, then next time you're
out walking in the woods, grab one of the
sassafras mitten shaped leaves and crush it
for its delightful fragrance!

Bob Edelen, DNPS Member

Save the Dates
DNPS Native Plant Sale and
Arts in the Estuary - 20th Anniversary

Celebration!

Saturday, September 28
St. Jones Preserve
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Join us as we celebrate the Reserve's 20th anniversary and
National Estuaries Day by experiencing the estuary through
the artistic viewpoint. Enjoy various artisans, performers,
and authors as we join with the John Dickinson Plantation
to bring you a cultural view of the estuary! Try your hand at
some artwork, buy some native plants from the Delaware
Native Plant Society during the native plant sale as you
look at your landscaping artistically, and learn tips from
local and regional artists. This event is open to the public
and registration is not required. Directions are here.

Jennifer. Holmes@state.de. us
St. Jones Preserve
(302) 739-6377

Dr. Susan Yost reports that the Big Trees of Delaware is
a free guide book published by the Delaware
Department of Agriculture. There are some extra copies
at the Claude Phillips Herbarium at Delaware State
University. Also contact Delaware Forest Service
Administrator, Mike Valenti.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 6

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Cra otfcf € 4 5 Ram GartenfitorctenBoa do 52)

* Above graphic from RainGardenfotheBavs.org website

9th Annual Native Plant Symposium

Rain Gardens

Inspired by Native Plant Communities
Saturday, September 21, 2013
10:00 a.m. -2:00 p.m.

Bombay Hook

Sponsored jointly by the Delaware Native Plant
Society and the Bombay Hook Garden Keepers

Rain gardens are being installed all over the
country but functioning and thriving examples
are rare. Learn why so many plantings fail or lack
the ecological and functional value they are
expected to provide and take a closer look at
natural plant communities and how we can
learn to use them to create successful
ecosystems that reduce runoff and pollution in
our landscape. Speakers include Bill McAvoy,
Botanist with the Delaware Natural Heritage
Program, and Rob Jennings of the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation. A complimentary lunch is
included. The symposium is free, but
registration is required and space is limited.

To register, contact Quentin Schlieder by phone
at (302) 653-6449 or by e-mail

Historic Lewes Colonial Herb Garden
Celebrates Founding at Spring Fest

On May 22 some of
the founders of the
garden gathered to
celebrate the
garden's beginnings
in 1980 by Mary
Vessels. Sussex
Master Gardeners
assisted in the maintenance over the next several
years and about 12 years ago Lewes in Bloom
became involved.

The Herb Garden contains plants used by a typical
Colonial housewife in the 1700s. It is located next

to the Lewes Chamber of Commerce at 120 Kings
Highway, Lewes, DE 19958

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Celebrates Opening
of expanded Native Flora Garden

This newsletter has reported the development of this
BBG garden over the last few years by Uli Lorimer.
This NY Times article traces the project's history
which began in 1990 with the New York
Metropolitan Flora Project.

Recently the New York Botanical Garden's Native
Garden opened with 400 species that reflect a broad
population of plants native to the area east of the
Mississippi River. By contrast, almost all of the 150
native species in Brooklyn (the goldenrods, the flat-
topped asters, the cute little blue-eyed grasses
blooming in the meadow, as well as the moisture-
loving pitcher plants and orchids, the lichens and
bearberry of the sandy Pine Barrens) were collected
within 200 miles of New York City.

Celebrate Native Flora Day at BBG
on July 8 with a special tour of the
Native Flora Garden with curator Uli
Lorimer, followed by a talk with Doug
Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature
Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife
with Native Plants.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 7

Upcoming Events

Delaware Nature Society— Programs and Activities

Website delawarenaturesociety.org/#

Pollinator Walks

Program #:U13-105-CF May/June dates;

U13-106-CF July/ August dates

Fridays, Jul 12, 26, Noon - 2 pm, Aug 9, 23, Noon -2 pm
Member/Non-Memb: FREE/$5 per walk,

Leaders: Dr. Don Coats, Marty Coats, Mike Faulkner
Join our resident "pollinator monitors" on semi-weekly walks
that count and record these native and non-native hard-workers
along with the plants that they are foraging and fertilizing. With
populations of all insect pollinators on the decline, data collected
will benefit national pollinator citizen science programs. Binoculars
are recommended.

Flint Woods Walk with Brian Winslow

Program #: U13-018-FW

Thursday, July 11, 6 - 8 pm

Member/Non-Member: $10/$15

Leader: Brian Winslow

Meeting Location: Flint Woods Preserve

Evening is a wonderful time to see wildlife, hear singing birds,

and to enjoy the soft evening light among towering old trees

and bubbling creeks. This is a great opportunity to experience

one of the best natural areas in New Castle County.

NEW! Nature Hikes! FREE for Members!

July 20, August 17, Sept 21

First walk leaves at 8:15, second walk starts at 9:45.
Non-Members: Adult $5, Children Ages 2+, $3
No pre-registration required.

Join us the third Saturday of each month thru September
to explore the 352-acre Coverdale Farm Preserve. Take a
gentle morning walk with our staff while discovering the
rolling hills, farm pond, Burrows Run Stream, warm season
grass meadows, and old growth woodland

Save the Date

Delaware Coast Day

Sunday, October 6, 2013 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

College of Earth, Ocean and Environment
Lewes, DE

Includes many exhibits related to Native Plants
and their environment www.decoastday.org

Copeland Native Plant Series

Butterflies and Their Host and Nectar Plants

Saturday, July 13, 1 - 3 pm

Joe Sebastiani and Eileen Boyle, Mt. Cuba Center Director
of Education and Research

Enjoy a presentation about some of the butterfly species
in our area and the native host and nectar plants you can
plant in your yard to entice a variety of species. Take a
walk through the Mt. Cuba gardens to see and learn
about some of these plant species and to find and identi-
fy butterflies. Meeting location: Mt. Cuba Center.

Medicinal Uses of Native Plants

Tuesday, August 20, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Joe Sebastiani and Sue Bara, Professional Herbalist

Walk different habitats at Ashland Nature Center to iden-
tify native plants and discuss identification, natural histo-
ry, and uses of the plant in food and medicine. Practice
making some samples of various teas and poultices, and
find out what you can grow in your backyard for such
purposes. Meeting location: Ashland Nature Center.

Wet and Dry Meadow Wildflowers and Ecosystems

Thursday, September 5, 4 - 7 pm
Joe Sebastiani and Janet Ebert, Botanist

Explore a wet floodplain meadow and a dry upland mead-
ow at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve to identify a variety of
wildflowers in each. Learn natural history and ecology of
both habitats, as well as how these areas differ floristical-
ly and get ideas to plants that you can incorporate into
your backyard or natural restoration site. Both of these
sites are wonderfully diverse and are prime examples to
follow for replicating in other situations. Meeting loca-
tion: Bucktoe Creek Preserve.

The Turk's Cap, Volume 16, Number 2

Page 8

i Membership Application

I

Member Information

Name:

Business Name or Organization:

Address:

City and Zip Code:

Telephone (home/work):

E-mail address:

S_

Delaware native Plant Society jj

WWW.DELAWARENATIVEPLANTS.ORG

o Full-time Student $10.00
o Individual $15.00
o Family or Household $18.00
o Contributing $50.00
o Business $100.00
o Lifetime $500.00
o Donations are also welcome $

Membership benefits include:

* The DNPS quarterly newsletter, The Turk’s Cap

* Native plant gardening and landscaping information

* Speakers, field trips, native plant nursery and sales

Total Amount Enclosed: $

Make check payable to:

DE Native Plant Society
P.O. Box 369, Dover, DE 19903

Delaware Native Plant Society

P.O. Box 369

Dover, Delaware 19903