fall 2011 blue ridge wild flower society newsletter

7/31/2019 Fall 2011 Blue Ridge Wild Flower Society Newsletter

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wedding anniversary. What a great day.This past week we were saddened to

learn of Dora Lee Ellingtons passing.She and her husband, Sam, were two of the original founding members of ourchapter. They were a special couple. Shecould make rocks grow! (Note Frieda Tol-ers article in this newsletter).

Last Saturday, Aug. 27, our chapter metat the home of Butch and Betty Kelly.

About 30 people showed up for good foodand good fellowship.

Even though it was dry at their home,we were able to check out their wild-flower garden. In addition to seeing theplants, we were able to see a monarchlarva and chrysalis on the milkweeds.

A big thank you to Butch and Betty foryour hospitality.

The picnic was preceded by the chapterboard meeting to plan out the rest of theyear and start next year.

The schedule can be found on pages 4and 5. Again, I hope all had a good, albeithot, summer and are looking forward to

our fall activities with the cooler weather.See you on down the trail with our

beautiful fall colors and some GOKs (GodOnly Knows plants).

Continued from 2

Letter Club OfficersPresident ................................ Rich Crites (540) 774-4518

[email protected]

Vice President ............................ Rudy Albert (540) 774-2279

[email protected]

Secretary ............................... Marci Albert(540) 774-2279

Treasurer ............................. Gail MacFarland(540) 380-2150

Historian ....................................... Betty Kelly (540) 384-7429

Membership ................................ Butch Kelly(540) 384-7429

[email protected]

Newsletter ............................ Michael Belcher(540) 989-6384

[email protected]

Welcome New MembersDebbie Lovelace from Roanoke, VA

Linda Ardrey transfer from JeffersonChapter in Charlottesville

Carol Whiteside of Roanoke Welcomeback

Ann Allenof VintonJudy Kniskern of Vinton


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Share your digital photos with usBy Michael Belcher

The club has created an account withflickr.com to share pictures of wildflowersfrom our field trips, walks and backyards.

To see the photographs, go to the web sitewww.flickr.com and simply searchBlue Ridge Wildflower Society.

Or go to the clubs web s i te ,www.brwfs.org and click on the flickr link.

Right now we only have a few photosposted, so we are waiting for you to add to

our collection. As photos come in, we hopeto arrange them into plant families. But wealso might categorize them by specific fieldtrips, flower color or even habitat to allowpeople to more easily identify them and toserve as a learning tool.

There are two ways to share your digitalphotos.

1 . Send them to us via e-mail or jumpdrive.

2. Create your own free flickr account andjoin the Blue Ridge Wildflower SocietyGroup.

If you e-mail them to us:

You can e-mail them to me at

[email protected], and I willpost them on the clubs account.

If you have a lot of photos, it may be easierto copy them onto a jump drive/flash driveand bring it a club meeting or field trip. Iwill download them and return the jumpdrive/flash drive to you.

If you send us photos, please make sureeach photo is at least 1024 x 768 pixels.The larger size of (2 MP) 1600 x 1200 pixelsis even better. There is little need for any-thing bigger than (4MP) 2272 x X 1704 pix-els.

By sending photos of this size, it allows usto convert the photo for use in the newslet-ter.

Also, please include the common name(and if you know it, the scientific name),when and where you shot the plant, andyour name if you would like to be credited.

If you choose to donate your photos to theclub this way, you may see them again in thenewsletter, in a slide presentation at a clubmeeting or even in a sign or ad for the club.

Being an educational group, we are allow-ing other wildlife enthusiasts, students and

anyone else to download these photos forfree to use as they need.

If you create your own flickr account:You can create your own free flickr

account and join the Blue Ridge Wild-flower Society Group. ( A flickr accountdoes require you to create a yahoo e-mail,

but this is also free)If you create your own account, you retainownership and the rights to all of your pho-tos.

Also there is no size requirement. Smallerfiles of 640 x 480 pixels or 800 x 600 pixelswill work just fine.


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Calendar of Events Vol. 32, No.3FALL 2011

Sunday, Sept. 11Time: 1 p.m.Leader: Virginia KlaraContact: Michael Belcher

989-6384Meet: Parking lot nextto Play It Again Sports in frontof the Lowes store off U.S. 220.

Field Trip: Edible and Medicinal Plants in the WildVirginia Klara will share her knowledge of medicinal and edible plants in thwoods and meadows along the trails of the Smart View Picnic area, milepost154 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There will be some easy walking.Virginia is a long time BRWS member. She is a gardener and volunteer. Shwill meet the group at the Smart View Picnic area about 1:45 p.m.Please Note: This is a Sunday field trip.

Chapter Meeting: The Mushroom WorldLearn about the edible and poi-sonous world of mushrooms,featuring Skip ToadstoolTaliaferro. Refreshments after

the meeting.

Work Day/Field Trip: Help save wetland orchidsThe purpose of the work day will be to clear the woodymaterial in a bog off Va. 600 to enhance the growth of

orchids, grass of Parnassus and other rare plants. Bringloppers, water and lunch. Wear boots, long sleeves andslacks.If we have a large group we can get done quickly andmight have time to visit two special areas in the Jeffer-son National Forest.

Morels

Yellow FringedOrchidPlatanthera ciliaris

Monday, Sept. 26Time: 7 p.m.Leader: Rich CritesContact: 774-4518Meet: Roanoke Church

of Christ2606 Brandon Ave.

Saturday, Oct. 15Time: 9 a.m.Leader: Butch KellyContact: Please RSVP384-7429 [email protected]: Orange Market

at Thompson Ave.and Va. 311 in Salem


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Monday Oct. 24Time: 7 p.m.Leader: Rich CritesContact: 774-4518Meet: Roanoke Church


Monday, Nov. 28Time: 7 p.m.Leader: Rich CritesContact: 774-4518Meet: Roanoke Church


Chapter Meeting: Natures Beauty: Unnoticed,under-appreciated or from a different point of viewWell take a look at natures beauty in placeswhere we usually expect to find it, sometimes inan expected way, but occasionally from a differ-

ent point of view (some of these will come witha quiz). Well also find it some places that areoften overlooked or even completely ignored.

Lynchburg Area meeting at Randolph College.Rich Crites will give a slide presentation to club members in the Lynchburgarea.

Chapter Meeting: Native Medicinal Flowers

of the Shenandoah ValleyRebecca Boone will presenta brief slide program titledNative Medicinal Wild-flowers of the ShenandoahValley. She will follow theslides with an art exercise.Rebecca claims that oneway to remember plantsis to sketch them and anyone can do it. This should be a fun evening.Rebecca is a teacher in Botetourt County . She wrote a book titled NativeMedicinal Plants of the Shenandoah Valley. This was part of a research papershe wrote in a graduate program at Hollins University.There also will be an exchange of wildflower seeds after the meeting alongwith refreshments and fellowship.

Can you tell what it is?See bottom of page 7for answer.

Sunday, Nov. 6Time: 2 p.m.Location: Randolph College

Martin ScienceHall, Room 225

Leader: Rich CritesContact: 774-4518


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Two new plant guides online to help you identify flowersBy Butch Kelly

The first is Ferns of Mississippi.This key is very easy to use. It

includes more than 60 species.Simply photograph your specimen

or take notes on leaves, reproductiveshoots and other key identifying char-acteristics.

The key provides photos from manydifferent angles to help you identifyyour specimen.

It also includes a glossary to helpwith terminology.

It has good illustrations of plant formand leaf arrangement.

It uses multiple common names aswell as Latin names.

The key includes many species foundhere in Virginia.

This key to southeastern floraincludes nearly 1400 species of wild-flowers and over 23,000 photos to helpwith identification.

The site includes a key, and full colorphotos from every angle possible frombasal leaves to close-ups of blossoms.

The site also includes a glossary

which does a great job of describingplant parts and leaf arrangement. Itlists species name, common name andplant family.

There are two new plant keys available on line. While these keys are not sci-entifically based, they do make it easy for non-professional botanists to key outplants.

They are both very user friendly and two more tools for plant lovers to take aclose up view of plants and try their hand at identifying plants.

The nice thing is both keys are free. They cost nothing but time to look at andstudy one of our favorite subjects, wild plants.

www.mississippi.com www.southeasternflora.com.


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n s w e r t o q u e s t i o n o n P a g e 5 : C l o s e u p o f a m o u n t a i n l a u r e l f l o w e r .

If leaves of three, let it be is good advicefor poison ivy, then leaves of five, let it

thrive should be the maxim for Virginiacreeper.

The native vine plays a major role in feed-

ing fruit-eating songbirds on their waysouth, especially thrushes, gray catbirds

and common yellowthroats.Leaves turn red just as the blue-gray fruits

ripen. The plant may rely on this foliar fruit

flag to alert migrating birds to a food oppor-tunity. timing is critical: the fruits are high in

lipids (fats), which dont stay fresh for long.While birds may wolf down the berries

people shouldnt follow suit, as the fruitsare potentially toxic to humans.

The leaves arent so people-friendly,

either. When they are bruised, specializedcells rupture, releasing irritating micro-

scopic needles of calcium oxalate, whichcan trigger contact dermatitis.

Scaling trees, rocks and houses, Virginiacreeper secures itself with tendrils tippedwith tiny pads that cement themselves to

vertical surfaces.

A creeper-covered brick wall will stay coolin the summer, the masonry undamaged bythe vines tendrils. Wood siding, however,

will rot in the humid environment harboredby the vine.

Letting its fruit flag flyDuring autumn, Virginia creeper leavers turn brilliant red, a signal for nomadic birds

to stop for an in-flight meal.

Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Sources: Edmund W. Stiles, Patterns of fruit pre-sentation and seed dispersal in bird-disseminatedwoody plants in eastern deciduous forest, theAmerican naturalist; USDA Interactions betweenpasserines and woody plants at a migratory stop-over site: Fruit consumption and the potential forseed dispersal, Claramarie Moss, University ofVirginia

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF THE WASHINGTON POST


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Blue Ridge Wildflower SocietyP.O. Box 20385Roanoke, Va 24018

In Memoriam of Dora Lee EllingtonBy Frieda Toler

It is with great sadness we report thedeath of Dora Lee Ellington on August 22,2011. She was the widow of Sam Elling-

ton. It is impossible to remember Dora Leewithout Sam. They were a team.

They were charter members of the BlueRidge Wildflower Society and participatedin every activity the chapter had such asplants sales, programs, field trips, workdays and were always ready to give a help-ing hand. They contributed greatly to thesuccess of the chapter.

They were always there to encourage,welcome and teach all of us.

Dora Lee delighted in sharing plantsfrom her wildflower garden.

Dora Lee and Sam and Bobby and Ishared a wonderful friendship and a greatappreciation for wildflowers and the beau-tiful world around us. I am so grateful forthese dear people who touched my life.

Our condolences to her son, Charlie, andhis wife, Carolyn, and the family.

fall 2011 blue ridge wild flower society newsletter

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