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The Wrack

The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.

Naming Native Plants

Posted by | July 28, 2015 | Filed under: Observations

Wild columbine blooming in the native plant garden, with a identification sign and eastern chipmunk also pictured.

Wild columbine blooming in the native plant garden, with an eastern chipmunk also pictured.

Flowers and foliage abound in the native plant border that welcomes visitors to the reserve. York County Master Gardener volunteers have nurtured the garden over a decade to form a gorgeous display.

This spring, they added new plant identification signs to the garden. The signs were made for us by Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and underwritten by a memorial gift.

The family of Nat Buddy Wright, a docent and volunteer here back in the 1990s, felt this tribute was a perfect fit. Were pleased that Buddys interest in teaching others about nature is being extended through these signs, which give the common and scientific names for almost 50 species:

  • Actaea racemosa = snakeroot, bugbane
  • Amelanchier canadensis = serviceberry, shadbush
  • Aquilegia canadensis = wild columbine
  • Arctostaphylos uva-ursi = bearberry
  • Aronia melanocarpa = black chokeberry
  • Asclepias tuberosa = butterfly (milk)weed
  • Asarum canadense = wild ginger
  • Baptisia australis = baptisia (blue wild indigo)
  • Chelone lyonii = pink turtlehead
  • Chamaecyparis thyoides = dwarf Atlantic white cedar
  • Chrysogonum virginianum = goldenstar (green and gold)
  • Clethra alnifolia = coastal sweetpepperbush, summersweet
  • Diervilla lonicera = northern bush honeysuckle
  • Dennstaedtia punctilobula = hay-scented fern
  • Echinacea purpurea = purple coneflower
  • Eutrochium purpureum = Joe-Pye weed
  • Geranium maculatum = geranium
  • Geum fragarioides = Appalachian barren-strawberry
  • Helenium autumnale = common sneezeweed
  • Juniperus horizontalis = 'Bar Harbor' creeping juniper
  • Liatris spicata = blazing star
  • Linnaea borealis = twinflower
  • Lobelia cardinalis = cardinal flower
  • Monarda didyma = beebalm
  • Morella pensylvanica = northern bayberry
  • Physostegia virginiana = obedient plant
  • Phlox paniculata = garden phlox
  • Polygonatum biflorum = Solomons seal
  • Podophyllum peltatum = mayapple
  • Prunus maritima = beach plum
  • Prunus serotina = wild black cherry
  • Rhus aromatica = fragrant sumac
  • Rudbeckia hirta = black-eyed Susan
  • Salix discolor = pussy willow
  • Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis = American elderberry
  • Swida alternifolia = pagoda dogwood
  • Swida sericea = red-twig dogwood (red osier dogwood)
  • Symphyotrichum novae-angliae = New England aster
  • Tiarella cordifolia = foam flower
  • Vaccinium angustifolium = lowbush blueberry
  • Vaccinium corymbosum = highbush blueberry
  • Vaccinium vitis-idaea = mountain cranberry
  • Viola labradorica = Labrador violet
  • Viburnum trilobum = cranberry viburnum

Goldenstar label next to blossoming plant.Ferns form a backdrop for a sign stating 'Native plant border planted and maintained by York County Master Gardeners.