Plant Species

NEW YORK - Despite miles of skyscrapers and pavement in New York City, nature has not lost its foothold, at least not yet. A majority of native plant species found here since botanists began combing the city in the late 1800s survive somewhere in the five boroughs, a new study has found. Among them are elegant wildflowers like the slender blue flag iris, handsome trees like the wonderfully aromatic sweetbay magnolia and the fantastical thread-leaved sundew, a carnivorous plant. While a majority of native plant species persist, they do so by the slimmest of margins, scientists say. The study, soon to be published in The Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York, found that 43 percent have disappeared, including such treasures as the yellow lady's slipper orchid and the showy aster.

The beauty of the Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area is, as the sign proclaims, "enhanced by rare plants and animals." But one breed of animal is overrunning the refuge and devouring the unusual plants, and state wildlife officials say there is only one way to solve the problem. They want bowhunters to thin the deer population. "A few deer is a few deer too many if they get to those plant species and wipe them out," said Paul Peditto, director of the Wildlife and Heritage Service for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.

Ever since recognizable ancestors of today's plant families first appeared in North America at the end of the Cretaceous period some 65 million years ago, the floristic face of the continent has been constantly shaped and reshaped, first by grand forces of climate and then by humans.By 2 million years ago, today's more varied botanical pattern of cold-weather coniferous forests, sunny grasslands, dark deciduous woods, swamps, marshes, beaches and deserts was more or less in place -- only to be transformed within a 500-year blink of the eye by a wave of exotic plants that followed human migrants from other parts of the world.

Porcelain-white swans with gracefully sloping necks paddle among swaying reeds on Kent Island. But Jonathan McKnight doesn't see fairy-tale beauty; he sees an invasive species more menacing than snakeheads. McKnight, Maryland's top expert on exotic species, said the threat posed by the Asian "frankenfish" has been exaggerated. The snakeheads don't walk (contrary to some reports), are not equipped to invade the salty Chesapeake Bay and are less toothy than the common bluefish. But because the snakehead has an image problem, it is a useful illustration of a more subtle but very real threat to biological diversity posed by a growing number of non-native species, such as mute swans.

The beauty of the Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area is, as the sign proclaims, "enhanced by rare plants and animals." But one breed of animal is overrunning the refuge and devouring the unusual plants, and state wildlife officials say there is only one way to solve the problem. They want bowhunters to thin the deer population. "A few deer is a few deer too many if they get to those plant species and wipe them out," said Paul Peditto, director of the Wildlife and Heritage Service for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.

With due concern about the region's dwindling water supply, rethinking what you plant has become a priority. Xeriscaping, or gardening in dry conditions, is a growing trend in areas where rain is scarce and the rising cost of water has forced gardeners to choose plants that can survive in dry soil. Many plant species have evolved in ways that make them adaptable to a range of conditions. They will thrive in moist soil or searing dry heat, and some can survive brief periods in standing water.

Q. We would like to move several shrubs in our yard. Is this a good time to transplant them, and do you have any suggestions that will help ensure that they survive? A. There are a few exceptions, but the period between late October and early December is a great time to move most plants. The success of the transplant will largely depend on the age and size of the plant, and your ability to get a nice root ball on your plant. In general, it is best to move plants while they are young and relatively small.

The wolves and mountain lions that once roamed the state's forests are gone. So are the elk and bison that once grazed its prairies.More than 200 plant and animal species once native to Maryland have been erased by human development. Another 400 species are endangered.To protect the state's "biological diversity," Delegate ElizabethS. Smith, R-Davidsonville, and the Maryland Nature Conservancy have proposed a statewide system of nature preserves.Smith introduced a bill last week that would allow property owners to place state-approved parcels into preserves, forever protecting them from development.

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. -- It takes some time to appreciate a prairie.A prairie can't awe with the grandeur of a redwood. A prairie can't seduce with the mystery of a canyon. Nor does a prairie entice exploration, the way a mountain range does. There's no glamorous surf, no spectacular waterfall tossing off shards of rainbow."We in the Midwest have always suffered a bit of an inferiority complex," said Alan Pollom, director of the Kansas Nature Conservancy. "We don't have oceans. We don't have mountains.

Clad in yellow flame-retardant gear, a handful of men walked through Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area yesterday, dribbling flame from metal cans and turning the grassland into what looked like black cotton candy. Soldiers Delight is a 1,900-acre serpentine grassland, an unusual ecological system that supports dozens of rare or endangered plants and insects. But unless it is periodically cleared through controlled burning, other plant species - enemy No. 1 is the pine tree - slowly manage to encroach and change the character of the soil.

Clad in yellow flame-retardant gear, a handful of men walked through Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area yesterday, dribbling flame from metal cans and turning the grassland into what looked like black cotton candy. Soldiers Delight is a 1,900-acre serpentine grassland, an unusual ecological system that supports dozens of rare or endangered plants and insects. But unless it is periodically cleared through controlled burning, other plant species - enemy No. 1 is the pine tree - slowly manage to encroach and change the character of the soil.

Have you ever wondered how a plant knows it's time to wake from its winter slumber? Or how all those spring flowering bulbs you planted last fall know it's time to begin that journey upward, especially when buried beneath snow? To understand how this spring phenomenon happens, we have to know what causes the plant to go into dormancy in the first place. A plant's dormant cycle begins in autumn, when daylight hours shorten and temperatures begin to drop. These key environmental changes cause a bit of hormonal upheaval in the plant, resulting in a slowing down to an almost virtual standstill of its metabolism.

NEW YORK - Despite miles of skyscrapers and pavement in New York City, nature has not lost its foothold, at least not yet. A majority of native plant species found here since botanists began combing the city in the late 1800s survive somewhere in the five boroughs, a new study has found. Among them are elegant wildflowers like the slender blue flag iris, handsome trees like the wonderfully aromatic sweetbay magnolia and the fantastical thread-leaved sundew, a carnivorous plant. While a majority of native plant species persist, they do so by the slimmest of margins, scientists say. The study, soon to be published in The Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York, found that 43 percent have disappeared, including such treasures as the yellow lady's slipper orchid and the showy aster.

With due concern about the region's dwindling water supply, rethinking what you plant has become a priority. Xeriscaping, or gardening in dry conditions, is a growing trend in areas where rain is scarce and the rising cost of water has forced gardeners to choose plants that can survive in dry soil. Many plant species have evolved in ways that make them adaptable to a range of conditions. They will thrive in moist soil or searing dry heat, and some can survive brief periods in standing water.

Q. We would like to move several shrubs in our yard. Is this a good time to transplant them, and do you have any suggestions that will help ensure that they survive? A. There are a few exceptions, but the period between late October and early December is a great time to move most plants. The success of the transplant will largely depend on the age and size of the plant, and your ability to get a nice root ball on your plant. In general, it is best to move plants while they are young and relatively small.

Brenda Belensky was driving by Long Gate Shopping Center in Ellicott City the other day when she noticed a patch of purple loosestrife and got a sudden urge to tear up the plants, every last one.Belensky, natural resources manager for the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks, has nothing against the European imports per se. In bloom, they have pretty magenta-colored spikes that attract bees and butterflies. But when she sees a sprig of loosestrife, she thinks about each plant -- each plant!

Have you ever wondered how a plant knows it's time to wake from its winter slumber? Or how all those spring flowering bulbs you planted last fall know it's time to begin that journey upward, especially when buried beneath snow? To understand how this spring phenomenon happens, we have to know what causes the plant to go into dormancy in the first place. A plant's dormant cycle begins in autumn, when daylight hours shorten and temperatures begin to drop. These key environmental changes cause a bit of hormonal upheaval in the plant, resulting in a slowing down to an almost virtual standstill of its metabolism.

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. -- It takes some time to appreciate a prairie.A prairie can't awe with the grandeur of a redwood. A prairie can't seduce with the mystery of a canyon. Nor does a prairie entice exploration, the way a mountain range does. There's no glamorous surf, no spectacular waterfall tossing off shards of rainbow."We in the Midwest have always suffered a bit of an inferiority complex," said Alan Pollom, director of the Kansas Nature Conservancy. "We don't have oceans. We don't have mountains.