wild things
Enjoying Loudoun ’ s Native Plants
by Emily Southgate
When many of us think of natural beauty in Loudoun County , we picture rolling , green pastures dotted with horses or cows , or perhaps vineyards stretching up a hillside . As much as I , too , love these landscapes , they consist mostly of non-native plants – pasture grasses such as fescue and orchard grass or mostly non-native grafted grape vines . They provide little habitat for native animals such as birds and butterflies . For native natural beauty and diversity , we need to look to forested and “ messy ” landscapes . We have all heard that “ nature abhors a vacuum ,” but one might also add that nature revels in diversity and complexity .
About twelve thousand years ago , as the climate warmed after the glacial deep freeze , our iconic oaks and hickories spread across the landscape , probably distributed by birds such as passenger pigeons and blue jays . They were accompanied by dozens of other species of trees and hundreds of kinds of shrubs and herbaceous plants . Critical fungal partners came along , too , providing roots with spongelike ability to absorb water and critical mineral nutrients . People were also part of this mix , collecting nuts and other fruits as well as hunting and setting up camps . We know very little about the impacts of these people on the local flora photo : Karen Hendershot
Top : Ball ’ s Bluff woods ; above : Ball ’ s Bluff bluebells ( Mertensia virginiana ) and riverbank trees . and fauna , but these appear to have been slight . The impact may have been locally somewhat greater when maize agriculture arrived sometime in the last millennium , but still it was localized . The big change came with the
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