Endangered Treasures

Want to take a tour of the South from North Carolina to Alabama, meet some fascinating folks, pick up some history on the way, and learn a bit about wildlife, all the while learning about the region’s endangered plants?

You can start by reading Georgann Eubanks’ Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction.

In this book of exploration and explanation, Eubanks, a writer and Emmy-winning documentarian, takes readers from plant nurseries to botanical extravaganzas like the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, from remote areas along the Yadkin River to the backcountry of Alabama. On this grand tour she educates us on some of the flora that need special protection in our species-rich region, including the history of those who once visited these parts searching for rare plants.

The story she tells of John Small and Arthur Heller, for instance, is fascinating. They were students at Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Marshall College who, near the end of the 19th century, roamed what Small described as “a whole vast sea of mountains,” which we know today as the Blue Ridge. Having left behind a journal of this expedition—you can view it online—we know of the erudition they brought to their journey, some of their humorous encounters with the weather, terrain, and people of this region, and the arduous and at times dangerous efforts they made to find and bring back specimens of plant life. Botany remained a passion for both men, who continued such work throughout the remainder of their lives.

Saving the Wild South also introduces us to some of their spiritual and intellectual heirs. We meet the young student Noah Yawn and one of his mentors, Patrick Thompson, both of whom are experts in pitcher plants. Tracy Cook, curator of Alabama’s Huntsville Botanical Gardens, educates us on Clematis morefieldii, also known as leather flower. La’Tanya Scott of Alabama is the environmental educator for the Cahaba River Society, conducting hikes and canoe trips for schools, scouts, churches, and other groups. The list of these knowledgeable teachers and protectors of plants goes on and on.

Everyone will have their own favorite subjects in this spotlight on endangered plants, and mine arrived in Chapter 3: Alabama Canebrake Pitcher Plant and Green Pitcher Plant. Like a lot of kids, (and a lot of adults, apparently) carnivorous plants—we usually think of the Venus flytrap—fascinated me. Here I encountered the pitcher plant and learned of its shape, its symbiotic relationship with a certain moth, and the manner in which it takes in and digests “insects to serve as its supper.” Different varieties of the pitcher plant also grow in other locations in the South. As Eubanks tells us, for instance, the North Carolina Botanical Garden throws a party every summer called “Pitchers and Pitchers,” serving up craft beers and celebrating the organization’s carnivorous plants.

It was also news to me that human predators seek out such plants to harvest and sell on the black market. As with some other species of carnivorous plants, poachers slip into remote areas, dig up the pitcher plants, and then sell them to dealers, who make a tidy sum selling them online. Some of these thieves have been apprehended and face stiff fines and jail time for their crimes.

In this chapter as well, we meet Chuck Byrd, a land steward of the Nature Conservatory in Alabama. Byrd, a man with a “friendly, open smile and a salt-and-pepper beard,” arrives for his meeting with Eubanks and her friend and photographer Donna Campbell in a fire truck. Byrd said that he travels Alabama conducting controlled burns on conservation lands. In the case of the pitcher plants, these small, carefully regulated fires clear away pine needles, weeds, and grasses, and so allow the rain to better reach the soil, readying it for seed.

It was particularly heartening to hear Byrd’s general take on Alabama and its natural beauty, which concludes: “We have a history of hunting and fishing here. People pick up on this. A lot of people really love Alabama and the plants and wildlife, so they want to help conservation. The longer I live here, the more hope I have.” 

All of these men and women Eubanks and Campbell get to know come across as enthusiastic and capable guardians of the Southern landscape, aware of the demands and challenges they face, but generally optimistic in their willingness to push ahead to preserve both rare plants and the natural environment. Highly trained, they appear eager to share their knowledge and experience with all who come their way.

In her last chapter of Saving the Wild South, titled “American Chaffseed,” Eubanks looks back on these encounters and writes: “How we preserve our precious biodiversity, unique to the wild South, is a complex equation, but the individuals we have met across six states, each working in their own patches, are heroes, and they are training the next generation to make the hard choices ahead.”

Adding to the pleasures of this book is a chapter-by-chapter, 18-page bibliography, perfect for readers wishing to deepen their explorations.

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