Winter Tree ID Course: A Great Way to Learn About Native Trees

After three years of waitlisting, I finally made it into the Winter Tree Identification course at the State Botanical Garden. It’s hard to get into the class because:

1.) It’s a part of the popular Native Plant Certificate

2.) Lots of plant people want to take the class

I had a great time. There’s something about being in a room full of people who already know how to work a microscope and get excited about dissecting leaf buds.

Linda Chafin, retired conservation botanist at the State Botanical Garden, taught the class. She authored several books, including the “Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Georgia,” on my bookshelf.

She’s my favorite kind of teacher. She knows the material so well she could repeat it backwards, but still is curious about new questions. I think it’s one of the hallmarks of a good teacher to be able to say “I don’t know, but let’s look that up later — I’d like to know the answer to that.”

I own (with my husband, of course), just under four acres of land. About half of that is forested, and I intend for it to stay that way. I like having a small forest to walk myself and the dogs through daily. For many years, I’ve wanted to find a way to help make the forest healthier. Yes, I’ve chopped a bunch of privet and tried to keep the vines under some control — but most of the land around has suffered from logging. What’s left after logging is a lot of fast growing kind of crappy trees. I have a lot of winged elm (sooo much winged elm) and sweet gum, loblolly pine and eastern red cedar. These, I learned, are all native.

I have intentionally killed most of the Bradford Pears (invasive and awful, in my opinion) and unintentionally killed some crape myrtles (Asian origins and whoops!).

Now, I have this lovely list of native Georgia Piedmont trees to plant in my forest!

I want American Holly, Big-Leaf Magnolia, Green and White Ash, Hop Hornbeam, Mockernut, River Birch, Sourwood, Leatherwood and the Tulip Tree. The tulip tree, I’d like the Asian variant as well as the American species — they are both beautiful and they are very different.

An easy short cut in backyard ecology I’ve learned from farming is: Make the natives more diverse. It doesn’t always make the space healthier in the short term, but often leaves space for putting the out-of-control parts of an ecosystem in check. Adding rye grass helps it out-compete Bermuda grass. Cutting down the invasive privet (and feeding it to the goats, Ava and Val) keeps the whitefly population down. Keeping more perennials in the garden encourages more beneficial insects like Big Eyed Bugs, Lady Bugs and Praying Mantis hunt for aphids and other nasties inside the garden.