FLORA:
Plants found along the Carolina Threat Trail
LIFE WORTH CONSERVING A guide to the flora and fauna of the Carolina Thread Trail BY STAFF
Pg. 6 NOV 17- NOV 30,2021 - QCNERVE.COM
Our series of articles about getting outside in the Charlotte area to be active on the Carolina Thread Trail network and Catawba River is presented in partnership with local orthopedic-care provider OrthoCarolina. Maintaining green spaces in urban areas like Charlotte and the surrounding towns increases the health benefits of all residents. Multiple studies have shown that urban green spaces give people the space for physical activity, relaxation, peace, and an escape from heat. They are also associated with better air quality, reduced traffic noise, cooler temperatures, and greater diversity — as well as providing a home for plants and wildlife to flourish. Many organizations in the Charlotte area provide resources and carry out preservation efforts that work toward these maintenance goals, but few provide as many as the Catawba Lands Conservancy and the Carolina Thread Trail. Catawba Lands Conservancy is a nonprofit that permanently conserves and manages land for public benefit in the Southern Piedmont of North Carolina. Its current conservation area includes 190 properties totaling nearly 17,000 acres of land — farmland, ecologically rich lands to protect wildlife habitat, and local drinking water, and public land — in Catawba, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg and Union counties. Its goal is to conserve 50,000 acres by 2030. CLC is the lead agency that oversees the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional network of trails, blueways and conservation corridors connecting 15 counties in North and South Carolina. Over 250 miles of the Thread Trail are currently open to the public and 14 active corridors are under development thanks to CLC’s partnership with Foundation For The Carolinas and other local partners. Acquiring property is just the first phase of the CLC’s work to ensure that the region’s wildlife and plant species thrive and our natural systems function properly. Donations and grants not only help staff and volunteers care for and monitor these protected lands and the plants and animals that inhabit them, but also allow the CLC to defend conservation easements legally when necessary. In order to better appreciate what it is that CLC is focused on conserving, we’ve put together a list of the most rare, endangered and otherwise interesting plants and animals that can be found on the Carolina Thread Trail.
Bigleaf Magnolia Scarlet Bee Balm South Fork Trail in Broad River Greenway McAdenville An aromatic perennial With leaves 12 to 36 herb and member of inches long and ivorythe mint family, Scarlet colored flowers averaging Bee Balm grows up to 8 to 10 inches across, the 1.2 meters tall in dense Bigleaf Magnolia has the largest simple leaf and flower of clusters along stream banks, moist thickets and ditches. any native plant in North America. The tree grows about It is known for its summer-blooming, bright red tubular 30 to 40 feet tall, but its branches often bend under the flowers that attract hummingbirds. weight of its heavy foliage. Common Arrowhead Pawpaw Murray’s Mill Trail, Little Sugar Creek Greenway, Riverside Greenway Hector Henry Greenway at Common Arrowhead is Mills of Rocky River a colony-forming, aquatic Pawpaw is a small perennial that grows in deciduous tree — growing wet soils and even standing to a height of 35 feet — water, often reaching a height of 3 feet. Its leaves are that bears the largest edible fruit indigenous to the U.S. arrowhead-shaped and small white flowers emerge on Fruit begins to ripen in late summer, peaks in September its stalk in mid to late summer. and October, and has a sweet, custard-like flavor similar to a banana, mango or pineapple. Trillium Schweinitz’s Sunflower Girl Scout Hornets’ Nest Trail, Cane Creek Park Salisbury Greenway and Schweinitz’s sunflower Pharr Family Trail is a perennial that blooms There are 38 species of from late August until frost Trillium in North America and grows approximately and all belong to the lily 6-and-a-half feet tall, with thickened roots that store starch. It’s named after the family. They have eye-catching flowers with three petals North Carolina botanist who discovered it in the 1800s, and three bracts of various colors, and the bracts are often though today it’s an endangered species and one of the mottled (spotted). Flowers are either above the bracts or can be found hiding underneath them. rarest sunflowers in the United States. Mountain Laurel Bloodroot South Fork Rail Trail, Bakers Rocky Creek Trail Mountain Park and Morrow Bloodroot is an Mountain State Park herbaceous perennial The shade-tolerant flower that grows to about Mountain Laurel grows a foot tall and blooms 10 to 30 feet tall and has white flowers in March and flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer. April in shady, moist conditions. Flowers open in full sun They can range from white to pink and have distinctive and close at night and, like most members of the poppy symmetrical maroon or purple dots or streaks. All parts of family, they last for a short time. the plant are poisonous to humans and several animals. Eastern Turkeybeard Crowders Mountain Trail Eastern Turkeybeard is distinguished by its showy white cluster of flowers, which bloom late May or early June and can be almost a foot tall. They appear on top of a single, long vertical stalk that has many long, grass-like leaves in a dense clump at its base.
Rocky Shoals Spider Lily Catawba River Blueway/ Landsford Canal State Park The Rocky Shoals Spider Lily grows in the fast flowing, rocky shoals of rivers and streams. It blooms fragrant flowers from May through mid-June, with each blossom opening overnight and lasting for one day, and can grow up to 3 feet tall. The rocky outcroppings of the Catawba River are home to the largest known population of rocky shoals spider lilies, which are listed as a national species of concern and designated as endangered in some places.
