ARTS & LITERATURE

ARTS & LITERATURE LONGLEAF Art SPOTLIGHT Earth and Empathy Ceramics Handmade Functional Art

Venus flytraps Moon phases Laurel

Sun, moon, and stars

‘Earth and Empathy’ artist Nicole Boenigk lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with her 8-year-old son. She has been working with clay since 2017 and quickly realized that this hobby was a passion she wanted to pursue as a career. Her favorite thing about this medium is that there is no room for boredom. She creates a wide range of wheel thrown and handbuilt pottery, from functional art to wearable art and home decor.

Find more of Nicole’s work at www.earthandempathy.com or on Instagram at @earthandempathyceramics.

LONGLEAFLITERATURE

Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction

By Georgann Eubanks, The University of North Carolina Press; 2021 Reviewed by Sarah Crate, The Longleaf Alliance

Many know of the biodiversity associated with longleaf pine ecosystems, but this rich diversity extends across the Southern landscape, including a myriad of habitats and plant communities. In fact, the North American Coastal Plain as a whole, along the Gulf of Mexico and up the East Coast, was declared a biodiversity hotspot with over 1,800 (and counting) endemic plant species. Numerous of these species have a fascinating relationship with disturbance, especially fire.

In Saving the Wild South, Georgann Eubanks travels through the region, devoting each chapter to a rare and endemic plant. From the Miccosukee gooseberry to the Florida torreya, the twelve plants spotlighted are in trouble, struggling to survive amidst habitat loss, climate-changing effects, and development. These chosen examples represent thousands of more vulnerable species.

With my eye on the longleaf-related content, I was eager to jump into specific chapters and skipped straight to the carnivorous pitcher plants. One chapter in, I realized I was no longer reading just for the longleaf species, nor was I reading just for the natural history. I was reading the inspiring stories of the people of plant conservation. Eubanks describes the featured plant’s biology, ecology, and threats while weaving in her interactions with the folks dedicated to their conservation – her guides along the way. The people of the book are not just the ecologists or botanists that one might imagine, but also community advocates, young enthusiasts, foresters, and artists.

Appealing to a broad reader audience, the author offers welcomed glimpses of hope that transcends through the people fighting to save these imperiled species.

These plants, [Eubanks] argues, are important not only to the natural environment but also to southern identity, and she finds her inspiration in talking with the heroes — the botanists, advocates, and conservationists young and old — on a quest to save these green gifts of the South for future generations. These passionate plant lovers caution all of us not to take for granted the sensitive ecosystems that contribute to the region’s long-standing appeal, beauty, and character.