SCNPS 15th Annual Native Plant Symposium - Clemson, SC

"Native Plants: Living History Lessons" - April 13, 14 & 15, 2012 at the Madren Center, Clemson University

	Keowee Valley c. 1775, oil on canvas, by Philip Juras ©2009. Used by permission.

Native plants are attractive and resourceful collaborators in natural communities, and they increase the beauty and sustainability of our landscapes. In addition, they are living, breathing (well, transpiring!) lessons on the history of the place where they are found. American native plants, by definition, have occupied their physiographic space for at least 500 years. In truth, they are surviving descendants of the natural ecosystems that occupied that place in pre-Columbian times, in pre-Ice Age times, in pre-human times, and far beyond that.

Native elk and bison disappeared from the Carolinas after European settlement, but we still have Indiangrass and little bluestem. The mastodons were ushered out as early man moved in, but we still have remnant spruce and fir forests. The Pleistocene ice sheet has retreated from the Ohio River to the Arctic and to the highest parts of the Rockies, but we still find boreal forest plants in Canada and in the mountains of the Carolinas. These surviving native plants can teach us about what was here before us, and give us clues about what happened in the intervening time period. With a little luck, they will be here to speak to our children’s children about the conditions we encountered, and that we created.

Our annual Native Plant Symposium will feature Philip Juras, a wonderful writer and painter of current and historic native plant landscapes. He will host a book signing on Friday evening. Recently he has taken on the task of rendering topographic and plant community views of important sites from William Bartram’s travels, working from historical site descriptions and from remnants of these and the few similar sites still available.

On Saturday evening Philip will discuss this effort and display a few of his paintings. On Saturday and Sunday, we will feature field trips to explore several such sites in the Oconee-Pickens-Greenville-Anderson counties area. We will see remnant prairie-like sites, as well as several forested sites that exhibit the recovery of natural native communities from recent episodes of exploitative deforestation.

On Saturday, we will offer on-site workshops (limited or no hiking involved) at the SC Botanical Garden and the SC DNR office grounds that will provide handson experience in devising environmentally sound landscapes such as run-off trapping rain gardens. Another workshop will be devoted to learning about the role and function of fungal species in natural communities.

So, plan now to reserve April 13-15, 2012, to learn some history from the native plant communities of South Carolina’s Mountains and upper Piedmont.

INFORMATIONAL BROCHURE (PDF file)
Rregistration form (PDF file)

NOTE: A block of hotel rooms at the Madren Center’s James Martin Inn has been reserved for us. To register for a room, call 864-654-9020 (888-654-9020-Toll free) or via e-mail at jfminn@clemson.edu. Please indicate that you are participating in the Native Plant Symposium. We will lose half of the unreserved rooms on February 12, and the other half on February 27, so reserve your room as soon as feasible.