Keep an eye out for these items at the upcoming Market

With so much rain and rising soil temperatures, mushrooms, wild flower blossoms and tender greens are abundant! 

Look out for elderflowers, ox-eye daisies, lambs quarters, amaranth, honeysuckle, sheep sorrel greens, stinging nettle greens and more at the upcoming market.

Each monthly market has an educational theme. May's educational theme is "Botanical Art and Illustration"! Look out for vendors bringing creative specialties to fit this monthly theme! 

Wild Crafting and Conservation Ethics

 By Johnny Randall

 Director of Conservation Programs, North Carolina Botanical Garden, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ethics is commonly viewed as a set of rules or principles for right conduct in our day-to-day activities. The practice of wildcrafting, or collecting plants from the wild, carries with it a special code of ethics that helps to ensure a sustainable harvest of flowers, fruits, seeds, leaves, and stems. For example, if roots or whole plants are collected, then seeds or vegetative structures from the collected plant(s) (e.g., bulblets, rhizomes, root divisions) should be planted in place of the plant at the time of harvest. 

elderflowers are blooming now!

Ethical plant harvest is of great interest to the North Carolina Botanical Garden and is, in fact, one of our founding principles.  We ushered in the concept of conservation through propagation in the early 1970s, when digging plants from the wild was common practice among botanical gardens and the nursery industry. Conservation through propagation stresses the importance of (1) propagating plants from seeds or cuttings rather than wild-collecting and (2) the conservation of plants in natural areas.

In times prior to widespread habitat fragmentation, environmental degradation, and subsequent plant population imperilment, the wild collection of plants probably had little impact on the general health of plant populations. This is not true today, unfortunately, and plant communities are particularly vulnerable to local extirpation. Wild collection, even if conducted in a seemingly ethical fashion, can have serious effects.

For example - the roots of putty root orchid, Aplectrum hyemale, a relatively common species in our rich deciduous forests, are valued for medicinal properties and can be cooked and eaten. Putty root, like all orchids, does not spread quickly nor does it easily recolonize after removal. Sites that contain large numbers of individuals have probably developed over hundreds of years and can be devastated by over-collection. Given these known characteristics, is it ethical to remove ANY putty root orchids from a site?       

Wild-collection of plant parts, as noted above, is standard procedure, whereas removing whole plants should not be. It is certainly possible to make a sustainable collection of leaves, stems, flowers, etc. It is encouraging to note that the resurgence in interest in wildcrafting has rekindled awareness of nature and, with that, recognition of the importance of plants as a source of food and medicine and the necessity of protecting plants through the conservation of natural areas.    

Enjoying nature and its bounty, with respect and awareness, can help remedy disconnects that plague our time. Ethical wildcrafting is an exciting way to embrace Nature and live a healthy and abundant life.