By Nia Thomas, Upstate Chapter Vice President & Jon Storm, Co-Director of Publicity & Social Media
During our 30th years as a society, the SCNPS has been heavily involved in the protection of native plants and their habitats. The example below comes from the October 2016 issue of The Journal of the South Carolina Native Plant Society:
“There have been two opportunities the Society to get “boots on the ground” in rare plant community protection. The first came in the form of our taking ownership of a Carolina bay in Bamberg County that contains the federally listed endangered Canby’s dropwort (Tiedemannia [Oxypolis] canbyii). With leadership from the Lowcountry and Midlands chapters, we put together a committee, formulated management plans, obtained some funding, and with help from a lot of Society volunteers, proceeded to dramatically increase the population of the endangered dropwort, as well starting the restoration of a longleaf pine-wiregrass community of the site. The success with the Canby’s dropwort has garnered University research attention to saving and promoting this rare plant.”
The SCNPS has been involved in the protection of Canby’s dropwort since this time. A survey of the site in 2022 found over 12,000 individuals at the site following a prescribed burn (Rick Huffman, personal communication).
Sources
Page 8 of the October 2016 issue of The Journal of the South Carolina Native Plant Society
More information on Canby’s dropwort at NameThatPlant.net: Tiedemannia canbyi
Image Credits
Photo by Patrick McMillan
