Mystery Solved on Spring Creek Mystery Solved on Spring CreekWhenever my super-inflated ego takes control and I get over-arrogant, thinking that I know it all, something inevitably happens to put me in my place. This time it was the discovery of a plant completely unkown to me--as well as about 99% of the people I've asked about it.
What was my discovery? Trautvetteria caroliniensis.
With all due respect to E.R. von Trautvetter (1809-1889), this is not a Generic name that rolls off the tongue like Viola, or even Tiarella, but once you get past the name, this plant is pretty cool.
I had taken my kids to the ol' swimmin' hole about 5 miles East of my farm on Spring Creek. This is a really idyllic spot where the "crick" makes a sharp bend and over the centuries has created a deep chasm etched out of the hard shale cliffs on the South bank. After depositing the youngin's, I waded across the creek to the cliffs in faint hope of seeing something unusual. I was slowly emerging from the ice cold water, reaching out to grab hold of the slippery rocks one I smelled a sweet fragrance. It was a new scent to this large proboscus. Something slightly familiar yet somewhat mysterious. Glancing up, I spotted the source straight ahead.
At first glance, I thought I'd discovered a new species of Thalictrum. We have 6 species in West Virginia and I thought I knew them all. Immediately my mind raced ahead to the future, Thalictrum glickii. Wow, what a nice ring it has. At last! My fifteen minutes of fame. But that was until I got beyond the icy-white, fragrant, feathery flowers. Looking at the foliage I was still positive that I was in the Ranunculaceae (buttercup) family, but the glossy dark green deeply lobed leaves looked more like a Trollius. Now in West Virginia, we have no Trollius species, so the mystery deepened. In fact the only Trollius species that I know of that is native to the U.S. is Trollius laxus and I think that the closest station for that is in Pennsylvania. Anyway, that's a much shorter plant with soft, muted yellow flowers and it blooms very early in the Spring.
With thousands of seedlings growing in every moist crack of the cliff, I had no qualms about borrowing a few to bring them back to the nursery for identification, evaluation and propagation in the garden. As soon as I got home, I ran to my library, grabbed the copy of Flora of West Virginia and began to confirm my knowledge of the genus Thalictrum. There, on same page as Thalictrum, I discovered my new find.
I wasn't that far of base in thinking that it was a Thalictrum, as the common name for Thalictrum is meadow rue and Trautvetteria's common name is tasselrue . In the description 20 of our 55 counties are cited as its home.
With this initial phase of my investigtion coming to a close, it was time to start thinking about this new plant in the sense of garden worthiness. To be sure, there are many wild plants that are better left in the wild and for what I initially suspected would be the same reason that I would be unable to find a suitable spot in my own garden for Trautvetteria, no real wet area. It would have been the same lament as for not being able to successfully grow Veratrum viride, a sexy bog plant in the lily family, or what you may know in the common realm as false green hellebore. Why it has that common name, I don't know, but thats the problem with common names. We'll leave that topic for a future rant.
Anyway....I posted an email to the Alpine Group Listserve. Don't let the name fool you, these folks cover the gamut of the plant world and I've never seen any question about any plant go unanswered. Sure enough, I got about a dozen replies to my query regarding growing Trautvetteria in the garden. There was overwhelming confirmation that it does not require a particularly wet area, just good garden soil, rich in organic matter and a good mulch to conserve moisture in dry periods. One person on Long Island said that it "gently self sows" in her garden.
I also called Dr. Dick Lighty, director of the Mount Cuba Center in Greenville Delaware. Dick said that they've been growing Trautvetteria succsesfully for many years in the garden and wondered, as did I at this point, why it was unavailable in the nursery trade. In fact, while looking in the most comprehensive plant availablity directory in the U.S., Andersons Source Guide, I noticed that only one source was listed for the plant. In the Plantfinder, the source book for the U.K., there was no entry at all.
Trautvetteria grows to 6"-10" (15-25cm), but with a much taller flower stem. Some seemed to reach up to about 18"-36" (.5-1m). It prefers light to medium shade but could probably take some direct sun. It flowers over a long period and seems to peak in late June to mid-July.
I went back to its home this weekend and placed several muslin drawstring bags over the flower heads to collect seeds. After seeing all of the seedlings under the plants, I'm confident that its easily grown from seed.
This plant deserves some publicity and a home in every native and wild garden.
- Barry Glick
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