Botany Buddy

It has been a long time coming, much longer than this post, but we are starting to see the pieces of our online tools come to life.  I hearken back to the journey of creating the original iPhone app and remember the emotional roller coaster it was.  Despite all the memories relived and the stress of dealing with the developers and Apple, when it finally hit the store, it was like seeing a Magnolia bloom in spring oozing with pollen.  The people we have met as a result have been like the friends you make at a garden party or your trusted allies at the local nursery.  They have pollinated our flower and created the fruit that will produce that cluster of bright red seeds for the Cardinals to harvest and spread the flowers all around.

When we started the iPhone app and worked with the developer, we realized quickly that there was nothing natural about the technology at all, no matter how smooth they make the interface look.  We realized that to continue growing and for technology to work with nature it must act like nature, be built like nature and grow like nature.  The pieces and parts must be able to work together to grow the ecosystem as a whole.  Unfortunately since 1992, when the USDA started building the first database, technology for horticulture has been moving the wrong direction.  The medium has been used to store, organize, and dictate what nature is rather than grow the information like the plant kingdom, has grown itself.  As a result the information is fractured, isolated and has not been allowed to grow and become the knowledge it wants to become. 

We experienced the stifling complexities of this paradox before the iPhone app was ever complete, but were limited by the technology of the device.  As users started giving us feedback, we saw the limited use of the iPhone to ATT and the iPhone platform create the same separations as traditional horticulture information on other platforms.  Nature is made up of symbiotic relationships that are not limited by species let alone by the brand of your computer or phone, and we realized to meet the needs of gardeners, growers, and the horticulture industry as a whole we had use the whole world as our ecosystem, just like nature does.  So just as we ran from the USDA and turned to Linnaeus as the inspiration for our data structure, we have moved from the native applications to a web based platform that can grow as freely as the Internet has itself.

Gardens are about growing… plants, places, people, minds, and relationships.  For growth to happen you have to learn, which requires listening, communicating, adapting, and experiencing.  Using data structures and technological devices that prevent and stifle this growth, have kept the entire industry from being able to grow technologically as well as the plants in their gardens grow themselves.  When it comes to reference sources for horticulture, rather than treating them as a growing medium, technology has acted more like a pre emergent or pair of pruners to control the growth of information.  In the end it has prevented or limited the experiential activities necessary to grow and has turned gardening on the web to a collection on limitless libraries and opinions.  Other than prolific and wonderful discussions in social media little has been done to grow the industry as a whole through the use of the information.

Some who will read this have seen what we are up to in our cyber-greenhouse, and have watched us toiling in the soil, and even seen some of the seeds germinate.  Finally the seeds have all germinated, their roots are reaching the edge of the pots and are ready to be potted up.  Like those first liners going to the wholesale market, that is who we have been working with first to bring this to market, and for some of those larger nurseries who do it all, we are planting our flowers in their greenhouses as well.  Soon it will be spreading nation, continent and world-wide just like those seeds on the Magnolia.

Like nature itself, the technology is proving that it can grow symbiotically with all these different groups regardless of their individual environments and species.  It is working, just like all of those original experiments that came from Linnaeus and those little bitty peas.  It is working because instead of fighting and controlling nature we worked with it, embraced it and emulated it.  We are able to grow all of these different tools for all these different people, because like nature we have one life force driving everything we do for everyone in our garden, and have used nature’s structural models to make it all work together.

We are not ready to release our individual or education tools yet, if you sign up for news on our main site we will keep you posted.  If you are in the nursery or landscape industry and looking for ways to better communicate with, or education your clients, staff, and end users feel free to contact us, and I’ll gladly give you a tour or the cyber-greenhouse and show you what we are growing for you.

Where to start.  I am back from a pseudo fast from twitter and the blog for lent.  It was unofficial, but needed even though I did sneak in a few visits on feast days.  However, the thought of returning from the wilderness is very appropriate.  You all know I am prone to the nature side of things.  Yet this time has allowed me to get back to my urban and “cultivated” roots.  The vegetable garden is up to date, and I have been catching up on photos from more traditional plantings.  Besides working in the yard, I have been hanging out at the Biltmore and cruising neighborhoods to capture more cultivated plants while nature appropriately sleeps.

As for my writing, I have been fully focused on the web app and update for the iPhone.  That has been a journey to the wilderness as well.  Many know, we wanted to complete the database for the web app before updating the iPhone so that the two will work together.  Finally we have the first 120,000 plants names and family trees entered, and are moving on to populating the data.  As the programmers work on that, I am compiling more plants for the iPhone.  On top of all that, we are also starting on our third release that we hope to have ready by fall or winter.

An old friend of mine friend of mine once wrote a song called In the Garden.  In it they refer to “growing different kinds of mind.”   This time has harkened me back to this song often.  I know we are all obsessed with the plants that we grow, but if you are like me, it is really the mind that matters and keeps me gardening year after year.  As much as we run to the web to learn more, I have to think the can learn more in the garden.  The conversation that happens out there between nature, the dirt in your hands, and the thoughts in your head is far more enriching than most of the shouting and chatter that goes on in here.

I have no doubt that the relationships I have made online are real as well.  However, many are not, and this time off has made me even more determined to keep those relationships real.  I have always despised the automated twitter machines, but I cherish those of you who engage in honest conversation and have missed you greatly.  Needless to say I am glad to be back, but after this time of reflection I will also be sure to spend more time in the garden than I do in here.  After all, I will have far more to share here if I continue to grow my mind out there.

It’s an age old question that can apply to many things.  Names are something we take for granted, but in reality they are the fundamental basis of all communications.  When we think of names we think of what we call one another, our pets, our children and our places.  In reality though ever word in every language is in essence a name.  Even a verb is the name for an action that takes many words to explain, that is why they all have definitions.  Imagine trying to give someone directions without a name for the action of “turn”.  Most importantly though, we use names to explain relations.  First names, last names, family trees, nationalities, and the names for the relations between these things are what derive and keep order in our world.  Even further they are the signposts to how we navigate and determine our possible impact on and place in the world. Names of course vary among languages and regions.   Different words (names) are used to describe the same thing in different languages and locations.  In the end, regardless of differences in language, the objects and actions being described by their name can be recognized for what they are and the variations in language can be translated.

The scenario where this doesn’t work is in living beings.  Verbs can vary in how they are performed, but that can be described with adverbs.  Physical objects like rocks or furniture can vary in visible traits or molecular makeup, but that variations are qualified with adjectives to help further describe the object.  Even these can easily be recognized visually and translated between languages and cultures because the “name” is essentially the same.

Where absolute accuracy is essential and qualifying additives cannot do justice to a name is when it comes to living beings.  When it comes to people, accuracy doesn’t seem to be such a problem because we are all unique and have a free will.  We will always act individually even within a community and the genetic heritage of our name has limited capabilities in determining or predicting how we will act.  People can even share the same names, but be easily qualified with adjectives or descriptors because every human is distinct.  With people and even domesticated animals, the genetic code may vary slightly within our species, but our wills, personalities, relationships and souls make us all easily discernible from one another.

With other less discernible species such as grasses, lichens, trees, fish, birds and non-domesticated animals the species may be discernible as a whole but the identity of individuals within the species is much less clear.  More importantly the collective impact or necessity of the species has an even greater effect on the world and nature as a whole.  Names of these species describe a collective whose members act on a collective instinct (or possibly conscience) instead of individual free wills.  In the end these names represents more than the one.  They give insight and understanding into the collective nature and cultural background of the species as a whole.

To answer the the title question:  Everything about and everything something and what it impacts is in a name.  A good name captures both the essence and esse of what it describes.  It captures the traits of what makes the thing being described unique (essence) as well as the intrinsic presence that makes it identifiable for what it is (esse).   Where meaning gets lost is when variation occurs in the naming itself rather than the translation of the names.  In the plant world people work in both common and botanical names.  The botanical name is a Latin based name that is used not only to identify the plant, but also gives insight into the breeding and heritage that led to it’s creation.  It is is written in Latin to provide a universal language whose meaning will not be lost in translation world-wide.  This allows us to see what the species is, where it has come from genetically, and what it might do in nature or the situation we put it in.

Common names are regional and based on local peoples’ experiences with the plant rather than the culture and cultivation of the plant itself.  Common names are extremely descriptive, but subjective and should never be used when striving for accuracy of any kind. There is much debate about what people like to use, and whether the botanical name is important if you are not a professional horticulturist or botanist.  However, you really can’t know the plant well enough to responsibly plant in nature or a landscape without the information provided by an accurate botanical name.  Common names may tell what a plant has done, but cannot give sure insight of what it is capable of doing.  Accurate and exact botanical naming of all species (not just plants) is crucial the the protection of nature itself as well as understanding it.  Nothing has been more influential to the spread of invasive species and disease than improper naming that occurs in the commercialization of plants and the mis-education that improper naming provides.

Over the last fifteen years, with the rise of genetic testing, efforts have been underway world-wide to cleanup this mess, and bring order to this problem. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is one of the efforts that has been working across borders and oceans to make this happen.  The ITIS is a collaborative effort of governments and  academic systems, that crosses borders and oceans, but is greatly limited by the inertia and limited funding of the respective institutions.  There are others that specialized even more into areas such as fungi, cacti, wattles, and regional ecosystems.  These groups have a passion and sense of urgency but don’t have cooperative and interconnected systems to make some of this possible.  This problem isn’t limited to the plant kingdom, it is pervasive in the animal kingdom as well, and both do relate to one another.

Most of the early misnaming has been created by the limitation of communications.  Most botanical naming was done long before the Internet was ever created and the commerce of species became a worldwide phenomenon long before there was a world-wide-web.  As a result duplicate species are being sold and shipped with different names throughout the world.  Even more damaging, multiple species are being distributed throughout the world with the same name, and this is where the greatest danger lyes.  People are shipping and using plants all over the world for uses they are not suited for or with potential impacts that they are totally unaware of.   What is in the name they are buying or selling is actually of another name.  The greatest responsibility  lyes in the breeders and distributors of these species to accurately identify what they are selling, and to accurately identify what they are breeding them from.  Unfortunately, until the system is completely cleaned up and connected this cannot be done.

Commercialization has not only led to the spread of misnamed species, but people are breeding new species and varieties from already misnamed species at rates ten times faster than the original species were discovered.  When we started Botany Buddy it was created to help communicate and educate between the “classes” (for lack of a better name) of gardeners.   The tools we are creating are meant to bring the same language to educators, botanists, growers, purveyors and gardeners in a way that is easily accessed and understood by all.  Our original iPhone app was created to educate, communicate, and identify information to the user and for the users to be able to communicate it to each other.  In the end it has communicated just as much to us.  With users in over twenty counties and on every continent we have communicated with botanists all over the world to help us design our new database and systems.

Just this week we finished proofing the final taxonomic database for the upcoming web based app.  With about 60,000 species ACCURATELY represented we can now add data, photos, and even more species to the database and know that we can truly represent the species’ family heritage.  When we started this our intent was to add a thousand or so trees at a time, and just build on the library we had in the original app every so often.  In the end we realized we needed to add the ones we have now into nature’s library and to create our own Dewey Decimal System to manage it the information in it.  As a result our final product will be a tool that has literally “thousands times” more information than our initial release and will be formatted to grow at any given moment and with more accuracy than any other resource I have found in existence.  This capability would be totally impossible if it were not for a name.

Personally I like to be a little incognito in my gardening circles.  Those who “know” me know not just my name, but my botanical name as well.  I would venture to say those who read this blog regularly are probably getting to know me on that level to some extent.  The other day I was at garden center and watched someone selling an ornamental grass.  This person did not know my botanical name.   The customer asked if the plant would spread by seed.  The sales person said, “No this is Kirk Alexander Maiden Grass and is a hybrid that was cultivated by a local designer years ago.”  I pointed across the highway to about a 1/4 mile long stretch of maiden grass growing in a ditch, and said, “That may be Kirk Alexander in the pot, but those are his parents over there and they didn’t arrive until after Kirk did.”  Needless to say they looked at me like I was nuts, but that is what is in a name. If we know where we come from we know where we might go.

People are all hybrids and we may be determined not to become our parents, but it in the end both the best and the worst of them tends to come out in us.  Obviously I get my verbosity from my father.  He always used to say “the mind cannot absorb more than the seat can endure”, so I will wrap this up.  This trait about me you could definitely predict if I had a botanical name.  Our naming task has taken far longer, more mental energy, and more patience and determination than almost anything I have ever done.  It is and has to be the foundation of everything we do going forward to really be a great reference.  I like superlatives, and this may be the most important and responsible work I have done in the last thirty years and hope will help the world for hundreds of years to come.  That is what is in a name.

I am hoping to make this a fairly short post today.  I really need to focus on some plant profiles for our library but keep finding a need to come back here.  My father uses to say I never had a thought I didn’t verbalize, and not only does this seem to have been inherited by my daughter, it seems to have infiltrated my blog.  Some people tell me I need to learn how to create quick little plant profiles that I can just throw up as quick posts, kind of like what we have in our app.  However if you have been following me you know this is not in my blood.  Even in the app I had to have room to talk about why and how to use each plant and even why and how each filter and tool was designed.  Maybe that’s because my degree wasn’t in horticulture but rather Philosophy.  Gardening and landscape design have been my life, but metaphysics has always been my guide.

I find great comfort in this blog.  As I write about plants and design these apps, it is much like designing landscapes.  There are goals we need to accomplish, needs we need to meet, processes that have to occur, and even maintenance to be done.  In the end it is just like a landscape plan, there has to be a design, the pieces and plants have to fit just right, the materials have to be found and it has to work.  The end product I hope is something that provides the user a sense of place, brings out the essence of the individual parts, and makes their lives better just like a good design.

What is missing from the first app is the exploration that gets to occur between me and my clients.  I don’t get to know them over dinner and drinks, and I don’t get to tell them my stories or theories like I do in person.  Likewise they don’t get the same type of interaction with me and the feedback is not the same as sitting in their yard and staring in awe as the garden comes to life in spring.  Let’s face it a 2 x 3 inch screen isn’t conducive to my ramblings.  This blog gives me a place to do that and your blogs and feedback have also given me a way to get to know some of you.  I can already see the results in the things I am creating now.

There is no shortage of “How To” information on the web, and there is not shortage of machines and “money makers” out there recycling it.  When I moved from design to this I didn’t see it as a change of course.  I saw it as a chance to expand my horizons.  My biggest fear in all of this was that I would lose that one on one bonding with my clients and the ability to have those “Why To” discussions.  One of the great things about our medium is that we can always continue to grow.  Just like our gardens we can always add more plants, try new methods and meet more people.  Yes we can even touch people’s lives.  Whether you use technology to build up a wall and run from people or to lay it all out for everyone to see it up to you.  For me, life is a discussion, and I am a “Why To” kind of guy.  I am just glad that I am finding through this so many of you are too.

The other day is doing my morning Twitter rounds, making sure that the world hadn’t imploded between 2:00 and 8:00 AM, when I came across a tweet about Botany Buddy from someone I didn’t know.  Now, my personal tweetographic region isn’t full of people that I often know on a personal (as in “in person”) level.  Those who tweet in my actual town are more prone to know me as a home-brewer than a horticulturist.  However, in my brief stint in the nest I have definitely come to “know” some of you in the most cyber of senses, and I think we have developed some true bonds.  But other than a few locals here in the mountains I think most of the getting to know that people do at this stage of my Twitter existence is still a matter of “Checking Me Out”.   This tweeter was definitely checking me out.  It went something like this…

“Watching a demo of @botanybuddy’s Tree and Shrub Finder. Not quite ready to get rid of my copies of Dirr and Hosie et al.”

Of course I replied…

“I still have mine and just bought the new one, but they don’t fit in my pocket and don’t have a search engine so I use both ”

For those who don’t know Dirr wrote the Bible of trees and shrubs and all subsequent versions.

Lets face it, I love books and always will, but I needed something I could use in different was.  My father was a college professor and every house we lived in had at least one room that was wallpapered from ceiling to floor with books on Philosophy, Political Science, and History.  As for my own, I replace the history with Gardening, Design, and Architecture.  I live for the day I can wallpaper with them and I love nothing more than to retreat into the stacks and dig out the most precious nugget of theory or fact, but almost immediately take what I find and somehow put it on my computer.  A little known fact is that after decades I have reunited with my high school debate partner to create Botany Buddy.  As I wrote our original database surrounded by stacks of books and references till all hours of the morning for months on end, I couldn’t help but hearken back to endless nights in the local college library writing our note cards and scouring the stacks, microfiche and card catalogs.

This process has also brought me back to much of the music of my past, as the headphones have been vital to my ability to focus and get my work done.  The scouring of data and compiling of collections has also coincided with the rediscovery of my music collection which is as vast and old as my collection of garden references.  Burning all of my old Cd’s and converting to iTunes from Napster made me even more aware of what we were about to do with all of these plants and the people in print and in my life who had brought me too them.  As I entered the plants and wrote the descriptions I relived my first reads and all of the people who I had planted them for.  I was also reliving the memories of  all the people and moments associated with the music I was listening to at the same time.  In the greatest of all coincidences, the final submittal of the final version of the app also coincided with the long awaited release of the remastered collection of The Beatles.

Almost as much as I looked forward to the release of the app, I was also looking forward to the re-release from The Beatles.  How great it was going to be to click one button and download every song they had ever written in chronological order and grouped by album.  Having bought them all at some point in vinyl, put them into or bought them on tape (even some on real to real), and eventually bought them one more time on CD to honor their survival to the digital age, the chance to buy them one more time was going to be an honor.  I was feeling the same about buying my own app.  To have all the things I love digitally recorded and stored where I could save and use them for eternity without every having to hunt them down because I had lost or worn them out again was going to be a dream come true.

I may sound a little obsessive compulsive and I am.  I even have every printed version of the Joy of Cooking and use them all.  It seemed almost spiritual as I was going to get the Beatles on MP3 at as the same time as would launch my own creation.  There was only one thing wrong…In the end (regardless of Amazon’s advertising) there were no MP3’s.  Once again I would have to replace the Cd’s that I had worn out, and that was alright, because they are worth it.  I also just bought the new version of Dirr.  There are no full color pictures, there is no search engine, and I can’t freely share the contents with my Buddies.  But I bought it again anyway even though it cost $70 to my $10 app.  Why, because through his writing he has become a part of me, still has much to offer, and as in industry we owe where we are and where we are going to those who have brought us to this point.

To go full circle, as this new venture continually makes me do with my life, we are not trying to replace the Michael Dirr’s of the world, we are trying to honor their work.  When I first heard the Beatles were being “remastered” I thought it was insulting to even use the term with their name.  However, the thought of having them available in my pocket, with a search engine, and where I could share them with my wife in daughter excited me to all end.  When I got married, A Little Help From My Friends and When I’m 64 were our wedding songs, it happens to be in my ears right now.  When I bought the newly released collection, I didn’t buy the remastered version, I bought the originals and converted them to MP3.   The Beatles, my friends, and the Michael Dirr’s of the world are what have gotten me to where I am today.  I would never try to replace them, but I would love to have them all on MP3.

It’s that time of year again.  I’ve cleaned out the tube bird feeders, hung a couple new suet feeders, and I have already had on ripped down by the bear.  I always like to wait until winter is really coming to start feeding.  Primarily because I like to let the birds “Free Range” on wild flower seeds and the summer fruits and berries in the garden.  I like the thought of them helping with the natural cycle of scarifying and dispersing the seeds the way nature intended.  I also like not having the bears visit everyday, especially with my daughter playing outside by herself all summer.  This is a luxury we have living on a rural mountainside that we didn’t have on an urban street corner.  Not that the bears are the threat that some of our neighbors were.  They are more akin to urban raccoons that scavenge their way around on garbage day and pilfer your bird feeders.

Being in a natural setting is a blessing in so many ways, but one of the greatest is the flora for the fauna that already exists naturally. There are hoards of native shrubs that adorn our woods and one of the reasons is that the birds love them so much and help to spread their seed.  This time of year really makes me appreciate where we are, but it also reminds me of our urban garden where we worked to bring native varieties into the garden to bring the birds with them.  One of our prouder moments was when are daughter chose “peepepper” as one of her first words.  He was the first neighbor we got to know on the mountain.  He lived in the four story highrise in the woods next door that largely resembles a dead white pine.  Of course his name eventually evolved to woodpecker, and now she boast a better knowledge of the neighbirds than myself.  Of course this started with books, but my wife’s iBird app has helped as well.

So as I see the return of the flocks, I have been wanting to spread the joy of the season and share a list of plants that would help bring some good neighbirds to you.  I am going to limit this list to natives that transfer well to an urban setting.  However, there are plenty of hybrids and commercial varieties that do the job too.  I thought I would start here because I like to save those varieties for places where natives just won’t grow.  Going native first is one of the first rules of sustainability.  What I have chosen are the five palnt families (Genus) with the widest selection of bird friendly varieties I could find.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you a great place to start with your plant and bird searches. 

Pinus (Pine):  There are dozens of native pines that make great trees for birds.  Pinus Strobus (Eastern White Pine) is the most commonly planted in the United States, but for smaller varieties in residential gardens some other native options include Pinus aristata (Bristlecone Pine), Pinus banksiana (Jack Pine),  Pinus Bugeana (Lacebark Pine), Pinus Resinosa (Red Pine), and Pinus monophylla (Pinyon Pine).  These pines are all more moderate in size than the White Pine, but still maintain a natural feel in a formal landscape.  This makes them ideal for urban or residential situations. 

Pines provide food for birds  in a variety of ways.  The cones of pines open to release as many as 12,000 seeds per pound, usually in winter when the other smaller seeds of wildflowers have been eaten.  The bark also harbors lots of insects that make it a favorite for woodpeckers. As the interior branches shed they provide copious amounts of small twigs and needles to build nests, and their evergreen needles provide protections from the cold winter winds.

Juniperus (Juniper):  Juniperus communis (Common Juniper), Juniperus monosperma (Oneseed Juniper), Juniperus occidentalis (Western Juniper), Juniperus scopularum (Rocky Mountain Juniper) and Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar) are the most common native varieties in the continental United States.  Between these five you can find a native Juniper almost anywhere in North America.  All of these varieties have been cultivated into varieties for landscape use that can be safely used without worrying about reseeding invasive offspring.  If seed stock does emerge it will come out as one of the native varieties.  There are some hybridized varieties that could revert to something else, so if trying to stay native stick to cultivated or native varieties only.  

Junipers produce berries throughout summer, winter, and fall that provide a great source of food.  They also have a nice evergreen shell that provides protection from the wind.  Junipers provide great cover from prey. As the growth on the interior of the plant sheds it dries and stays in place becoming extremely prickly.  This makes it less desirable for thin furred animals such opossum and weasels to come after the nests.

Viburnums:  Viburnums are a favorite of landscape designers because they are extremely hardy  They also produce nice flowers, foliage and berries and provide some great fall color.  Some are even evergreen, and the flowers are often extremely fragrant.  However, they are usually somewhat of an unknown to beginning gardeners or casual retail nursery shoppers.  Native species include Viburnum dentatum (Chicago Luster Viburnum), Viburnum prunifolium (Blackhaw Viburnum), Viburnum rufidulum (Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum), and Viburnum trilobum (American Cranberry Viburnum),  All of these plants have abundant flowers and berries and can be kept as large shrubs or small trees in any landscape.  The birds love them for the berries and their height is achieved with fairly small horizontal branches that are great for perching but don’t hold the weight of predators making them a nice place for birds to hang out.  There are also many cultivated and hybridized non-native varieties that are not invasive.  If for some reason a native option doesn’t work for you, I would not hesitate to explore those options.

Cornus (Dogwood):  Everyone thinks of Dogwoods as the spring flowering tree, however they also come in some naturalizing and shrub forms as well.  Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood) is a sentimental favorite for gardeners with the pink and white flowers at Easterand red berries in the fall.  However Cornus racemosa (Gray Dogwood) makes a great naturalizing thicket of about 12-15 feet and produces a nice white flower in May and June and a waxy white berry birds love.  Other varieties include Cornus alternifolia (Pagoda Dogwood), Cornus drummundii (Rough-leaved Dogwood), Cornus nuttallii (Pacific Dogwood), and Cornus sericea (Red Twig Dogwood).  The Rough-leaved and Red Twig Dogwoods provide a shrub form and the red twigs provide great winter interest.  All of these plants have wonderful landscape value, as well as make great naturalizers.  They all have reliable berries for the birds, provide nesting habitat, and add aesthetic value to add to any garden.

Prunus (Cherry):  The Prunus (Cherry) family covers more than the cherries we eat or the flowering trees we see in spring.  There several shrub forms and not as showy trees that can add subtle accents to the landscape, as well as habitat and fodder for birds.  Prunus virginiana (Chokecherry) comes in several forms and varieties and is a great alternative to some of the hybrid and grafted tree-form varieties.  Prunus caroliniana (Carolina Cherrylaurel) and its Asian counterpart Prunus lauroceasus (Cherry Laurel) make great evergreen shrubs, providing both protection and berries as well as a nice evergreen foliage for the landscape.  Prunuis subhirtella (Weeping cherry) is a nice pink flowering native that drops small berries mid summer. Prunus besseyi (Sand Cherry) is a great naturalizing shrub with small white flowers and black berries that are low enough to provide fodder for foraging birds like pheasant and turkey.  Finally, Prunus americana (Wild Plum) is probably one of the most common fruit bearing trees and can be found in almost all states east of the Rockies.  Of course there are other varieties as well, but as a family, Prunus may provide more food for the birds this continent than any other plant family.

There are countless other plants and plant families that I could include in this list, and look for more to come.  For now, these families provide the most variety in terms of native trees and shrubs to bring in birds, and they adapt well to the urban and residential landscape.  All of these plants look great, when used in the right place at the right time.  But when it comes down to it nothing brings out the beauty of a plant better than when it gets to do what it was born to do….be a part of nature. 

Of course, all of the trees and shrubs profiled in this post may be found in Botany Buddy’s Tree and Shrub Finder for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It was another beautiful fall morning in the Southern Appalachians, and as I was driving my daughter to school I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the clouds in the valleys, the orange hue of fall on the mountains and the vivid colors that were taking over the roadsides.   Escaping in all of natures beauty was perfect for taking my mind off the Radio Disney that was poisoning my ears.  However, just as the Radio Disney was creeping in and squeezing my brain like a vice, those colors on the roadsides did as well.  All of the sudden I realized I was missing the beautiful tones of the White Oaks and Sourwoods against the Hemlocks for the bright red of the Burning Bush against the Honesuckle and Maiden Grass.  As for that beautiful American Holly, I couldn’t even tell what it was for the Wisteria and English Ivy that had taken it over.  By the time I was headed back to the house, what started out as a beautiful relaxing drive was grinding me just as much as that Radio Disney even though I had put on Abbey Road.

That brings me to this.  It always amazes me how as designers and gardeners we are always looking for the next best thing and failing to recognize and reveal the essence of the environment we are in.  In our desire to make our space more perfect, some of the greatest damage to our environment has been done by some of the greatest minds our industry has known.  Here is Asheville the Oriental Bittersweet, Japanese Wisteria, Tree of Heaven, and English Ivy that are taking over our national parks were all the gifts of Frederick Law Olmstead.  In Kansas City it was Arnold’s Red Honeysuckle that George Kessler brought us with America Beautifulc movement.  All of these people have good intentions, but in todays world we can find the information we need to plant responsibly and still have plenty of great options from a  design standpoint.

There are thousands of invasive plants out there, both exotic and native that when taken out of their native habitat can do incredible harm to the environment.  This list is limited to the ten that I see most commonly used and pushed by the horticulture industry.  These are plants that are known to be doing damage to our native habitat and continue to be sold every day.  Why do they do it?  Because of demand from customers (hobbiests and professionals) that don’t know better, existing inventories (that keep getting replenished) and the ease of growing these plant in production and in one’s yard.  When I set out to create Botany Buddy one of my goals was to get this information out, and not only make it accessible, but make available in your pocket at any time.  This list is a fraction of the information consumers need but these plants account for a huge amount of the damage being done.

Ten Commonly Planted Invasive Woody Plants

Burning Bush / Euonymous alatus  This is one of the most popular fall color shrubs in production.  It’s vivid red fall color gives it the name.  It is tolerant of drought, ignorant pruning with gas shears extreme cold and keeps on growing.  As a result it has become a favorite in commercial landscapes and roadside plantings.  In zones 6 and up, the little red berry it gets is extremely viable and is spread by the birds that eat it.  Typically a simple hedge planting in the wrong location can spread to a radius of one mile within ten years.  The native plants they displace include Mountain Laurel, Rhododendron, and Hydrangea.  Which would you rather have?

Bradford Pear / Pyrus calleryana  I can remember when this plant came out in the 80’s and was marketed as “America’s Most Poplular Tree” for the fall color, spring flower, nice tight shape, hardiness, and its fruitlessness.  Besides being prone to ice and wind damage due to that “desireable” branching habit, this tree turned out to be anything but fruitless.  The small crabapple sized berries are a favorite of birds and so is its branching habit.  As a result these can now be found in pastures and waterways throughout zones 6 and up.  Even worse in waterways they are replacing canopy producing trees and raising water temperatures which hurts species such as the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout.

Japanese Wisteria / Wisteria floribunda  Introduced as a favorite for Japanese gardens, its agreesive vining habit will take over anywhere zone 5 and below if left unattended.  It can reproduce by rooting if the brances touch the ground, and in zones 7 and up has vibable seeds.  It is commonly found in Eastern forests along the Blue Ridge  Parkway at elevations between 2500 and 4000 feet.  The populations are highest around cities and especially the Biltmore Estate.  While the flowers are beautiful with the Dogwoods they can girdle and kill any tree they wrap around.  There is a native variety that is finally making it into production.

Japanese Spirea / Spiraea japonica  ‘Norman’ or ‘Anthony Waterer’ is the variety that is the main culpret as it spreads by root as well as seed.  There are many varieties that are supposedly not invasive.  However, all of them have the ability to revert and spread by seed.  One positive is that it is not a favorite of birds becasue the seed is so small.  It has to fall and touch the ground to germinate so some of those parking lot plantings might not be doing as much damage as we think.  If it does escape.  One single stem of this plant can flower and germinate into a colony ten feet wide two years.  This plant is destroying our native wildflowers throughout the Southeast.

Japanese Barberry / Berberis thunbergii  This plant is most commonly planted at your local McDonalds due to its attractiveness with the golden arches.  It is just an invasive as the chain in zones five and up and is as bad for the environment as their food is for you.  The plant aesthetically is probably as numbing to your palet as their food is to your culinary sophistication.  The beautiful red berry entices the birds like a toy in a Happy Meal entices my child.  The red leaves hypnotize the plant’s buyers from a distance like the arches that can be seen from a mile away.  As a result this plant litters our forests like McDonalds’ wrappers do our cities.

Empress Tree / Paulownia tomentosa This plant is not commony found in nurseries, but it is pushed by many major seed catalogs for its ability to grow ten feet a year.  I would think that would tell you something in itself, but people want instant results and that pretty purple flower in May and June.  The tree has nice leaves and a habit like a Catalpa, but most of the year its appearance is cluttered by the seed pods that will spread anywhere they can find soil and light.  This is one of the few invasive trees that wasn’t brought here for planting.  Instead, before there were packing peanuts there were Paulownia!  Before there was styrofoam the seed pods of this plant were used in wooded crates from Asia as packing peanuts, and the trees can now be found along all of the railways throughout the United States.  Unfortunately one of the first places those rails went was our national parks.

English Ivy/ Hedera helix  What would a formal garden be without it?  It would be a lot more interesting and a lot more sustainable.  It is defnitely time to give this plant a rest.  It should really only be used in the concrete jungle and even then limited.  There are many more intersting alternatives live Pachysandra or an all out perennial bed.  This vine spreads by root and can climb in the forest greatly weakending larger trees if not contained.  When allowed to reach heights of 20 and 30 feet it will often start to seed and spread even more.  I haven’t used this plant in over five years, and to be honest with you, my designs, clients, and environment are far better off for it.

Butterfly Bush / Buddleia davidii  This plant is finally starting to make people’s radar as an invasive.  It is one of those that has exploded in variety and popularity over the last fifteen years.  It is still new enough the effects are just starting to take root.  However, in all zones, if these seed falls into a wetland or moist area and gets temperatures above seventy degrees for over a couple weeks, it will germiante and spread.  It is most commonly a problem in warmer mountain and piedmont areas thought the US where moisture running off the mountains provides just this environment.  The seed is a favorite of finches so they move the seed form the plant to summer wilflower patches that share ideal growing conditions.

Scotch Broom / Cytisus scoparius  This plant is to the West and coastal areas what Japanese Spirea is to the rest of the country.  It has naturalized throughout most of the West Coast.  The low growing bushy habit takes out everything in its way, and it has beautiful flowers and evergreen foliage to boot!  This makes it a favorite of growers.  There are hundreds of varieties in production, and the tollerance to drought and long bloom time make it a favorite of retailers.  As for all those little California and coastal wildflowers look out!  This one is eating them all up.

Norway Maple / Acer platanoides  This is probably the most planted invasive tree, but most unknown to be invasive.  This plant had been quietly taking over Poplar forests for the last hundred years.  Poplar being fast growing, straight  and light is now the most popular trim lumber.  It is often selectively harvested leaving just enough light for the seeds of the Norway Maple to germinate and establish quickly.  With yellow fall color like a Poplar’s, from a distance youwould never know the forest had changed, but the natural progression of the forest has.  As the Poplars get older, weaker ones are supposed to fall and thin over time allowing room for grand Oaks to establish along with the legacy surviors.  However, the  fast wide growing maples stunt the forest progression  making 100 year old forests look like they are only thirty years old.

This is just a start and I could go on forever, but these are the ones that I see go out on trucks every day and find hiking in nature every day.  Some people take it personally against invasives and think of the plants as “Evil” or “Bad”.  A wise 90 year old piano teacher once told me…”A weed is nothing more than a flower in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  What we have to remember is that the weed didn’t put itself there.  Either we did, or we created the conditions for it to get there.  There is no greater pervention to the spread of invasive plants than knowledge and education, and both of those are far cheaper than trying to repair the damage that they do.

All of the plants in this profile can be found in Botany Buddy’s Tree and Shrub Finder, along with more photos and information including the native habitats, native ranges, and  cutural information.  Botany Buddy currently profiles 1300 trees and shrubs and our library is constantly growing to bring you the valuable information like this that you need.

It has now been one week since our final approval and launch in the app store, and thanks to all of our Buddies we have gotten lots of great feedback.  One of the things that we have heard from users is it can take a little time to figure out all of the great functions and features of the app. From shoppers, who have read about the app in reviews on our website, some don’t understand how this can be more than some plant pictures and their names. To help you both, we made this video.

This video is meant to be both a preview and a tutorial. We have spent over six months creating this app and find new things we can do with it every day. In this presentation we will navigate you through all of the functions: daily updates, quick and advanced searches, adding photos, creating collections, sharing them with buddies, and the buddy system. We will also tell you where to find all of the hidden tips along the way.

So take a few minutes and take a tour of the app. We try to give you as much of our experience as we can in one short video.  Of course the real learning is in how you use the app to better you gardening and nature knowledge, and the creative ways you find to share that knowledge with your buddies.

Thanks, and Enjoy…