A Piedmont Prairie Planting

Increasingly, historic sites seek to recreate historically authentic landscapes. With the permission of the current site manager, a friend and I transplanted some native wildflowers to create a miniature piedmont prairie along the edge of this fenceline.

In the background is the visitors' center for Bennett Place. Included in the planting were little bluestem, split beard bluestem, sugarcane plume grass, Yucca, hyssop-leaved thoroughwort, and several species of goldenrod.

Bennett Place staff have kept the area unmowed, allowing the native plants to grow and bloom over the summer.

Iris, Bluets and Gama Grass

Here are a few more of the many species of native wildflowers to be enjoyed at Bennett Place. This miniature iris, Iris verna, was found growing near Bennett Place, along Hillsborough Road under a power line. Like many prairie wildflowers that need sun, it survived under the powerline because of the infrequent mowing.

When the owner decided to develop his Hillsborough Rd. property, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association organized an effort to rescue as many of the wildflowers as possible. Bennett Place, just a quarter mile away and with similar soil, seemed the perfect place to give this and other native wildflowers a safe haven.

Bluets grace the field at Bennett Place in the spring.

One of my favorite prairie grasses is eastern gama grass. It typically grows in wet areas, such as ditches, but is found here next to the gazebo at Bennett Place. Some have speculated that it was one of the ancestors of corn, of which gama grass's large seeds and silky flowers are reminiscent.

Heritage Trees of Bennett Place

It blends in with the general green, but this tree standing at the edge of the field at Bennett Place may well have been growing here when the largest troop surrender of the Civil War took place here in 1865. It is one of a number of post oaks in the Bennett woods, easily identified by its cross-shaped leaves.

Like many species of oak, post oaks grow best in areas that receive periodic "cool" fires, which pass through the understory, converting thick mulch to fertile ash and killing competing species that don't have the oak's thick, protective bark. Natural fires were augmented by those set by Native Americans, and later on by sparks from passing trains.

Though Bennett Place is preserved, these heritage trees are threatened by competition from weedy tree species that have sprung up in the absence of fire. Dense shade and thick accumulations of mulch have diminished the wildflowers and dwarf blueberries that once thrived here.

Another species of heritage tree at Bennett Place is the shortleaf pine. Note the plate-like bark, which can be distinguished from the more furrowed bark of loblolly pines.

Some years back, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association installed interpretive signage at Bennett Place with information about the heritage trees, and the savanna plant community that still lingers here.