Dear Members,
Between travel and the utility company sending a tree service over last week that utterly changed the shade conditions in my backyard, I am a bit behind on this letter. So as I write this, the mid-August heat wave has broken. It feels positively chilly on the deck overlooking my garden and, with some Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) leaves already on the ground—yes, stress from heat and drought, but this has become the new normal at my house for a while now—it feels like fall is on its way. The berries are just starting on the American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), a wonderfully contradictory plant that’s both toxic and edible—birds love those magenta berries that are quite poisonous to us. My Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is at peak with its papery, literally everlasting flowers that dry naturally while keeping their form. And like many of you, we are eating ripe tomatoes (non-native of course! but hard to deny as the official State Vegetable) from our raised bed planter. Thinking about fall means thinking about our upcoming Fall Conference, which will be held, as always, via Zoom on the first Saturday of November (November 1, 2024), free to all, members and non-members alike.
There are many things to love about New Jersey—the Pine Barrens, the Shore, the Highlands, the Meadowlands, and all our diverse ecosystems in between—but one thing to love about it is that the state is deeply weird. Indeed, our state is so weird that there is a magazine and book series called Weird N.J. This year, I was thinking about how the native plant movement tends to highlight the same species of plants on plant lists: Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp.), Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and the usual suspects. If you are reading this, you are familiar with these plants. But there are over 2,100 native plant species in New Jersey. What about these other plants, what about the weird plants? This year, we thought, we should turn our attention to the stranger plants in our state, so with the kind permission of Weird N.J., our fall conference is Weird N.J. Plants!
Our distinguished speakers will include New Jersey native Dr. Kadeem Gilbert, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Plant Biology, who will present on carnivorous and parasitic plants. Dr. Gilbert is a leading expert on pitcher plants and their complex ecological relationships. Dr. Kate Lepis, Botanist for the Native Plant Society of New Jersey, will dive into the mysterious world of aquatic plants. Kate also is the Horticulturist at Deep Cut Gardens in the Monmouth County Park System and was previously Adjunct Professor at Monmouth University. Jason Hafstad, Trustee of the New Jersey Mycological Association and Preserve Manager/Ecologist for the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust, will explore fungi (okay, not plants, but too weird and wonderful to leave out!). Jason oversees nearly 30,000 acres of New Jersey’s nature preserves and has documented thousands of our state’s macro-fungi species. Dr. Jeffrey Benca, Research Associate at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Paleontology, will transport us back in time to explore ancient plants. Dr. Benca specializes in paleobotany and the cultivation of early-diverging plant lineages, particularly lycopods—some of Earth’s most primitive vascular plants. We will send out our official announcement soon, probably early next month.
Appreciating native plants doesn’t always mean we can plant all of them. There are endangered plants we should never collect or plant. Without water, aquatic plants aren’t possible (though making a pond is easier than you think—I have, and it’s not that hard!). Our native fungi are difficult to deliberately cultivate, but adding decaying matter to your soil like arborist wood chips and broken sticks, twigs, and branches is a great way to create conditions for mycorrhizal networks that will help them flourish. Most ancient plants are extremely difficult to cultivate, even for PhDs—leave that Princess Pine (Lycopodium obscurum) where it’s growing, don’t even try. And parasitic and carnivorous plants often have very specific and challenging growing conditions.
But there ARE weird native plants you can grow! And going beyond the usual plant list isn’t just fun, it’s a great way to rebuild diversity. While keystone species are crucial, diverse plantings create resilient ecosystems that support specialized pollinators, provide food throughout the seasons, resist disease and pest outbreaks, and offer habitat niches for different wildlife. With over 2,100 native plant species in New Jersey, we have so many options beyond the ones we’re familiar with.
Your specialized local 100% native plant nurseries may require a further drive, but they either sell via mail order or are located in beautiful parts of the state, so make a day of it (https://npsnj.org/native-plants/where-to-buy-natives/). While you can’t buy lycopods, you can find Scouring Rush (Equisetum hyemale var. affine) at Toadshade Wildflower Farm—an evergreen horsetail related to some of the earliest land plants. I’ve also bought Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)—a plant that uses thermogenesis to melt snow in late winter—from Toadshade for my pond. With its beautful, sticking spaths, that plant is the epitome of strange. Our native Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa)—yes, a cactus in New Jersey—is available at native plant nurseries such as Wild Ridge Plants (Wild Ridge Co-Owner Jared Rosenbaum made a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ibgVvjT8lI), Gino’s Nursery, and sometimes Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve (the latter two are in Pennsylvania, but a stone’s throw from New Jersey). Pawpaw (Asimina triloba), our only native tropical fruit with its bizarre flowers and custardy fruit, is also available at many native-only nurseries.
The two plants I mentioned at the outset, Pokeweed and Pearly Everlasting, are definitely weird and can be hard to find at nurseries, but Toadshade carries Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) seed and Wild Ridge frequently has Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) in stock.
For carnivorous plants, both Toadshade and Bowman’s Hill carry Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea), and Toadshade also offers Roundleaf Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) seed. Wild Ridge carries many other oddities such as Gray’s Sedge (Carex grayi) with its spiky mace-like seed heads (it can be found at many other native-only nurseries too), and Chocolate Root (Geum rivale) with its nodding burgundy flowers. Wild Ridge has also carried semi-parasitic Canadian Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis) in the past. I have found the scary looking, highly-toxic Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda) at Gino’s before. And for the truly adventurous, Toadshade even sells Eastern Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) seed—it supports specialist insects including the Poison Ivy Aphid (Carolinaia caricis) and the beautiful Eyed Paectes moth (Paectes oculatrix).
Don’t forget that spring is prime time for weird plants at native nurseries—that’s when you’ll find Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) with its sex-changing ways, Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) with its single hidden flower, or Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) with its ground-level flowers pollinated by beetles.
Earth First Gardens even has a moon garden plant list on their website (https://earthfirstnatives.com/Native_Plant_Info.html), featuring night-blooming Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) and ghostly white Adam’s Needle (Yucca filamentosa).
The weird is out there—you just need to know where to look.
So this fall, I challenge you: instead of reaching for that Purple Coneflower (pretty, but to be honest, not really native to most of New Jersey), consider a Skunk Cabbage for your perenially wet spot, or a Prickly Pear for that sunny, dry corner. Join us November 1st to learn more, and let’s celebrate the full spectrum of New Jersey’s incredible plant diversity together.
https://npsnj.org/event/fall-conference-2025/One last thing: we thought Weird NJ Plants would be a great way to get young people and folks who don’t think about native plants involved. The Fall Conference is free. Will you help spread the word? Send them a link to the event page and spread the word as the date nears. It’s easy to remember as it is the day after Halloween, which is fitting.