#BackyardForest
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grayherndon.bsky.social
Hope to end up with some of these one day! Once we make a better habitat for them…

#backyardforest #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
ganativeplants.bsky.social Georgia Native Plant Society @ganativeplants.bsky.social · Feb 23
Trout lilies (Erythronium umbilicatum) are blooming in south Georgia and leaves are breaking ground in north Georgia. These petite members of the lily family are spring ephemerals with bright yellow petals and purple anthers. The speckled leaves do resemble trout. #nativeplants
February 23, 2026 at 5:48 PM
splodinvark.bsky.social
#backyardforest
splodinvark.bsky.social splodinvark @splodinvark.bsky.social · Jan 22
I’ll probably start posting more garden photos in the spring, but as a general picture, here’s a comparison of (2018?) Streetview and a May 2024 photo from roughly the same position
Top: A small house and garage as seen from the road, across an expanse of lawn Bottom: The buildings are obscured by a mass of greenery, and along the road, prairie plants are growing instead of turf grass
January 22, 2026 at 1:11 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
For today’s photo… moss. 😍 I don’t know much of anything about moss, but my photo app and Seek both identified this as common bladder-moss (Physcomitrium pyriforme). I’m awaiting confirmation on iNaturalist, but its appearance fits the name!

(1/2)

#2026photos #backyardforest
A patch of moss is shown in close-up, with short, medium-dark, sort of olive-colored leaves and above them vivid round neon green bladders atop slender yellowy stalks. The moss is growing on wet ground amid bits of mulch and dried plant matter.
March 29, 2026 at 3:11 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
I’m not sure which type of serviceberry they are - too small to tell yet - but bunches of them sprang up in the gravel behind our screened porch last year. Getting the rest of them moved somewhere more suitable is another of this year’s projects!

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
January 19, 2026 at 1:24 AM
splodinvark.bsky.social
Apple (Arkansas Black) and native plum (Prunus americanus)
#FlowerReport #BackyardForest
Pink buds opening to white, five-petaled flowers on a small apple tree with some leaves. Tiny yellow flowers are visible on a currant bush below. Clusters of small white plum flowers with prominent stamens on branches without leaves
April 12, 2026 at 7:20 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Remember that butterfly a week or so ago, the American/common snout (Libytheana carinenta)? Today’s photo is one of the caterpillars that has hatched from the eggs it laid on the hackberry (Celtis occidentalis).

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#2026photos #gardeningforwildlife #backyardforest
A tiny caterpillar sits with its head end raised on the underside of a bright green leaf, and is the same color as the leaf.
May 23, 2026 at 2:49 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
(It’s too late tonight to list all the plants pictured here, but I can do it tomorrow if anyone wants to know!

(4/4)

#backyardforest
April 1, 2026 at 3:29 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Staghorn sumac bebe #2!

(Rhus typhina)

(Also the beginnings of chaos, by all accounts)

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest #noregrets
A tiny staghorn sumac seedling emerges from pine bark mulch, with green leaflets and bright pinkish-red stems. Around it are a few violet leaves.
May 10, 2025 at 12:51 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
…so inside it came!

Shortly after taking this photo, the trash can sprung a serious leak.

We now have a boxelder, in water, in a trash bag, in a trash can, in another trash bag.

And none of this is at all ridiculous.

🤷‍♀️

#virginianativeplants #backyardforest

(3/3)
April 21, 2026 at 3:23 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
I now desperately want to put a very small vernal pool in our garden but I don’t think the city code will let me.

#gardeningforwildlife #backyardforest
January 30, 2026 at 12:10 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
AHHHHH our baby sassafras that gave up on budding out after a late frost is trying again AHHHHHH excuse me while I scream AHHHHHH.

(Sassafras albidum)

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
A close up of tiny sassafras leaves on short stems emerging from mulch, with a larger but still quite small stem behind them. The most visible leaves have three lobes and are shades of red and green, with strongly contrasting veins.
May 23, 2025 at 11:50 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
We already had pawpaw seedlings from the Dept. of Forestry, & chinquapin seeds too, but there’s no guarantee either will grow, so we thought it would be nice to have some that already got a start. Maybe more genetic diversity this way, too?

(2/2)

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
March 23, 2026 at 3:04 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
The other day we hacked up an Aucuba that was in the middle of it that we didn’t want to keep. Next to that there’s a little serviceberry growing, and I want to transplant the other baby serviceberries there to make a little thicket.

(2/2)

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
March 27, 2026 at 3:12 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
We’re not quite in the Northeast, but hope to support some of these with our #backyardforest as it grows!

We tend to associate #pollinators with fields of flowers, and flowers are great! But many, many, many pollinators rely on trees - to feed their larvae, & for leaves for winter shelter too!
xercessociety.bsky.social The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation @xercessociety.bsky.social · Jan 20
In the Northeast US, forests—covering 80% of the region—are home to two-thirds of the region’s bee species. Thanks to @allenphilanthro.bsky.social, Xerces now has the funding to research these bees & how best to help them! 🌳🐝 xerces.org/press/allen-...
“Allen Family Philanthropies Awards Grant to Xerces Society Forest Bee Research” Up close with a mining bee as it collects pollen from a tiny white flower.
January 20, 2026 at 11:46 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
It makes sense to protect them for a little while, so they can feed more critters when they get big.

And in this little tree’s case, so its leaves can again turn the most gorgeous deep red you’ve ever seen when next fall comes around.

(4/4)

#backyardforest
February 5, 2026 at 1:55 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo: it may not look like it, but this is 60 trees!

Tomorrow I hope to get them unwrapped, get a better look at them, & get them situated in a temporary home until we can get them in the ground. Today it’s just too windy and I don’t wanna!

#2026photos #backyardforest
A number of small seedling trees are bundled together with their roots wrapped in clear plastic and placed in a narrow brown cardboard box.
February 23, 2026 at 11:06 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Then a year or so ago another got big enough to bloom, and turned out to be a kousa, so after nurturing it for years, I cut it down. I have yet to find any clear-cut way to distinguish the two species when they’re small, so I still just nurture them, and wait and see.

(2/3)

#backyardforest
April 18, 2026 at 2:46 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is the best I was going to get (after many tries!) of the opening buds on the American hazelnut (Corylus americana) we planted about a week ago I think? It’s giving it a try!

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest #gardeningforwildlife
Several bare twigs in shades of brown and russet rise from the ground at various angles, with buds on one of the larger twigs beginning to visibly expand and open. In the background, out of focus, are a part of a carport and a large brick house.
April 10, 2026 at 2:52 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is one of our two pecan trees (Carya illinoinensis), with a moon caught in its branches.

It took me years to identify these! I thought they were some sort of hickory (a close relative of pecan).

Pecan isn’t native to our county, or even our state.

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#2026photos #backyardforest
The trunk and upward-sweeping bare branches of a tree are silhouetted dark gray against a blue evening sky, darkening toward the top of the photo, with wispy gray-white clouds. Between the top branches a partially visible moon glows.
January 29, 2026 at 2:03 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Quercus alba (White Oak)
Quercus macrocarpa (Bur Oak)
Quercus montana (Chestnut Oak)
Quercus muehlenbergii (Chinquapin Oak)
Quercus velutina (Black Oak)

Plenty of species still in stock - buy some from @forestryva.bsky.social at the above link!

(3/3)

#backyardforest #Virginia #forestry #trees
December 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is an update on the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) whose buds were just barely beginning to look like leaves not long ago. Now they’re definitely leaves, and showing that beautiful magenta color.

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
The tip of a branch covered in fine hairs angles upward and has several dense sprays of compound leaves spreading from it. The leaves are bright, light green but with brilliant magenta backs. They are covered in small hairs and the sun shines through some of them. In the background are many other green and growing things.
April 11, 2026 at 3:21 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
I walked around the garden in a soft rain for a while today, looking for (native) green things, but most of our garden is still in waiting mode. So today’s picture is a bud on our blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium).

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
A brown stem with a whitish-gray cloudy coating on it in places points straight upward, topped with a pale, slender bud with slightly curved pieces on either side. In the background, out of focus, are tall grasses and piles of brush, a light brown lattice, and the side of a brick house.
March 4, 2026 at 3:07 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s picture is one of our volunteer serviceberries, and I chose it because I wonder if y’all can help me identify it!

Last year Seek identified it as roundleaf serviceberry (Amelanchier sanguinea), which may be correct…

(1/3ish)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
Pale green leaves, half open, emerge from the stems of a small tree. Some of the leaves glow as the sun shines through them. The undersides of the leaves are covered in white hair, and hair emerges from the stems around the base of the leaves as well. Many of the leaves also have pink where they meet the stems. Behind them, out of focus, is a mass of other darker green plants.
April 7, 2026 at 2:06 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Cheating a bit because it was dark before we got back from the conference & I’m tiiiiiired.

Today’s photo isn’t something in the yard but something that *will be* in the yard: some Allegheny chinquapins (Castanea pumila) we were given at the conference!

#2026photos #nativeplants #backyardforest
Eighteen small, dark brown, glossy nuts, resembling chestnuts or acorns without their caps, are gathered on a crumpled paper towel. Some have bits of white root already emerging.
February 22, 2026 at 2:00 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Amorpha fruticosa (False Indigo-Bush)
Asimina triloba (Pawpaw)
Cornus racemosa (Gray Dogwood)
Corylus Americana (American Hazelnut)
Diospyros virginiana (Common Persimmon)
Nyssa sylvatica (Black Gum)
Prunus americana (American Wild Plum)

(2/3ish)

#backyardforest #Virginia #forestry #trees
December 30, 2025 at 7:23 PM