Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
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Friday - December 21, 2012
From: Ligonier, PA
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources, Groundcovers, Ferns, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Source for ground pine plants from Ligonier PA
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Where can I purchase "ground pine plants? I want to use them for erosion control.ANSWER:
Because this plant does not appear in our Native Plant Database, we went somewhere else to try to identify it and its uses. From borealforest.org, here is an article on lycopodium obscurum (ground pine). We learned that it is not related to Pinus (pine trees) at all, but is considered a clubmoss or fern. Here is some more information from rook.org.
Looking at the USDA Plant Profile Map for this plant, we learned that it is recorded in growing pretty much everywhere in Pennsylvania, including Westmoreland County. It would appear, therefore, that it should be fairly easy to obtain. Among other things, we learned that "obscurum" can be translated as "rare" and that in some states, including New York and Indiana, it is considered threatened or endangered. If you still want to find a source, we suggest you go to our National Suppliers Directory; put your town and state or just your zipcode in the "Enter Search Location" box and you will get a list of native plant nurseries, seed companies and consultants in your general area. All have contact information but we would not set your hopes too high as some of the information we found said it was difficult to propagate and best done with spores.
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