Distinctive Native Plants

Q: In Boy Scouts there is a requirement to identify ten kinds of native plants found in your community. Can you suggest ten native plants for me to teach the boys?

A: Certainly poison ivy and Virginia creeper should be first on the list. I’d also include white oak, southern red oak, sweetgum, dogwood, loblolly pine, red maple and tulip poplar. Follow these with Christmas fern, goldenrod, American euonymus, Joe Pye weed and sumac. All are distinctive at this season and easy to find. There are lots of pictures of native plants at xrl.us/ganatives (BROKEN).