The Node

Woodlanders' resource center for plant education, how-tos, garden inspiration, and news.

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38 articles

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima): The Buttercup That Went to Wood

Plant Highlight · Xanthorhiza simplicissima · Southeastern Streambanks. The only woody member of the buttercup family: a quiet shade groundcover with a chrome-yellow root, a berberine dye, and a deep...

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Four Days in the Cove: A Field Dispatch from the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference

Field Notes · Cullowhee Native Plant Conference · Western North Carolina. Jonas and Megan drive north for four days of rhododendron on the rock, endemics on the serpentine barren, and...

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A Field Guide to the Sumacs (Rhus)

Field Guide · The Genus Rhus · Southeastern United States. A grower's guide to the sumacs Woodlanders keeps in cultivation, from staghorn and smooth sumac to the federally endangered Michaux's,...

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The Trees That Carry the Largest Flowers in North America

Plant Highlight · Bigleaf & Ashe Magnolia · Aiken, SC. On the bigleaf magnolias, a pair of Southern natives that grow leaves the size of canoe paddles and blooms you...

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The Plants Bartram Saw

Field Guide · Native Flora · The Bartram Trail The Plants Bartram Saw A walk through the southeastern flora documented by William Bartram in Travels (1791) — and a quiet...

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The Southern Forest Floor: A Spring 2026 Collection

A field guide to woodland shade garden plants that actually belong there — and the evolutionary science behind why.

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The Hibiscus That Never Opens: Malvaviscus arboreus and the Slow Seduction of Turk's Cap

15 min · Ethnobotany, hummingbird ecology, and the Southern pass-along plant that blooms when everything else has given up.

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The Long Game: Why Woody Plants Are the True Foundation of a Climate-Resilient Garden

Horticulture & Design  ·  Climate Resilience The Long Game: Why Woody Plants Are the True Foundation of a Climate-Resilient Garden What the next thirty years will demand from the home...

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Working With Water: Managing a Wet Garden Area Using Southeastern Native Plants

From the Nursery  ·  Garden Design Working With Water: Managing a Wet Garden Area Using Southeastern Native Plants A wet spot is not a defect. In much of the Southeast,...

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The Woolly-Headed Willow: Salix eriocephala and the Intelligence of the Floodplain

The Woolly-Headed Willow: Salix eriocephala and the Intelligence of the Floodplain | Woodlanders Native Plants  ·  Salix The Woolly-Headed Willow: Salix eriocephala and the Intelligence of the Floodplain A plant...

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Hometown Tropicals: Native Hibiscus spp. in the Landscape

From the Nursery  ·  Native Plants Hometown Tropicals: Native Hibiscus spp. in the Landscape The Southeast is home to twelve species of hibiscus. Most gardeners have no idea. By Jonas...

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Restoring Connectivity: Using the Power of the Home Garden to Mend Native Landscapes

Woodlanders Journal Restoring Connectivity Using the power of the home garden to mend native landscapes. On habitat fragmentation, pollinator decline, and how the home garden can become one of the...

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