Landscape Architect Lara Berkley Visits Longleaf Center

As the seasons change, we continue to find new species emerging from the sandy soils at Longleaf Center where a remnant longleaf pine ecosystem is still evident. Plants like chinquapin (dwarf chestnut), sandywoods chaffhead, wire-plant, St. Andrew’s cross, creeping blueberry, partridge berry, Carolina ipecac, vanilla plant, and even a few wiregrass plants are present on the property. We expect there are other species hidden within a dormant seedbank waiting for the right conditions to germinate. As one of the remaining undeveloped natural areas in the neighborhood, Longleaf Center shows exciting potential for further ecological restoration.

To help us learn more about our local landscape, we recently invited Lara Berkley, a Wilmington-based landscape architect, to visit and tour the grounds of Longleaf Center. Lara specializes in conservation design and habitat restoration using NC native plants. In addition to identifying plants on our property, she also shared fascinating information about our campus soil types and the historic plant species we would expect to find here in a natural setting. Thank you to Lara for her generous gifts of time and expertise to Longleaf Center. To learn more about the scope of her work in Wilmington (and collaborations with her husband, local architect Scot Ogden), check out their website here.