Tar Heel Trees
Some of lliem are found only in this
part of America— the Carolina hem¬
lock, Fraser fir, Koan Mountain haw¬
thorn.
By ASHTON CHAPMAN
In the western North Carolina
mountains you'll find several tree
species which don't grow anywhere else
except in a few limited areas.
Notable among these is the Caro¬
lina — or "mountain” — hemlock,
regarded by many as America’s most
graceful evergreen. Its natural habitat
is confined to mountains of the two
Carolinas. Virginia. Tennessee and
Georgia; but it attains its greatest mag¬
nificence in Tarheclia, where it’s (er¬
roneously) called "spruce pine" but
has given that name to Mitchell Coun¬
ty's principal town. The tree’s botani¬
cal name is Tsuga caroliniana.
The virgin forests of North Carolina
must have contained superb specimens
of these hemlocks. The few remaining
today attain heights in excess of 70
feet, with trunk diameters up to three
feet.
Another extremely beautiful Tar
Heel cone-bearing evergreen is the
Fraser fir, Abies jraseri, often wrongly
called "balsam." Because it prefers
elevations of 4.000 feet or higher its
Rhododendron Cotowbicsc on the Roon
Mountain.
range in the southern Appalachians
is even more limited than that of the
Carolina hemlock. Fraser firs rarely
grow more than 30 to 40 feet high,
with trunk diameters up to two feet.
The most notable stand of this
species was on Mt. Mitchell, giving
this lofty peak such a dark appear¬
ance it originally was called "Black
Dome." Lumbering operations and a
fire a number of years ago destroyed
much of this magnificent stand. With
additional Forest Service plantings and
care, they staged a comeback but are
now threatened by depredations of
the white woolly aphis.
Slopes of Roan Mountain have be¬
come a "perpetual Christmas tree gar¬
den" from the annual controlled cut¬
ting there by the U. S. Forest Service.
The density, fragrance and long-last¬
ing qualities of these firs (or "bal¬
sams") make them Yulctide favorites.
Private growers now have Christmas
tree plantations largely of Fraser firs,
which grow well at lower elevations
when properly tended.
The Roan Mountain hawthorn,
Crataegus roanensis. is so called be¬
cause it was first identified on Roan
Mountain. Later it was found to range
northward to Quebec Province in
Canada.
Another thorn, known as the Bilt-
morc hawthorn, or "haw." was first
identified on Biltmorc Estate near
Asheville. Its range was found later to
extend north to Vermont and westward
to Missouri. Its botanical name is
C route
у
us biltmoreana.
The Biltmorc crab apple. Mai us gla-
braia. also first identified on Biltmore
Estate, was later found as far south-
westward as Alabama.
The Kelsey locust. Robinia kelseyi,
is confined to western North Carolina
This is rhe "jprucc pine" which go»c the Mitchc*’
County copilot its nome.
and eastern Tennessee. It was discov
cred by the late Harlan P. Kelsey,
з
Massachusetts horticulturist who estab¬
lished at Pineola in Avery County a
nursery which still supplies a wide
public with native trees, shrubs and
plants of the Blue Ridge.
The yellow cucumbcrtrce, Magnolia
acuminata cordata, was discovered in
North Carolina by Andre Michaux,
famed French botanist sent by Louis
XIV to find new plants for Versailles.
Rare and local, this wild magnolia has
been found, in limited areas, only in
the two Carolinas and Georgia.
It was Michaux who sparked the
prolonged search for a spring-blooming
wildflowcr later named Shortia galaci-
folia. and it was Frank Ellis Boynton
of Highlands who discovered, nearly a
century later, the spot Michaux men¬
tioned in his journal as the place where
he first saw the "strange little plant
with saw-toothed leaves like those of
galax.”
Boynton also discovered in North
Carolina the Boynton hawthorn. Cra¬
taegus boyntonii, named in his honor.
Its range was later found extending to
southern Pennsylvania and southeast¬
ern Kentucky to northern Georgia and
northern Alabama.
Quercia cravenensis, or Carolina
oak. derives its name from Craven
County, one of the principal areas in
which it has been found.
Although it grows elsewhere at high
(Continued on page 17)
THE STATE. JULY 1. 1965
9
