2021 Fall Plant Sale Inventory

Click on the image below to view the full online fall native plant sale inventory list and start making your wish lists!

2021 Fall Plant Sale (Online Only)

SAVE THE DATES!

Spittlebugs

Have you ever noticed spittle blobs stuck to leaves or to the stems of plants? Spittlebugs are the nymphs or young forms of froghoppers (of the superfamily Cercopoidea). The nymphs make their protective homes by surrounding themselves with a frothy mass of little bubbles. They live in their bubble housing while they grow and molt, and they spend their time sucking plant fluids and continually making more spittle by pumping their abdomens and excreting bubbly urine. They drink a lot of sap, so the output is a lot of bubbles, and sometimes you’ll find several nymphs living together in one big spittle mass.

Gross or cool?

After their final molt, the adult froghoppers emerge from the spittle. The bugs continue to feed on sap, hopping and visiting their favorite plants.

Wildlife Care Support

Pictured: Ruffner Mountain Executive Director, Carlee Sanford, Representative of Alabama House District 54, Neil Rafferty, and Ruffner Mountain Wildlife Care Naturalist, Emily Stauss

Big thanks to Neil Rafferty, Representative for Alabama House District 54, for supporting Jefferson County greenspaces. The benefits of educating with live animals are well established, but caring for wildlife requires skilled staff, time, and expense. This funding provides food, bedding, exhibit maintenance equipment, and enrichment items for our animal ambassadors. Grady, the gray ratsnake thanks you, too!

Ruffner Tree House Village

We are excited for our new neighbor, Randi Pink, who recently purchased several lots in East Lake near Ruffner Mountain. To learn more about her project (independent of us), check out the article in Bham Now: https://bhamnow.com/2021/08/10/birmingham-author-starts-a-treehouse-village-at-ruffner-mountain-heres-how-you-can-help/

Leave No Trace

We all want to be good and considerate stewards when we visit and hike on Ruffner Mountain, right?

We like the Leave No Trace Seven Principles from the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics:

1. Plan ahead and prepare.

2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces.

3. Dispose of waste properly.

4. Leave what you find.

5. Minimize campfire impacts.

6. Respect wildlife.

7. Be considerate of other visitors.

These are good rules for anyone visiting the outdoors!

Disposing of waste properly is a big one here. We understand that sometimes trash is dropped or left behind by accident, but the impact on nature is nevertheless the same.

How long will it be there? You might be surprised.

plastic bottle: 100-1000 years

aluminum can: 200 years

wet wipe: 100 years

plastic bag: 10-20 years

cigarette butt: 10 years

wrappers: 5 years

orange peel: 2 years

cardboard: 3 months

paper: 2-6 weeks

Black Botanists Week 2021

Celebrate diversity! It is Black Botanists Week and Monday’s roll call is about introducing yourself in this wonderful world of people and plants: #PlantsAroundTheGlobe and #GlobalBotany

Follow @blackbotanistsweek and the hashtags all week on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and connect to a web of botanical scientists, gardeners, and plant enthusiasts.