New book catalogues Va. plant life

Now comes “Flora of Virginia,” a massive work twice as long as any book in the Harry Potter series and covering as many pages as President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation, though this behemoth thankfully includes pictures — ink drawings, to be exact.

Weighing in at 6.9 pounds, the tome describes in orderly detail nearly 3,200 species of trees, grasses, shrubs, cacti and flowers known to exist on their own from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.

Another 800 species have been left out, either because scientists could not confirm them in the field or because they require human cultivation and don’t occur in the wild.

The book is hardly a literary romp and reads more like an immense field guide, which it is. Its reach, while attempting to be general and broad, seems more suited to naturalists, students, landscape consultants, gardeners, scientists and curious plant-lovers.

In recognizing the effort, the state Senate adopted a resolution in late February that depicts a “landmark” piece of science that “will serve for years to come as a resource for botanical and ecological exploration, research, education and conservation.”

While the authors of the book focus mainly on existing plants, a snapshot of Virginia at the start of the 21st century, they also suggest what may lie ahead.

What they see is a rapidly changing landscape, of native plants increasingly competing with, and losing out to, non-native species. Of a warming climate shifting the rules for what thrives in the state. And of botany itself evolving as scientists rely more on DNA analysis.

“Trying to predict the future is a perilous task,” the authors write, “but there is little reason to believe that Virginia’s current explosion of population growth, urban development and land-use practices that deplete native species diversity will not continue into the foreseeable future.”

It took 11 years and $1.7 million to complete the book, though in reality, Virginia has been trying for nearly a century to modernize its botanical inventory.

But over the decades, something always seemed to get in the way, be it a fire that destroyed notes and plant samples, the early deaths of promising young botanists, academic infighting, personal jealousies and money woes.

Until now, some organizers have half-jokingly referred to the work as star-crossed, cursed, the stuff of Shakespearean tragedy.

Inventories exist in almost every state, including all of Virginia’s neighbors, with university professors typically leading the way.

But this time it was scientists with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Heritage Division who eventually took charge, asked by a Virginia Academy of Science grown weary of waiting for help to arrive.

As the book recalls in its history section, “What was needed was a combination of missionary zeal, guts, grit and tenacity — not to mention adequate funding and a mind-numbing amount of taxonomic work.”

The state’s only financial contribution has been the paid time and talents of its scientists; the project has not received direct public funding, nor have organizers asked for government aid.

Private donors, corporations and conservation groups raised nearly all the money — and still do so today, as they attempt to take the book digital. Day-to-day operations are run through a nonprofit organization called the Flora of Virginia Project.

Chris Ludwig is the executive director of “The Flora,” as it’s known colloquially, and one of the primary authors. He also oversaw much of the research while serving as the state’s chief botanist. It was Ludwig whom colleagues asked to take on the project.

To celebrate the book’s publication, Ludwig took a three-week vacation in Costa Rica in late February but swears he did not go scouting for any plant life.

“Actually we did a lot of bird-watching,” he said. “I told myself, ‘No plants!'”

Asked why it took 250 years for the state to publish a new inventory, Ludwig blamed “a tyranny of volume.”

“It’s just an immense amount of work,” he said, noting that each page of the book contains some 600 facts.

The reference section contains 3,000 pieces of scientific literature.

Ludwig recalls a conversation with a colleague in Pennsylvania who was compiling a state inventory there.

“She told me, ‘You have no idea how you’re going to be immersed in this,'” he said. “That was really, really true.”

With so much work, there are always crazy anecdotes — about life on the road, reaching remote locations, running into unhinged locals, searching for months for rare species.

One of Ludwig’s favorite stories involves a fruiting plant called Persicaria careyi.

The plant had been reported as existing in Virginia in the “Flora of North America,” a giant masterwork still being published in volumes. But state experts could never find it.

Finally, with deadlines approaching for the state book, Ludwig recalls coming home tired one day last August, casually looking at a woody patch near his door and seeing the plant.

“It literally was eight feet from my home,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

There are quirks in the book. Marijuana, for example, is not listed as an established plant, though anyone under 50 can probably recall seeing cannabis — a non-native species — growing wild in some ditch or open field. Such sightings were often the talk of the town.

Ludwig explained that marijuana is one of those plants known as a waif, which relies on human cultivation and “doesn’t seem to grow much on its own.”

But what about corn and tomatoes? They both are non-natives that rely on cultivation, and both made the list. How come?

“You will occasionally see corn and tomato grow on their own. Maybe outside a fence-line, along a ditch,” Ludwig said. “More often than you’d think.”

In 2007, with the tasks of writing and organizing a book piling up, the project hired an editor, Bland Crowder.

“I’ve worked on hard stuff before,” said Crowder, a former editor at Time and People magazines, with a master’s degree in journalism from New York University. “But this was unreal.”

He said the nonprofit organization ordered 3,500 books to sell. About half of those have been gobbled up since first being offered to donors and organizers in December.

Crowder expects at least another printing of 3,500 books now that the text can be purchased on Amazon.com and through the organization’s website (Floraofvirginia.org) and that of the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS.org).

He said an exhibit on the book and native plants is expected to open next March at the Library of Virginia in Richmond and that universities and libraries are buying up the text, too.

“I love plants but am not a botanist,” said Nancy Vehrs, president of the Virginia Native Plant Society, a key backer of the project. “But for me, ‘The Flora’ is a way to appreciate all that we have here and all the work we need to do to conserve some of these beautiful places before they’re gone.”

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Information from: The Roanoke Times, http://www.roanoke.com