New guide hopes to introduce young Nova Scotians to weird plants

A new guide is hoping to introduce young Nova Scotians to some of the province's more unique plants.

The Kid's Guide to Weird Plants of the Atlantic Coastal Plain is a result of a trip taken last summer by some members of the Young Naturalists Club (YNC), an organization aimed at immersing children in nature.

“We have chapters around the province and most are based on a model where they go out on a monthly basis, usually for a guided hike or a museum visit, just to learn about a new species each month,” explained Becky Parker, a YNC coordinator. “It could be plants, rocks, sharks, whatever folks are interested in learning about.”

The club is open to all ages, but Parker told CityNews 95.7's The Weekend Gardener Niki Jabbour most chapters are family oriented, with programs geared towards those between the ages of 7 and 12.

However, YNC's Nature Guardian program — based out of Dartmouth — is aimed at kids 10 to 14 year olds.

“Most chapters go out as a family group, but these tweens, they don't like to go out with their parents quite as much,” Parker laughed. “So we piloted this tween group to see if we could capture this audience and keep the kids going out to explore nature.”

The kids in the Nature Guardian program were eager to go on an overnight adventure, so YNC was able to secure a couple of grants to fund a four night expedition to learn about rare Atlantic Coastal Plain flora.

The Atlantic Coastal Plain is a flat, low-lying region that runs along the U.S. eastern seaboard, but it spills over into the southwestern part of our province.

“They were interested in learning about weird plants that we don't typically see in our gardens,” Parker said.

“The plants are really isolated up here. Some of them are only found in one spot in Nova Scotia.”

The group's trip took them to a giant raised bog in Port La Tour, east of Cape Sable Island, where they discovered endangered Thread-leaved Sundew plants.

“Which is a carnivorous plant adapted to live in bogs,” Parker explained. “It's only found in five bogs in southwest Nova Scotia. The next nearest ones I think are in New Jersey or the New England states.”

“They're so weird to look at … some of them were flowering, some of them were catching bugs, it was really cool to see.”

The kids then headed to Kejimkujik National Park to learn about quadrat surveys before going to a marsh in Greenfield, near Ponhook Lake, where they were able to locate Carolina Redroot.

“It was kind of an unusual sighting because they should have been flowering a little bit earlier than we came, but for whatever reason, over half the flowers were out,” Parker said. “We got to see the pollinators that were landing on the flowers.”

“They kind of pop up in these clumps, so when they're all out in flower, it's really impressive. It's just a sea of flowers on a shoreline.”

The expedition's participants recorded their observations in nature journals, and those were used to create The Kid's Guide to Weird Plants of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

“Part of the reason we made this kid's guide is because there wasn't a really kid-friendly guide to these plants,” stated Parker.

More information on the YNC and the guide can be found online.

“I'm definitely interested in repeating this trip for the tween audience again if we can secure the funding,” she added.