Useful Plants of the Catoctin: Blue Ridge of Maryland by Jim and John Duke, Illustrated by Peggy Duke

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The idea for this booklet was spawned in 2012, when John Duke took a genuine interest in the Catoctin flora. The Catoctin Mountain ridge forms the eastern rampart of the Appalachian mountains in Maryland where John has lived for some 20 years, studying the Catoctin flora and, more recently, volunteering in the Catoctin Mountain Park.

Jim Duke, along with his wife Peggy, and their son John, redefine the concept of “labor of love.” in this book which captures Jim Duke’s life-long love of medicinal plants and John’s love for discovering the natural world around him. Many Americans experience a similar awakening in encountering the flora and fauna of their environs. Here, the family explores the human experience of plants in prose, poetry and the beautiful artwork of Peggy Duke, encouraging a sense of wonder for life-long learning.

Steven Foster

Steven Foster Group, Inc.

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   In these pages, the visitor to the Catoctin will find delightful accounts of many of that regions wildflowers. With hard research, and with calming poetry, Jim Duke introduces you to the amazing character and quality of about 100 species native to the region, or; like most of us, immigrants happy to live in, or visit, the mountains of the Eastern Seaboard. Many of my old favorites are here: Geranium maculatum (which is in the title of a book I wrote a long time ago); Hamamelis virginiana (8 of which grace my back yard; one blooming almost every month of the vear); Aquilegia canadensis (my father’s favorite; he named his motorboat after it, Columbine); Monotropa uniflora (an index of how far into the woods I am): Taraxacum officinalis (the most human-like invasive, found blooming everywhere, just like us). And many more, all members of our rich past as children of the plants.

Dan Moerman

Author of Geraniums for the Iroquois