If Cane Creek Park wasn’t already on your weekend getaway radar, it might be time to bookmark it for its unique floricultural display: the Schweinitz’s sunflowers, a threatened species waving their golden heads improbably in the heart of the Andre Michaux Prairie Restoration Site. This five-acre swath of land is a living testament to what happens when conservationists and government bodies decide that a plant is worth saving—showy petals and all, according to a recent overview by Union County’s government news updates.
For those with October itineraries still in flux, scheduling a trip to this prairie pocket in Union County’s vast Cane Creek Park should be a no-brainer because right now the time is ripe to catch the peak of the Schweinitz's sunflowers’ bloom, though for those with twitchy fingers ready to pluck, remember it's a big no-no to pick these sunnies—they're protected by federal law, not just because they're rare, but because their existence is as precarious as a house of cards in high wind. Visitors can take a stroll, a bike ride, or even horseback trot down marked trails designed to immerse them in the beauty of the area without trampling all over what's left of a species that's hanging on by a thread, even though this is probably a longer sentence than you bargained for, but hey, sometimes enthusiasm for environmental success stories gets the better of us.
The seeds of this ecological sanctuary were planted back in 2005, an initiative spearheaded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to give the Schweinitz's sunflowers more than just a fighting chance for survival, as described by Union County reports. By scooping these sunnies from the path of development and relocating them to their current home at the Andre Michaux Prairie Restoration Site, NCDOT has created a protective bubble of sorts, and the Catawba Lands Conservancy plays bouncer to keep unlawful development from crashing the preservation party.
