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Wednesday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 2pm Sunday 10am - 2pm

PDC's Quarry Gardens

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Schuyler, VA
PDC's Quarry Gardens

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Designed, owned, and operated by Piedmont Discovery Center, this is Virginia's first and only public, all-native botanical garden.

PDC showcases restoration ecology and cultural resource management around two abandoned soapstone quarries. These 40 acres, with trails through native plant communities around a group of retired soapstone quarries, are a private garden for public enjoyment and learning. Visits are by appointment only. Reserve a free guided tour at quarrygardensatschuyler.org.

10/01/2026

Acronicta hamamelis (witch hazel dagger moth))!

This very cleverly camouflaged caterpillar is a dagger moth. Most likely a witch hazel dagger moth because it is feeding on a native common witch hazel shrub (Hamamelis virginiana). (To be certain of the species we would have to dissect its genitalia 😳).

Other dagger moth species are generalists and may occasionally feed on witch hazel, but the witch hazel dagger moth has a strong preference for it and rarely eats anything else.

Adult witch hazel dagger moths are one of the few morh species that remains active in the winter. They warm their flight muscles up by shivering and pollinate late fall and early winter blooming witch hazel flowers!

09/24/2026

Acacesia hamata (the difoliate orbweaver)!

This wicked(ly cool) arachnid is uncommonly seen in the Gardens. It is well camouflaged and inactive during the daytime hours, but every night after dark it builds an intricate web.

It is sensitive to daylight and hurries to tear down and eat its web each morning as the sun rises. (Many spiders ingest old webs to recycle the ingredients needed to make spider silk.)

The difoliate orbweaver is the only species in its Genus that can be found north of Mexico. Most Acacesia species are neotropical and live in South America, Central America and Mexico.

09/19/2026

Art does not need to be intimidating! A nature journal can be filled with quick sketches, favorite quotes, leaf rubbings, and pressed flowers.

A nature journal is an easy place to capture seasonal memories and to take note of the passage of time.

Would you join a nature journaling club at Piedmont Discovery Center?

Let us know if that would inspire you!

09/10/2026

PDC'S Weird Insect Appreciation Society presents: the ambush bug!

This superbly camouflaged and aptly named ambush predator is in the assassin bug family (Reduviidae), ambush bug subfamily (Phymatinae), and jagged ambush bug genus (Phymata).

Like mantids, ambush bugs have "raptorial" forelegs modified to rapidly grasp and subdue prey.

They have hollow, piercing mouthparts that inject digestive enzymes into their prey and then suck them dry.

Luckily for us megafauna, these fierce little predators are very small!

A study in Functional Ecology examined ambush bugs' ability to change color to match their environment. The study,
"Plasticity and habitat choice match colour to function in an ambush bug" (Boyle and Start 2020), concluded that ambush bugs can gradually change from white to yellow but not back again from yellow to white.

09/06/2026

Female white-banded crab spider (Misumenoides formosipes) considers a brown stinkbug (Eushistus sp.) for lunch..

White-banded crab spiders can alter their colors to match the flower that they are hiding on. They can be all white, all yellow, or white with pink or purple markings.

This one is colored to match upland ironweed (Vernonia glauca)!

09/01/2026

How do you measure the seasons?

Meteorologists and climatologists break the seasons down into clearly defined groupings of three months based on the annual temperature cycle and the Gregorian calendar.

For these record keepers in the Northern Hemisphere, fall begins on September 1st and ends on November 30th each year.

Marking the seasons in this way allows these scientists to easily compare weather patterns and climate data from year to year.

In contrast, astronomers and orbital scientists use astronomical seasons, which are based on the position of Earth in relation to the sun.

Astronomical fall is precisely tied to an astronomical event. This makes it undebatably accurate, but variable. It starts on the autumnal equinox, which occurs between Sept. 21 and Sept. 23, and ends on the winter solstice, which occurs between Dec. 20 and Dec. 22. These dates vary due to leap years and the elliptical shape of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

The autumnal equinox marks one of two days each year when the Earth's axis does not tilt toward or away from the sun. This year, on Tuesday, September 22nd at 8:05 p.m. EDT, the sun will shine directly above the Earth's equator.

The word equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). On September 22nd, 2026, day and night will be approximately equal in length everywhere on Earth.

So, we can welcome fall's arrival twice each year!

Happy meteorological fall!

08/26/2026

Piedmont Discovery Center's Weird Insect Appreciation Society presents the camouflaged looper.

The larval stage of Synchlora aerata (the wavy-lined emerald moth) fashions itself a disguise from parts of whatever flower it is currently eating.

In this video, the camouflaged caterpillar is attaching a brown disk flower from the center of a brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) to its back with sticky silk.

In addition to being so well disguised, camouflaged loopers are very small. Looking for partially eaten petals on Rudbeckia triloba or Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida can help you spot one!

08/25/2026

What in the weird insect appreciation society is going on here?

The handsome bug attempting to take off is Promachus rufipes (a red-footed robberfly or bee panther). Behind him is a female robberfly eating a dragonfly!

The robberfly pair is coupled for mating.

Robberflies are fierce predators. It is possible that the male caught the dragonfly and presented it to the female before mating as a "nuptial gift". Nuptial gift giving is documented to occur in many insect and arachnid species. A tasty gift can entice a female insect or spider to mate and distract her from preying on the male instead!

It is also possible that the female saw the dragonfly while mating and decided that she needed a snack enough to catch it herself!

Address

1643 Salem Road
Schuyler, VA
22969

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 2pm
Sunday	10am - 2pm

Website

http://piedmontdiscoverycenter.org/

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