Retired Botanical Gardens Director Receives Excellence Award

Larry Mellichamp, retired director of the University’s Botanical Gardens, received the 2016 Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence at the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference held at Western Carolina University in late July, 2016.

This annual award celebrates the North American Native Plantsman of the Year and is presented to individuals who have actively worked to conserve native flora in situ, study and promote the understanding of native flora, build expertise in the propagation/cultivation of native plants and use native plants in a diversity of natural and designed landscapes. It has been presented since 1988.

Currently president of the North Carolina Native Plant Society, Mellichamp was recognized for his dedication to the study, propagation and promotion of the native plants of Southeastern North America.

“Larry Mellichamp excels in all of these categories and is truly deserving of this award,” says Jeff Gillman, director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens.

The Cullowhee Native Plant Conference began in 1984 with a grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority to underwrite a “Plant Utilization” meeting. Since then the combination of field trips, workshops, lectures and social networking opportunities have become a model for similar native plant gatherings across the country.

The namesake of the Dodd Award was a well-known Alabama nursery owner who studied ornamental horticulture at Auburn University. His strong interest in plants led him to travel throughout the United States and many foreign countries in search of unusual native plants that could be adapted to Alabama. Dodd served in various leadership positions in the Alabama Nurserymen’s Association, South Alabama Botanical Society, Garden Club of America, American Association of Nurserymen and the American Horticultural Society.

Mellichamp joined UNC Charlotte in 1976 as a faculty member in the Biological Sciences Department, retired in spring 2015. He authored several works, including Native Plants of the Southeast, and a number of technical and popular articles on plants and gardening.