-
Maple-leaf Viburnum
Just now beginning to leaf out, greeting spring. Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), native to eastern North America, an understory, deciduous shrub. It’s plentiful up here on my mountain, and is easy to identify with its twin, maple-like leaves. I’ve been fortunate to have received several of these shrubs as gifts. Shrubs that I’m watching grow…
-
Gray Dogwood in Autumn
Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa). Gray Dogwood drupes providing sustenance to many birds and mammals as autumn thinks of becoming winter, leaving what resembles tiny red trees for snow to fall upon. Its leaves provide a unique color palette of plum red and yellow chartreuse in an opposite arrangement as they succumb to diminishing daylight and…
-
White and Red Dogwood Berries
Autumn is approaching. The leaves of some Flowering Dogwoods are getting richer, more and more red. Their crimson berries, or drupes, are in abundance. This is the species of Dogwood that most people think of when “Dogwood” is mentioned. Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa). Two different Dogwood species. One of seventeen…
-
Blackhaw Viburnum
A large bush that I’ve been delighted to find is Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium). It’s growing by my backdoor, and there’s lots of it growing in the woods all around my cabin. The leaves of Blackhaw emerge from the buds involute, or curled as a spiral. The mature, glossy, opposite leaves are three to four…
-
Gray Dogwood
Just like the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) that we see most often, Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) has opposite leaves and those leaves look quite similar to Flowering Dogwood. The flowers of Gray Dogwood arrive on dome shaped panicles, or branched clusters, in late May and June here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The…
-
Sassafras Trees Are Dioecious
Seems winter has given up. Spring has won the battle of the seasons and is stepping through the woods. Right now, mid-April, Sassafras Trees (Sassafras albidum) are in bloom throughout the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia. Creating a soft watercolor wash of pale yellow. Sassafras is a dioecious tree, meaning any…
-
Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy, Toxicodendron radicans I’m feeling itchy already just anticipating writing this blog. It was not until I was well into my adult life that I first got a Poison Ivy rash, complete with huge blisters. OH! How very painful it was. Fast forward 30 years or so and I’ve grown to love, or at least…
-
Sassafras
You know the question, If you were a tree, what tree would you be? My quick answer would be, a sassafras tree. I’ve had a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Virginia, since 1992. During that time I’ve hiked my mountain up and down, getting to know all the things that grow here. I…