Roaming the trails up here, you’re going to find Pinxter Azaleas (Rhododendron periclymenoides) blooming with their beautiful pink flowers, here and there. It’s a deciduous shrub that is native from Massachusetts to South Carolina and Tennessee.
Spring is unfolding in such a lovely way!
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 as each year passes. Shrubs that add to my pleasure living in the woods.
The Maple-leaf Viburnum will mature to a height of six feet and a width of 4 feet. In early May pale pink buds emerge making way for soft white flat-topped flower clusters, know as cymes.
Maple-leaf Viburnum has a nectar that with its fragrance attracts bees, flower flies, moths and butterflies to help pollinate the flowers. It’s also a larval host of the Spring Azure.
The cyme, is one to three inches wide consisting of quarter inch wide individual flowers, a soft white often with a slight hint of pink.
These flowers must be cross-pollinated with another Maple-leaf Viburnum plant that is not an exact clone in order for berry-like drupes to appear in the autumn.
The fruits are attractive to many birds, including Ruffed Grouse, Cedar Waxwings, Cardinals, Hermit Thrushes, Eastern Bluebirds, Robin and Wild Turkeys.
If proper pollination takes place, the flowers give way to blue-black drupes in late autumn that may persist into the winter. The autumn leaf color ranges from shades of pink to red, leaning toward purple, and warm yellow. Gorgeous!
Late May into June they go from tiny bud to minuscule flower.
A flower and lots of buds of Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). A deciduous species of Holly native to eastern North America in the United States and southeastern Canada.
And now in WINTER a big splash of color. Crimson berries that attract oodles of birds like Bluebirds, Hermit Thrushes, Robins, Catbirds, and Cedar Waxwings. Brilliant color in a black and white, pen and ink landscape.
At the very top of my favorites for wintertime shrubs — Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). A deciduous species of Holly. Native to eastern North America, and is hardy in USDA zones 3 through 9. Winterberry is a dioecious bush that gets tiny inconspicuous flowers in June and July that attract bees and butterflies and is the host plant for one butterfly in particular, Henry’s Elfin Butterfly. Birds love the brilliant crimson berries which cling to their leafless branches in winter. I love them too, for their elegant beauty.
What are drupes? In botany a drupe is a plump fruit which does not split open when ripe, with a thin skin and a central shell containing a single seed. Examples are Almond, Cherry, Peach, Elderberry, Olive, Coffee, and Coconut. And of course Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) seen in the picture above.
Right now in the mountains there are many Blackhaw bushes or small trees with loads of drupes ripening from a pinkish red color to blue-black, sometimes with a white bloom. The drupes, if they last long enough, will dry and take on a raisin appearance. There is a long list of birds that enjoy the drupes including many of my favorites. A few of them: the Hermit Thrush, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, and Red-eyed Vireo. Autumn brings changes in the color of the leaves too, on these deciduous bushes. They really get into the spirit of the season with leaves turning many shades of red, purple, yellow and orange.
Tomorrow’s the first day of autumn. That’s got me thinking of what trees are going to be doing in the next several weeks. So many leaves. Leaves that will be turning the most exquisite warm colors of the color wheel. Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica) is one that comes to mind.
It’s a standout in its ability to go from rich emerald to an intense scarlet.
Those alternate and simple leaves are a bit thick and quite glossy on their top surface. The rich fall color a pure knockout.
Black Gum is a medium sized slow growing deciduous tree. This tree is happy in full sun and part shade and though it likes wet soil and will even grow in water-logged areas it does grow in dry areas too. So you can find it most anywhere up to an elevation of 3,000 feet.
Black Gum can live to be 650 years old, helping bees in the production of honey and providing berries for a multitude of birds. Native to eastern North America, from Southern Ontario to Florida and Texas. Its bark is said to be alligator hide like. The branches emerge from the trunk at very close to a 90 degree angle which I find to be a good way to help identify this species of tree. But give me an autumn day and I’ll pick out those luscious brilliant scarlet leaves. For me a dead giveaway.
_______________________
If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
I had no idea such a thing existed. A raspberry bush with such pretty flowers. Raspberry blossoms of a bright magenta rather than white. Being up on Skyline Drive at just the right time, during bloom time revealed this unusual plant to me. Purple-flowered Raspberry (Rubus odoratus).
Since it was growing in Shenandoah National Park, I knew it was native to this area. Sure enough it is a native deciduous perennial of Eastern North America. That was a signal to me. Get that plant for at least one of your gardens!
Now I have small bushes, still growing, getting bigger. They could possibly grow to be six feet tall and twelve feet across.
Autumn turns the leaves that resemble maple leaves into a golden hue. And surely you are wondering about the raspberries themselves. That is the downside of this bush. At least for humans. Everywhere I find the raspberries described as “insipid” or “somewhat dry, crumbly and unappetizing” but that is offset by the fact that the bushes are helpful to many birds, both game birds and songbirds. It’s also beneficial to butterflies and bees, and mammals both large and small. A good one to have.
