Woods Awash With Soft Yellow-green

The woods are full of small, soft yellow-green blooms now. Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is showing off its flowers.

Spicebush, the larval host plant of the Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) is a perennial shrub that often reaches to 15 feet, sometimes 20 feet. It is dioecious, meaning there are only male or female flowers on a single bush. It also means that the beautiful crimson berries that appear in autumn are only on the female bushes.

A lovely shrub to have growing throughout my woods.

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Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.