Fruits of Summer

Indian Cherry, Rhamnus caroliniana, is a shrub or small tree of dry, rocky glades, but it's also found near streams. It has a patchy distribution, show in the US Geological Survey map below. In Missouri, it's found south of the Missouri River, mostly in the Ozarks.

Range of Indian Cherry, USGS

The photo above was taken just a week ago. Now some of the fruit is beginning to turn red. The "Indian" part of it's name may be related to it medicinal use by Native Americans. According to Don Kurz in Trees of Missouri, they used it to induce vomiting. It's surprising how many plants were used as emetics in traditional medicine. I really don't get that.

Indian Cherry is also known as Carolina Buckthorn, even though it has no thorns. Wikipedia says its fruit ripens in summer, Dave Tylka, in Native Landscaping for Wildlife and People, says fall. This is the first time my little tree has fruit, so I'll let you know.

Pipevine fruit

Here's a mysterious fruit! My pipevine, Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia macrophylla, is 5 or 6 years old and it's also bearing fruit for the first time. I haven't been able to find anything about the fruit, except that like the rest of the plant, the fruit is poisonous. Pipevine blossoms are pollinated by tiny flies that get temporarily trapped in the weird little flower, so who knows? Perhaps some of the flies that pollinated my pawpaw tree performed the same service for the pipevine. Of course, I grow pipevine for the butterflies it attracts, not the poisonous products. I've written about the vine and the fascinating butterfly in earlier posts.

But wait! there's more! Not only have my Pawpaw (see previous post), Indian Cherry, and Dutchman's Pipevine borne fruit for the first time this year, my Golden Currant, Ribes odoratum, has joined in! There are four members of the Ribes genus native to Missouri, two gooseberries and two currants, but unlike its cousins, this shrub has no thorns. I wrote about Golden Currant's pollinators and fragrance this spring. It's fruit is ripe right now.

Golden Currant

Productivity in my small native plant landscape is pretty gratifying—a bit like my blog, which is now 1 year old! 

Wild Hydrangea

Wild Hydrangea holds on to the snow. AMcC

Low on a north-facing hillside at Girl Scout camp in the Missouri Ozarks, a large shelf of limestone protruded from the hill. Along a shallow ravine, it broke up into white, pitted boulders--some the size of a refrigerator, some the size of a pickup truck. In the deep shade grew ferns, mosses, and a few wild hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens). The quiet, the shafts of light through the high canopy of maples, soothing greens of the fern and hydrangea leaves, combined with the dramatic rocks to earn the area its name, "Green Cathedrals."
When no one will volunteer to crank the ice cream maker and best friends refuse to accompany each other to the latrine at night, it's time to go to Green Cathedrals. One counselor begins, saying, "On my honor, I will try." Another reads a poem about friendship. If it's the second week of the session, better sing all four verses of "Kumbyah" too--guaranteed to restore harmony in the group for a good 30 or 40 minutes.
 I don't have the same karst topography in my yard, but I can still enjoy wild hydrangea. Native bees love the flowers, because, unlike many cultivated hydrangeas, the large flower heads produce lots of pollen. Surrounding the flower head are "false" or sterile flowers with three relatively large petals. They open before the "true" flowers, and are still hanging on to my plant in the above photo, adding to the charm of this shrub. Tried and True Missouri Native Plants for Your Yard (Barbara Fairchild, ed., Missouri Dept. of Conservation, 2007) recommends pruning back branches in early spring, since most of the blooms appear on new growth. 
For a look at wild hydrangea through the seasons, click on one of these photos.

Fragrant Sumac in the Winner's Circle

Fragrant Sumac shows great fall color AMcC

If there were a triathlon of Midwestern native plants, Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) would be in the winner’s circle.

In the first leg of the triathlon, Wildlife Use, sumac’s performance is outstanding. Fragrant Sumac is one of the earliest blooming plants in our area (Midwestern US). Small yellow flowers appear in March, which, according to the US Forest Service, are pollinated by native bees. The red, hairy little red fruits are gobbled up by mockingbirds and others, since it is one of the first fruits available in summer. Caterpillars of the Red-banded Hairstreak eat fallen, decomposing sumac leaves (Brock and Kaufman, Butterflies of North America). I have seen this butterfly in my yard, but have never observed the caterpillar among the leaf litter.

Sumacs are host plants for two spectacular moths, both with outlandish caterpillars. The Showy Emerald Moth (Dichorda iridaria) caterpillar mimics a crumpled, dead sumac leaf. I haven’t seen this caterpillar yet, and I was unable to find a photo of one online, but nature-lovers should get a copy of David Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America just to see it. The adult Showy Emerald moth is beautiful. According to ButterfliesandMoths.org (hosted at Montana State University), its range centers on Missouri.

Hickory Horned Devil, photo by Tom Woodward

The startling Hickory Horned Devil can be almost 5 inches long! ButterfliesandMoths.org lists its food plant is “sumac.” It’s the larva of the Royal Walnut Moth, also known as Regal Moth. I haven’t seen these on my plants yet, but I’ve seen the adult moth nearby.

Fragrant sumac is a contender in the Garden Use leg of the competition. It’s a small shrub, drought-tolerant, native to glades and prairies. Dave Tylka recommends it as a good shrub for the understory of your wildlife garden (Native Landscaping for Wildlife and People). More than 10 years ago I purchased several plants of the variety named Gro-Low, named a Plant of Merit by Missouri Botanical Garden. It has formed a thick groundcover, just like I’d hoped it would. However, my plants have never borne fruit. Even though the Garden shows it with fruit, I think it is a sterile hybrid. Recently I bought three unimproved plants from a native plant nursery. They bloomed well their first spring and immediately bore fruit. In addition, I decided to experiment with a variety named ‘Konza Prairie,’ selected from the wild by the Kansas Forest Service for “its superior fruit production.” I think the natives have better fall color too, which leads me to the final leg of our triathlon.

Royal Walnut moth, photo by Cherie Priest

We’ve had a good fall for leaf color this year, though not perfect. According to Missouri Environment and Garden, Oct. 2010, (newsletter of the University of Missouri’s Plant Protection Programs) the best fall color occurs when days are warm and nights are cool. We’ve had too many warm nights in October and November this year for optimal color, but it’s still been great. The first picture above is one of my “unimproved” fragrant sumacs and its purple leaves show that the anthocyanins have done their job. In the interest of full disclosure though, there is one plant that may outrun my little Rhus aromatica—its cousin, Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra). This small tree has tropical-looking leaves that are dazzling red in fall. I may have to add it to my collection.

A big shout out to my Flickr friends Tom Woodward and Cherie Priest for the use of their Creative Commons photos!

Smooth Sumac's autumn show is hard to beat. AMcC