Pinus strobus, Eastern White Pine

I attended the New York Botanical Garden's (NYBG) Orchid Show recently.  Since it was (unlike many previous years) a gloriously beautiful day, our little group spent hours wandering the grounds, getting off and on the tram.  The tree peonies were in lush, lascivious bloom, and we marveled at the colors and forms, not to mention the names.  Try "Coiled Dragon in the Mist Grasping the Purple Pearl".  We wondered who dreamed that one up!  But what does all this have to do with a native habitat restoration?  I'll tell you:  The NYBG is hard at work doing what we're doing, creating a native plant area in the middle of the garden.  It's all walled off right now, but we could see major equipment behind the walls.  It will be open in 2013, and I'm very anxious to see the result of their work.
A major feature of the NYBG is their conifer area, many of which are rare.  Not at all rare, our guest on this post is the native conifer Pinus strobus, the Eastern White Pine, one of the most common evergreens used as a Christmas tree depending on heritage and customs and said to be a source of inspiration for the United States Constitution.

Centuries ago, some say millenia, tribes that inhabited what is now much of eastern North America fought cruel bloody wars. It was a dark and mournful time.  According to the  legend, the Creator sent a spiritual teacher, the Peacemaker, who canoed from the western shore of Lake Ontario  to lead the tribes in fulfilling the Creator's wish that the tribes work toward peace and unity and to inspire the warring tribes to form a league, which we know as the Iroquois Confederacy, the Haudenosaunee, whose primary national symbol is the Great White Pine, serving throughout the Great Law as a metaphor for the Confederacy.  Historians believe the Confederacy was established in the 13th or 14th century.  Hiawatha was converted by and became a follower of the Peacemaker.

The Great Law of Peace laid out a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" with three branches. The Onondaga, the Firekeepers, are the heart of the Confederacy. The legislative branch is in two parts: Mohawk and Seneca are Elder Brothers who form the upper house, while Oneida and Cayuga are Younger Brothers.  The Iroquois Women's Councils settle disputes and judge legal violations.  The Peacemaker conferred this important responsibility on women because the first person to accept the message of peace and unity was a Seneca woman, Jigonsaseh, who became known as the Mother of Nations.



Iroquois pine needle basket

Evergreens often symbolize immortality and eternal life because they retain their leaves throughout the winter. To the Iroquois people, the white pine is a symbol of the Great Peace that united their separate nations into an enduring League. The Peace Tree is related to the Tree of Light, a central symbol in Iroquois cosmology. Similar mythological trees are found in European traditions, including the Norse World Tree and the medieval Christian Tree of Life. The World Tree symbolizes the unity of all life, and the struggle of order and growth against chaos and disintegration. The white pine is thus linked to one of the most universal spiritual symbols of the human species.

P. strobus cone, the state flower of Maine

Photo by Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service

The tallest native conifer in eastern North America, Pinus strobus is the state tree of Maine and Michigan. The tree's branching rings, added each year, and having only five-needles per cluster make it unique among the eastern pines--see photo below.

Pine needles; inset shows 5-needle clusters

 

 Other common names are northern white pine, soft pine, Weymouth pine (especially in England) and white pine; a related variety is found in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is found across southern Canada from Newfoundland, Anticosti Island, and Gaspé peninsula of Quebec; west to central and western Ontario and extreme southeastern Manitoba; south to southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa; east to northern Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; and south mostly in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina. It is also found in western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and Delaware.  While it covered most of the northeast, extensive logging has reduced virgin, that is, never been logged, stands to a few known locations, such as in the Sylvania Wilderness in the Ottowa National Forest of Michigan, shown in the photo below.  It is also naturalizing, that is, establishing itself by seed of imported ornamental specimens, in the mountains of Poland and the Czech Republic.

  Katherine Lake  Photo by Joseph O'Brien, USDA Forest Service

The tallest known specimen, the Boogerman pine, climbed and measured by tape drop from the tops of trees, was just shy of 190 feet; I say 'was' because it lost its top in a 1995 hurricane, and with that lost its status as champion eastern white pine.  The current champion, also climbed and measured by tape drop, is in Pennsylvania's Cook Forest State Park, topping the chart at 183.6 feet.  Please visit the  Eastern Native Tree Society at http://www.nativetreesociety.org/ for more information about champion trees as well as information about trees seen through art, poetry, music, mythology, science, medicine, wood crafts, and collecting research data for a variety of purposes.  The photo below shows a large eastern white pine being measured in a park in Belgium.



Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont, 2007

White pines  prefer well-drained soil and cool, humid climates, but also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests it towers over all other trees, including the large hardwoods. It provides food and shelter for many forest birds and small mammals.

In times past white pines with high quality wood were used for ship masts. These trees were marked by the British and reserved for the British navy, which built special barges that carried as many as 50 trunks.  The colonists did not approve and delighted in seeing how many of the king's trees they could get away with cutting down for themselves.

The needles of  P. strobus have five times as much vitamin C as lemons by weight and can be steeped into a fine tea.  The name 'Adirondack' is an Iroquois word meaning 'tree eater'; Native Americans would collect the soft inner bark, the cambium, dry it, and pound it into flour to make pine bark bread in lean times.  The young cones were also eaten, stewed with meat.  And pine nuts are popular for many recipes even today.

Baked Stuffed Figs with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts (Serves 4) 

  

12 ripe figs
150 g (5 1/4 oz.) soft goat cheese
Handful of chives, finely snipped
Few thyme sprigs, leaves stripped
45 mL (3 tbsp) toasted pine nuts
Good quality balsamic vinegar, to drizzle

Trim off the tip from each fig; cut a cross through the top, cutting about halfway down. Squeeze the base of each fig to open out the top quarters like a flower.

Stuff the figs with goat cheese; sprinkle with snipped chives, thyme leaves and pine nuts; and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Stand the figs on a large piece of foil. Bring up the sides and fold together to seal the package (can be prepped to this point in advance). You can either bake the figs in a hot oven, preheated to 200 C (400 F), or on a barbecue. They should take about 10 to 12 minutes. Unwrap package and serve immediately.

Salix discolor, American Willow, Harbinger of Spring

While our habitat trees were dozing the winter away in their dormant state, the blog also went dormant.  But now that spring has truly sprung, our trees are waking, as we are, to the pleasures of sunshine, balmy breezes, and nurturing rainfall.  Our trees look good in their deer-resistant cages--only a bit of nibble here and there where branches found a way outside cages.

Beloved by children who delight in touching its soft, furry catkins that emerge in early spring, this deciduous shrub or small tree is commonly called Pussy Willow.  It is native to forests and wetlands across Canada and in the northern United States from Maine to Idaho as far south as Maryland.  There are male and female trees.  The male catkins are showier; they are the ones sold in markets and the ones people trudge out in the snow to find, cut, and bring into the house as harbingers of spring. 

Trimming Pussy Willow to make the wreath below

Directions: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/design/projects/make-a-gorgeous-pussy-willow-wreath/

Like other willows, the Pussy Willow is easy to propagate.  Cut ends of wild or a neighbor's branches will root in moist soil in the summer if cuttings about a foot long and as thick as a pencil are taken from new growth on a male tree--the male is the one you want for its  showy catkins.  Or you can root them in water indoors and plant them out in summer.  Do not plant them over a septic field or near water or sewer lines because their roots are invasive.

According to the Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project of Prince Edward Island, willow buds are second only to the buds of poplars as preferred food of ruffed grouse. Beaver, muskrat, red squirrel, and snowshoe hare all include willow in their diet. The leaves are rich in Vitamin C and zinc. Pussy willows are an important nesting site for American goldfinch, while other songbirds use them to a lesser degree. The cover and protection thickets of willow provide are probably of equal importance to wildlife as its food value.

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) male in breeding plumage, by Wikipedia user Mdf

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, May 2007

Deer also like to eat the branches of pussy willows. All this attention from wildlife has its good side, especially for wildlife watching, but if you don't want your pussy willows damaged, you'll have to protect them.

The willows are a very large family with about 400 species, all of which have abundant, watery bark and sap that is heavily charged with salacin, which is converted into salicylic acid when ingested; it in turn is a precursor of aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid.  People throughout the ages have utilized the willow for healing, tools, and spirituality. Hippocrates wrote of its healing powers in the 5th century BC; it was known throughout the ancient world, and Native Americans regarded it as the cornerstone of medical treatment. The legends and histories about willows span a variety of cultures throughout the world.

The American Pussy Willow has relatives in Europe and Asia with similar characteristics.  The branches all produce catkins well before the leaves emerge, so wherever you find them, they will be used for decorative purposes.  The branches are a favorite of the Chinese for New Year decorations because the new growth represents prosperity; they are bought in the markets, then adorned with red and gold ornaments, which signify prosperity and happiness.  In Southeast Asia, pieces of red, pink, and yellow felt are used.  In Europe and America, the branches have been used instead of palm leaves on Palm Sunday because palms grow only in southern areas.  To this day, the custom endures among some immigrants to North America, including Russian Orthodox and Polish, Bavarian, and Austrian Roman Catholics; the branches are often preserved all year long in families' icon corners.  See http://resurrectionwillows.tripod.com/propagation.html for more information.

Pussy Willow decorated for Lunar New Year

Polish Legend of the Pussy Willow 

One day in early spring, a mother cat and her kittens where exploring the forest along the river near their home. A beautiful butterfly drifted past them and over the water. The kittens, being young and inexperienced, leaped into the air to try and catch the butterfly, but instead landed in the swiftly moving water.

The mother cat cried helplessly while her young kittens struggled against the current. The kittens were having a hard time, and she was afraid they would soon drown.

Along the banks grew a wise willow, with graceful branches that bent all the way to the water. The willow, seeing all that had happened, bent its branches further into the water to try to rescue the kittens. Each kitten grabbed with its sharp claws, and was pulled gently to the shore by the willow.

To this day, the willow is honored for its heroic deeds by the

tiny fur-like buds that sprout each season as the rivers start

to run in spring.

 





Sassafras and an Ancient Choctaw Creation Story

Or, How Sassafras Saved the Life of the Last Person on Earth

When the missionaries first came to the Choctaws in Mississippi in 1818, this tradition was told them about as follows: In ancient times after men had lived a long period upon the earth they became very corrupt and wicked, and deluged the earth with so much blood and carnage that the Great Spirit finally decided to utterly destroy them. He, therefore, sent a prophet among them, who went from tribe to tribe and from village to village proclaiming the fearful tidings that the race was soon to be destroyed. No one paid any attention to him, however, and people went on in their wickedness as carelessly as ever. But one year, with the coming of autumn, mists and clouds gathered over the earth, so that there was no sun shining by day nor did the moon and stars light up the gloom of night. The situation grew gradually worse until the earth became shrouded in total darkness. The air was chill and all animate nature became silent. People too became silent and perplexed, but yet they gave no evidence of repenting for their evil deeds. They were compelled to find their way from place to place by light of torches.

The food that they had stored away became mouldy and unfit to eat. Soon the silence of the skies was broken by muttering thunder. As time went on, the thunderings grew louder and spread to almost every quarter of the sky. The wild beasts, overcome with terror, lost their dread of man and crept up around the village fires that gave the only relief from the general darkness and cold. People grew despondent, and the death songs were chanted everywhere. The Medicine Men could offer no explanation and had no hope to offer the striken people. But yet there was no repentance, no turning of a sinful people back to the Great Spirit – only a sullen fatalism.

One day very suddenly there came a crash of thunder much louder than had ever been heard before. The whole earth seemed to shake and tremble with the reverberation. Then, as people looked towards the north, they seemed to see a light – the first they had seen for many a long dark day. But whatever hope may have been aroused in their breasts was dissipated. For what they saw was not the return of the long lost sun, but it was the gleam of a great mountain of water, advancing in great billows from the north, covering the entire earth and destroying everything in its path. With the cry, “Oka Falamah, Oka Falamah” (the returning waters, the returning waters) the doomed people turned away in one last vain effort to escape. But there was no escape. The whole earth was soon covered even to the tops of the mountains by the vast flood, and men and animals alike perished, leaving only a desolate wilderness of waters.

Of all mankind, only one remained, and that was the mysterious prophet who had so faithfully yet vainly proclaimed the warnings of the Great Spirit. This prophet had been directed by the Great Spirit to build a raft of sassafras logs, upon which he floated safely above the destroying flood, while he gazed sadly upon the dead bodies of men and beasts as they floated past him in the dark waters.
The prophet floated aimlessly about for many weeks, until at last one day he saw a large black bird circling over his raft. He cried to it for help, but the bird only uttered a few harsh croaks and flew away to be seen no more. Some days later the prophet saw a smaller bird, bluish in color, with red beak and eyes, hovering over the raft. Again he asked this bird if there was a spot of dry land to be found anywhere in the waste of waters. It hovered over him for a few moments as if trying in its soft mournful voice to give the desired information, and then flew off towards the west where the new sun was again setting in splendor. Almost at once a strong wind arose which carried the raft in the direction in which the bird had gone. All night, it floated on under the moon and stars which shone again with renewed brightness.

When the sun rose the next morning the prophet saw in the distance an island towards which his raft seemed to be drifting. Before the sun went down again, the raft had moved along until it touched the island, and the tired prophet landed, and glad to be on the earth once more, he lay down and slept until the sun rose the next day. Much refreshed, he then began to look about the island, where to his surprise, he found every variety of animal formerly found on the earth (except the mammoth), and all the birds and fowl also. Among the birds he noticed the great black bird that had visited and deserted him upon the waters. This bird he named “fulushto” – the raven – always thereafter regarded as a bird of ill omen by the Choctaws.

He was overjoyed also to find again the little bluish bird that had hovered over him and caused the breeze to blow that brought his raft safe to the pleasant island. Because of its beauty and of its kindly deed he named this bird “Puchi Yushuba” (Lost Pigeon).

The prophet lived on this island for many days, until finally the waters passed away, and the earth once more took its former appearance, with hills, valleys, and grassy prairies. Then the strangest of all things happened Puchi Yushuba was changed by the Great Spirit into a beautiful young woman, who soon became the wife of the prophet, and by their children the world was repeopled. But the Indian people never again became so rashly disobedient to the Great Spirit, and never forgot the lesson of Oka Falamah, the “Returning Waters.”

By W.B. Morrison
For more legends of the Choctaw, see http://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=43

Sassafras albidum



Tri-lobed leaves of S. albidum


Is there a more intriguing name than Sassafras?  This eastern North American species is native from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa and south to central Florida and eastern Texas. It occurs throughout the eastern deciduous forest habitat type, at altitudes of sea level up to about 5000 feet.  It once occurred in southern Wisconsin, but is extirpated there as a native tree.

Sassafras albidum is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 30 feet tall (less in its northern range) with a trunk up to 2 feet diameter (also less in its northern range) and a crown with many slender branches. The bark on trunk of mature trees is thick, dark red-brown, and deeply furrowed.  The shoots are bright yellow green at first with mucilaginous (slippery) bark that turns reddish brown and in two or three years begins to show shallow fissures. The leaves come in three different shapes, all of which can be on the same branch; three-lobed leaves, unlobed elliptical leaves, and two-lobed leaves; there are rarely more than three lobes. In fall, they turn shades of yellow tinged with red. The flowers are produced in loose, drooping, few-flowered racemes in early spring shortly before the leaves appear; they are yellow to greenish-yellow with five or six tepals (petals and sepals) It is usually dioecious, i.e., has male and female flowers on separate trees.  Pollination is by insects. The fruit is a small, dark blue-black drupe containing a single seed that ripens in late summer; the seeds are dispersed by birds. All parts of the plant are aromatic and spicy—like the root beer made from the bark. The roots are thick and fleshy, and frequently produce root sprouts which can develop into new trees.


 

Flowers



Fruit

It prefers rich, well-drained sandy loam, but will grow in any loose, moist soil. Seedlings will tolerate shade, but saplings and older trees demand full sunlight for good growth; in forests it typically regenerates in gaps created by wind. Growth is rapid, particularly with root sprouts, which can reach 15 feet in 4 years. Root sprouts often result in dense thickets, and a single tree, if allowed to spread unrestrained, will soon be surrounded by a sizable clonal colony, as its roots extend in every direction and send up multitudes of shoots.

A colony with many shoots

Sassafras is often grown as an ornamental tree for its unusual leaves and aromatic scent. Outside of its native area, it is occasionally cultivated in Europe and elsewhere. The wood is dull orange brown, hard, and durable in contact with the soil; it was used in the past for posts and rails, small boats and yokes for oxen, though scarcity and small size limit current use. Some is still used for making furniture. An essential oil, called sassafras oil, is distilled from the root bark or the fruit. It was used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food (sassafras tea and candy flavoring) and for aromatherapy. The smell of sassafras oil is said to make an excellent repellent for mosquitoes and other insects,[citation needed] which makes it a nice garden plant. Acids can be extracted from bark for manufacturing perfumes. The essential oil was used as a pain killer as well as an antiseptic in dentistry.  The pith is used to soothe eye inflammation.

The root or root bark is used to make tea, although most commercial so-called sassafras teas are now artificially flavored as a result of the 1976 FDA ban on sassafras oil containing safrole, a potent carcinogen. A yellow dye is obtained from the wood. The shoots were used to make root beer, a traditional soft drink beverage carbonated with yeast, which owed its characteristic odor and flavor to the sassafras extract. Most commercial root beers have replaced the sassafras extract with methyl salicylate, found in wintergreen and black birch (Betula lenta) bark. A safrole-free sassafras extract is now available for flavoring. The dried and ground leaves, which do not contain safrole, are known as filé powder.  

Filé is still used for thickening sauces and soups in Cajun, Creole, and other Louisiana cooking, notably in the dish filé gumbo.  Early Louisiana  settlers learned about filé from the Choctaw Indians.  With an earthy taste that is similar to thyme combined with savory, ground sassafras will lend a unique flavor to stews, sauces and other hearty dishes. It also serves as a thickening agent but should only be stirred in at the end of cooking. If allowed to boil, filé powder will cause a liquid to become stringy and unappetizing.  

Seafood and Chicken Filé Gumbo Serves 3-4

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

4 Tbsp Creole Seasoning

1 Cup Onions, diced

1/2 Cup Green Bell Pepper, diced

1/2 Cup Celery, diced

1 Cup Andouille sausage, sliced or diced

1/2 Cup Tasso, diced

3 Tbsp Garlic, chopped

8 Cups Shrimp or Seafood Stock

3 Fresh Bay Leaves

4 Chicken Thighs, boned cut into 1″ pieces, then seasoned liberally with Creole Seasoning

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Hot Sauce to taste

1 lb. Fresh Shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 Dozen Oysters, shucked

Kosher Salt to taste, if necessary

2 Tbsp Italian Parsley, chopped

1/4 Cup Thinly Sliced Green Onions

Boiled Rice

Fresh French Bread

Filé Powder and hot sauce at the table

Mix your onion, celery, and bell pepper (known down in Louisiana as the Holy Trinity).  Heat the oil in a cast iron dutch oven over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook to make a milk chocolate-colored roux. Add the Andouille, 1 Tbsp of seasoning, and 3/4 of the Holy Trinity, cook, stirring often, for about ten minutes or until the vegetables soften. Gradually whisk in the stock, then add the remaining seasoning, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken and simmer until cooked through. About 10 minutes before you are ready to serve add the shrimp, cook until done, then add the oysters and cook until the edges curl. Add the Worcestershire, Hot Sauce, and 1/2 of the Green Onions. Serve with boiled rice and crusty French Bread. Garnish with green onions and parsley.  Pass hot sauce (for those who like it hotter) and filé powder (for those who like it thicker) at the table.

A word of caution:  Commercial filé often contains no sassafras at all and won't taste right or do the thickening job it is supposed to do.  To make your own 100% filé powder, first find a sassafras tree.  Take some branches (traditionally during the August full moon) with young leaves and hang them in the sun sheltered from rain to dry for a week (this can also be done in a low oven at 200 degrees in a shorter time).  When the leaves are dry, remove the leaves from the stems and pulverize  in a mortar and pestle, a spice grinder, or a food processor.  Press the powder through a  fine sieve to remove all of the little twigs, and tough pieces.

Store in the dark in an airtight container.





A yummy chicken & seafood filé gumbo with rice. Pass the Tabasco







Liriodendron tulipifera, State Tree of Indiana, Kentucky, & Tennessee

Liriodendron tulipifera, also known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar, yellow poplar (not a poplar at all,but so named for its resemblance to poplar's fluttering leaves), whitewood, or canoewood (Appalachian Native Americans used them for their dugout canoes) is the tallest eastern hardwood.  A member of the Magnolia family, it is native to eastern North America from southern Ontario to central Florida and from Illinois through New England.  A majestic tree, it can grow to as tall as 190' with a 10' diameter trunk in virgin forests of the Appalachian Mountains, often with no limbs until it reaches 80-100' tall, making it a very valuable timber tree. It is fast-growing, but doesn't exhibit the common problems of wood weakness and short lifespan often seen in fast-growing species. It flowers in April in its southern range, June in more northerly areas. The flowers are pale green or yellow (rarely white), with an orange band on the tepals*.  Nectar is produced from the orange areas; in a good nectar-producing year, nectar will 'rain' from the trees in a breeze.  Trees generally start blooming at around 15 years old.

Two of these trees are probably the oldest living things in the New York metropolitan area.  The Alley Pond Park Giant in Queens is more than 135' tall and possibly as much as 450 years old.  The Clove Lake Colossus on Staten Island is more than 120' feet tall with a more massive trunk**.  The oldest known specimen was discovered near Forge Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; its age is estimated to be over 500 years--thus getting its start around the time of Columbus' voyage to the New World in 1492.

Large, beautiful flower of L. tulipifera

Leaf and bark

The tulip tree makes a stately landscape specimen in deep, well-drained loam rich in organic matter.  Grown in full sun, it does not attain maximum height; this is a result of its shade intolerance, so the tallest specimens are found in forests reaching for the sun.  There are several cultivars, some of which are relatively diminutive, such as 'Ardis Dwarf', a mere 12-18' tall, for smaller spaces; there is also a fastigiate (narrow columnar) form.  Because of its beauty, it has been introduced in many parts of the world, including west of the Mississippi River outside its natural range in North America. 

Young specimen showing brilliant fall color

The species is a major honey tree, producing a strongly flavored reddish honey much loved by bakers, but which gets mixed reviews as a table honey.  The soft, fine-grained wood of tulip trees is known as poplar or yellow poplar in the states, but marketed abroad as "American tulipwood" other names. It is very widely used where a cheap, easy-to-work and stable wood is needed. It is the wood of choice for use in organs and commonly used for siding clapboards. Its wood may be compared in texture, strength, and softness to white pine.  It has also been used for the interior finish of houses, for siding, for panels of carriages, for coffin boxes, furniture stock, veneer, pulpwood, and wooden ware. It has a reputation for being resistant to termites, and in the Upland South (and perhaps elsewhere) house and barn sills were often made of tulip poplar beams. 

The fruits provide food for squirrels in the late fall and winter months, and white-tailed deer often browse on the twigs.



Massive trunk of mature specimen near Forge Creek in Great Smoky Mountains NP

Photo copyright:  Neil Pederson

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~adk/oldlisteast/Spp/LITU.html

*The outer part of a flower sometimes referred to as petals and sepals.
**See http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/10/arts/a-rendezvous-with-2-giants.html

Ilex glabra

We've been going by the habitat restoration regularly to check on our planting.  We're now sure it is the deer that have been pulling over our cages intended to protect the trees and shrubs.  A fellow who lives across the street and helps us put the cages back up told us he sees them do it.  The deer regularly visit him, snacking on everything in sight.  There are two young'uns and a doe with a limp.

There are 6 Ilex glabra (meaning smooth, related to the leaf surface) in the planting, a native holly with several regional names, including inkberry, Appalachian tea, dye-leaves, evergreen winterberry, and gallberry (the source of gallberry nectar honey, popular in the plant's southern range).  Native to the eastern and south-central parts of the country especially along the coastal plains, it is one of the very few evergreen shrubs (broadleaf or narrowleaf) that thrive in acidic wet sites, but it will adapt to various soil pHs as well as dry soils.  It is noted for its evergreen foliage and upright, spreading, and suckering shrub growth habit when in species form, but the compact cultivars serve as an alternative to boxwood in situations where a refined but taller and faster growing broadleaf evergreen is needed and an alternative to Japanese holly when a more cold-hardy broadleaf evergreen is needed.

In addition to being an excellent shrub for naturalized and wet areas, Ilex glabra functions well for foundations, borders, group plantings, mass plantings, formal or informal hedges, backgrounds, or specimens.  It takes well to shearing, an asset for a shrub that otherwise has a tendency to legginess, and is adaptable to full sun or full shade.   The foliage has a fine texture and thick density until maturity, when it may become average to open in its density unless it has been periodically sheared.

The flowers are insignificant, well-hidden among the dense foliage.  The fruit is a drupe*, green maturing to reddish, then to inky black, whence the common name.  Unsheared, the shrub may grow to 5-10', but may be maintained at any desired height by shearing any time of year.

  Inky black berries

Dense evergreen foliage

  There may be 5-7 petals

Another desirable feature of this extremely adaptable shrub is its resistance to deer damage.  Although no plant is deer proof, plants in the Rarely Damaged, and Seldom Severely Damaged categories would be best for landscapes prone to deer damage. Plants Occasionally Severely Damaged and Frequently Severely Damaged are often preferred by deer and should only be planted with additional protection such as the use of fencing, repellents, etc. Success of any of these plants in the landscape will depend on local deer populations and weather conditions.  Ilex glabra is is the Seldom Severely Damaged category.  If your garden is plagued by deer, you can look for plants that will best meet your needs at the very useful site http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistance/.  A final reason for planting Ilex glabra:  It is threatened in Maine, New York, and Connecticut and considered extirpated in the state of Pennsylvania.

*A fruit with an outer fleshy part surrounding a pit or stone with a seed inside.  Examples are peach, apricot, mango, olive, coffee, most palms, pistachio, cherry, plum, and almond.  Brambles such as blackberry and raspberry are aggregate fruits composed of clusters of drupelets. If the fleshy outer part of a drupe is actually dry or fibrous, such as the coconut, it is called a husk, and the fruit is classified differently.  In the case of mulberries, their multiple, not aggregate fruits are actually derived from bunches of catkins (flower clusters), each drupelet thus belonging to a different flower.

Meet Amelanchier canadensis

This temperate region native of the Northern Hemisphere has so many common names it is probably futile to search for them all.  Shadblow, Juneberry (because some species' fruit ripens in June), serviceberry,  shadbush, shadwood, sarvisberry, wild pear, saskatoon or saskatoon (derived from the Cree Indian name; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is named after it) berry, sugarplum or wild-plum, Eastern shadbush, amélanchier (derived from the Provencal name for a European species) du Canada and chuckley pear, not to mention  numerous cultivars.  If you know of another local name, please drop a comment.  At least one species is native to every state except Hawaii as well as every Canadian province and territory.  There are a few species in Europe and Asia.
The genus comprises  about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the Rose family (Rosaceae), though there is considerable disagreement about this among experts because hybridization and asexual seed production complicate the identification of species.  The various species grow from extensive, low shrubby patches only a few inches tall to 65 feet tall.  Some are single-trunk trees; some are multistemmed shrubs that may be coppiced, that is, cut back nearly to the ground using a traditional method of woodland management that induces new growth from the base of the plant; plants managed in this way never die of old age, but are maintained in a perpetually juvenile state.  Coppicing also restricts the size a plant can attain in a season, keeping naturally larger specimens from attaining full size so they can be maintained in smaller gardens; such plants are especially suitable for bonsai.  For more on this interesting subject, see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing.

Amelanchier plants are important to wildlife and are preferred browse for deer and rabbits. Heavy browsing pressure can suppress natural regeneration. Caterpillars such as Brimstone Moth, Brown-tail, Grey Dagger, Mottled Umber, Rough Prominent, Satellite, Winter Moth, Red-Spotted Purple and White Admiral as well as various other  insects feed on Amelanchier. Many insects and diseases that attack orchard trees also affect this genus.
The fruit of several species are excellent to eat raw, tasting somewhat like a blueberry, strongly accented by the almond-like flavour of the seeds. Fruit is harvested locally for pies and jams as well as to flavor wine, beer, and cider.  The saskatoon berry is harvested commercially; Canadian growers are positioning their crops as "superfoods" because of their high nutritional value. One version of the Native American food pemmican was flavored by serviceberry fruits in combination with minced dried meat and fat, and the stems were made into arrow shafts; other forms of pemmican used chokecherries, huckleberries, or cranberries, depending on location in North America, and season.

Amelanchier fruit resembles the blueberry

The wood is brown, hard, close-grained, and heavy. The heartwood is reddish-brown, the sapwood lighter in color. It can be used for tool handles and fishing rods.

Widely used as an ornamental plant, Amelanchier canadensis attracts wildlife to the garden and provides interest in all seasons.  Below, white spring flowers sway gracefully in the breeze:



Fall color is another outstanding feature of A. canadensis; hybrids may be redder; the many and varied stems of this grove will provide winter interest

Propagation is by seed, divisions, and grafting. Serviceberries graft so readily that grafts onto other genera, such as Crataegus (quince) and Sorbus (ash), are often successful.