As I walk up the zigzag trail on the hillside behind the White Oak Pavilion, I am struck by the ghostly, dying leaves of the osoberry. The ashen color greatly contrasts with the surrounding green of the forest and the first days of summer.
On the underside of many of the leaves there are tiny insects that are apparently sucking the life out of the leaves. As I stood there looking at this distressed plant, I remembered all the life stirring in this shrub not long ago. Cedar waxwings were passing the still ripening osoberries back and forth in courtship. Robins were building nests in the sanctuary of the vibrant foliage and gobbling up the berries.
I am only seeing the ones in the forest completely infested. The osoberry shrubs along the creek trail and the river trail only have a few leaves with these insects on them. I am also starting to see some of the leaves turn yellow. The leaves of the osoberry are some of the first plants to get their leaves in the spring and they seem to be naturally the first ones to start to lose them during the warm, dry days of summer.
So, the question for me is: Why are the osoberry shrubs in the forest so infested and the other ones are only mildly… buggy ?
