As I walked around the arboretum this week, I have been really surprised to see all of the ripe osoberries. Usually, I am lucky if I can find one that actually ripens enough to eat. When the cedar waxwings show back up at the arboretum, they will descend on these berries and gobble them up before they completely ripen. In years past, it was common to see 3 or 4 cedar waxwings in one osoberry shrub devouring the unripe berries. Also, I usually get lucky enough to see waxwings doing their courtship routine by passing a berry (see blog post: Osoberries Ripening, June 8, 2022), but I haven’t seen many waxwings down in the shrubs so far this year. Maybe they have been there when I haven’t been around. Robins will also eat their fair share too, and I have seen a few robins eating them. I suppose what I am getting at is that there seem to be fewer birds. Maybe there is a more inviting, nutritious food source around that they are eating at the moment. I am not sure. I also saw a chipmunk harvesting them. It was fun to see it pluck one and scurry over to a limb to eat the thin layer of fruit and the seed inside.
Bird Tracking
I came across what appeared to be bird poop. I started wondering what berry has these seeds. I didn’t have to look far to find Oregon grape berries. I brought one over and opened it to find what I believe are matching seeds. Over the next week or so, I would sit by patches of Oregon grape when I was walking past. I wanted to see what birds were eating them. One morning, I watched cedar waxwings and American robins swooping in and gobbling up the berries. Towhees were hoping around down low through the shrubs and on the ground. I didn’t see them eating them, but I suspect they were foraging on them too.
At this moment, I think of the book Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking. It is filled with heaps of great information and exercises to improve your awareness and become more tuned into the natural world. I credit this book with helping to spark my curiosity and wonder about nature.
Red-flowering Currant Berries
The red-flowering currant has vibrant, pink flower clusters for which the plant is named. When the berries form, they start as an inconspicuous green that blends in with the foliage. When they mature, they turn a dark blue that is coated with a white, waxy bloom.
It is a celestial life form with its frosty, cool surface. It has become peppered with cosmic freckles in its travels through the universe. This shrub could easily be called Blue Stardust berry or Blue Galaxy berry. I love the contrast between the radiant, pink flowers and the wintry-blue berry.
The field guide Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast states that the fruit is “unpalatable” or “edible but insipid.” I ate one. I found the taste to be okay, but the berries were seedy.
Resources
Pojar, Jim, and Andrew MacKinnon. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Revised ed, Lone Pine, 2004.
Pacific Ninebark seeds
Many of the pacific nine bark shrubs are loaded with clusters of seed pods. The pods have dried out and are splitting open to release their seeds. I squeezed one of the clusters a few times and small seeds came pouring out. They were smooth and a little shiny.
Several sources state that this plant is poisonous or toxic. I was unable to find any mention of the seeds being a food source for any animals, such as birds, mice, ants, etc. Although recently, I did find a pacific ninebark shrub down by the river that had been chewed by a beaver.
I’ll keep watching to see what animals are interacting with this plant.
Oregon Grape Flower Buds
Some of the flower buds of the Oregon grape have a delicate blush of red - a warm, rosy complexion on a cool winter’s day.
As I reflect back through my posts, there are a many varied hues of red gracing the landscape: the flaming crest of the pileated woodpecker, the red nape spot of the downy woodpecker, the subtle red of the snowberry buds, the iridescent gorget and crown of Anna’s hummingbird, the flaring buds of the red-flowering currant, the whimsical flowers of the hazelnut, the gentle buds of the Indian plum, the blazing head of the red-spotted garter snake, the subdued, red breast of the American robin, the fiery red-breasted sapsucker and the calming buds of the big leaf maple. Life is miraculous.
Snowberry Buds
This small shrub can be found throughout the arboretum. It grows as a scramble of small twigs that is both dense and airy at the same time. Its branches are a light gray-brown that are adorned with tiny, red buds that are easily overlooked. Some of the buds are starting to swell, and small leaves are beginning to emerge. Our open wintery landscape will soon be filled in with the green of spring.
Indian Plum Blooms
“I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
Red-flowering Currant
It was a cold, winter’s day. The evening sun broke through the cloudy sky. Its rays set aflame the buds of the red-flowering currant — a torch lighting the way for spring.
Hazelnut Flowers
Here we are, approaching mid-January, and the hazelnuts are blooming. The female flowers are shy. Their delicate, red stigmas quietly reach out from an olive-green vase. They are sweeping the air in hopes of collecting the golden pollen releasing from the male catkins. Some of the catkins are cascading open and are noticeable from a distance in the wintery landscape, while others have yet to open and remain tightly compact.
The flowers are wind pollinated and need to be from a separate, compatible, pollinating variety.
Indian Plum Buds
The buds of the Indian plum are beautiful. Their color is soft and subtle. They have a quiet luminosity that emit a soothing balm of peacefulness in these uncertain times.
This shrub grows throughout the landscape at the arboretum, and it is one of the first plants to flower in the spring.
Its Latin name is Oemleria cerasiformis. It is also known as osoberry.
