More Blooming Shrubs

The shrubs at Blue Jay Barrens really took advantage of the week of warm weather we just had.  Redbud flower buds were just beginning to color and swell a week ago.  Now they’re in full bloom.

Redbuds are the most colorful of the spring blooming shrubs and are a valuable nectar source for some butterflies and larger bees.  The flower shape makes it difficult for many of the smaller insects to access the nectar.

Fragrant Sumac flowers are normally available at the same time as the Redbuds and are much more insect friendly.  I see a greater diversity of insects visiting these flowers than any other spring blooming plant.

Serviceberry is known for its early blooms, but it’s blooming a full month earlier than it did last year.  I’m wondering what will happen to some of these shrubs if we manage to get a hard freeze this spring.  Freeze warnings have been posted for Tuesday morning, so I guess we’ll be having the first test really soon.

These are Prickly Ash flowers in full bloom.  If you get close enough to the bush to see these flowers, you’ll most likely get snagged on one of the many thorns that give Prickly Ash its name.

Other shrubs are making rapid progress, but have not yet reached the bloom stage.  The bracts have folded away from the Flowering Dogwood flower buds.  These flowers should be blooming by next week.

The bracts will continue to enlarge and lighten in color until they create a brilliant white frame to the cluster of small flowers.  The showy bracts are what create the impressive display.

Black Haw is producing clusters of flower buds and won’t be far behind the dogwoods in blooming.  It seems that spring is rushing past too quickly to enjoy everything. Last year at this time we had only been snowless for a couple of weeks and were enjoying the arrival of more moderate temperatures.  This year it feels like we’re already pushing into summer. 

Blooming Shrubs

A look at some common Blue Jay Barrens shrubs showed only one species to be in full bloom.  The Hazelnut, Corylus americana, is covered with flowers, but the small size of the bloom makes it nearly impossible to notice.

Hazelnut is one of those plants that produces separate male and female flowers.  The long male flowers, called catkins, are produced in the fall, but don’t mature until early spring.  When the scales of the catkin pull back and the color lightens to a pale green, the female flowers should be present.

Like many of our native shrubs, Hazelnut grows in the forest understory and effectively blends with its surroundings.

Buds of the Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica, have not yet begun to enlarge.  It would not be surprising to see some of these flowers emerge within the next week.

Fragrant Sumac commonly grows at the edges of small openings or fields.  The blooms produce an abundant supply of nectar and are visited by a wide variety of insects.

Buds of the Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, are just beginning to swell.  The buds look to have suffered very little winter damage this year.  Hopefully, weather conditions will continue to support a good flower show.

All of the Flowering Dogwood branches are loaded with flower buds.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen such a good prelude to the flowering season.

Redbuds are pushing out from beneath their protective scales.  Blooming of the Redbuds coincides with the emergence of the Henry’s Elfin butterflies.  The tiny butterflies will mate and then lay their eggs on the young Redbud blooms.  The size of the Blue Jay Barrens population of this uncommon butterfly tends to fluctuate along with the success of the Redbud flowers.

Flowers of the Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, are not far from emergence.  That’s a leaf bud tucked in between the developing flowers.  I’ll be back later in the year to examine the leaves for larvae of the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.

Fragrant Sumac in the Prairie

Being a native plant doesn’t mean that the plant cannot also be invasive.  I consider a native plant to be invasive if it becomes established in a desired ecosystem and has the ability to replace the existing plant complex with something else.  The invasive designation is based on management goals.  This means that a single species can be both a desirable native plant and an invasive plant depending upon where it is found at Blue Jay Barrens.  A good example of this is the Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica, shown here invading a tall grass prairie, but growing a hundred yards away as a desirable native understory shrub.

This process of ecosystem replacement is called succession and is a natural and perpetually occurring event.  Grassland is taken over by brush – Brush gives way trees – Trees grow into forest.  If the process was never disrupted, all we would have is forest.  The idea of ecosystem management is to inject intentional disruptions that hold succession at a particular stage. 

The Fragrant Sumac forms a dense stand of branches that eventually eliminates the tall grasses and prairie forbs.  The branches of the sprawling shrub can be overtopped by the tall grass, so the incursion is often hard to detect until the sumac is well established and expanding its territory.

I find a lot of value in Fragrant Sumac when it grows in a field edge or shaded understory situation.  These buds will develop into early spring flowers that are visited by a wide variety of butterflies, moths, flies and beetles.  In my management activities, I try to leave plenty of these shrubs in a condition to bloom.

When a patch of Fragrant Sumac gets out of control in the prairie, I work to reduce its vigor or eliminate it entirely.  This clump of sumac was mowed and will be sprayed in the spring.

There’s very little left in the way of prairie vegetation at the heart of the sumac infestation.  The green grasses are bluegrass and fescue, both of which are non-native and undesirable in the prairie.  I’ll eliminate the grass along with the sumac.  Deciding what must go and what can stay is one of the hardest jobs of ecosystem management.  When you get to the point of actually eliminating a species, you just hope that your decision to take that action was correct.

Fence Row Work

I had the idea years ago to save management projects near the house for those occasions when I didn’t have time to drag my tools out to some distant project.  That scheme didn’t work as well as I had intended.  It seems that I would still favor the distant projects over the close, because I knew that I could always pop out in those odd few minutes and work close to the house.  This old fence row is one of those close projects that I chipped away at for many years.  One end is almost to the corner of the barn, so all I had to do was carry the tools out of the barn and start to work.  The fence row was a solid screen when I began, but I made so little progress that the openings would grow closed faster than they were created.  A couple of years ago, I decided I would just have to declare this to be a legitimate project and give it the time it deserved.

The most persistent shrub in the fence row is the Fragrant Sumac.  Its flowers provide a valuable early season nectar source, so I’m not trying to entirely eliminate the shrub.  I just try to keep it short and contained to one area.

Fragrant Sumac reacts very favorably to mowing.  The cut shrub will respond by producing a mass of rapidly growing shoots.  The flowers develop on year old growth, so blooms are lost for the coming year.  To mitigate this loss, I only mow a portion of the shrubs in any one year.  This patch will have two or three good flowering years before it again needs to be mowed.  Fragrant Sumac spreads by sprawling branches that fall to the ground and develop roots.  To keep it from spreading, I cut the sumacs before the long branches develop.

No matter how thoroughly you search for trash, there’s always more to be found.  Ceramic insulators are a pretty common find in the old fence rows.

Old rolls of wire fence are also common.  This is going to be a chore to remove.  Grape vines have penetrated the center of the wire roll and will need to be cut away.  The bottom part of the roll has been anchored to the ground by tree roots. 

The odd thing about this roll of fence is that it was never used in this fence row.  The close spacing of the bottom wires identifies this as poultry fence.  This was originally used to fence a poultry yard associated with a chicken coop located in the center of the field.  When the coop was removed to allow farming of the field, the rolled wire was carried over and placed here.

The fence row is now open enough to allow prairie vegetation to enter the gap.  Indian Grass has already begun to grow in close to the trees.  I think I’ll reduce the shade further by removing some of the horizontal branches reaching out into the field.  It’s nice to look out the window and see a successfully completed project.

Trees in a Clearing

I always enjoy running across a Beech tree. Across the entire property I’ve probably encountered fewer than a dozen specimens. This is a small example of the species, but it still displays a handsome collection of leaves beginning to show their autumn colors.

I found the Beech growing in this small opening in the cedars. The hole in the canopy isn’t more than 20 feet in diameter and wouldn’t take more than a couple of good trees to fill it. I wonder what the chances are that the Beech could win against its competitors and claim a position in the canopy.

The primary competition for sunlight is going to come from various oaks. This species can be particularly difficult to accurately identify. Although the various characters predominately point to Blackjack Oak, Quercus marilandica; this is a species that crosses to produce a number of different hybrids. Someday I’ll have to spend time studying the different trees to see if I can identify what types of crosses are growing here. Regardless of the parentage, these are rapidly growing trees that would have no trouble overtopping the Beech.

Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica, is a shrub that will not hinder the growth of the Beech. Maximum height of this shrub is usually around ten feet. The branches tend to lean as they grow, so most of the specimens are more sprawling than upright. As an understory species it often supports itself on the branches of taller trees and works its way upward in this manner.

Chinquapin Oak, Quercus muehlenbergii, seedlings can be found just about anywhere at Blue Jay Barrens. This species doesn’t seem to put on the rapid growth of most other oak species. Instead of racing toward the sunlight, Chinquapin Oak progresses slowly and seems to get left behind as stunted specimens in the understory.

Shingle Oak, Quercus imbricaria, is another fast growing oak species. The oaks already have a head start on the Beech and will probably end up shading it as they move to fill the available space. It’ll be a few years before a clear winner will be decided and it’s hard to predict the outcome with any real certainty. The competition should be interesting to watch.