By Robert Carter reporting for Native Plant News
As the winter approaches, many flower and plant enthusiasts enter their winter hibernation until spring arrives. They are really missing out on the winter botanical jewels, but this just leaves more opportunities for me to explore without those pesky people asking me questions. Don’t get me wrong, I like answering questions about nature. But sometimes I just want to hang out with natural wonders like Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). After frost in November and December, Witch-hazel is still showing off its golden yellow strap-like flowers at the same time it presents fruit pollinated the previous fall. It is unusual to flower and fruit at the same time, and this is the source of the genus name Hamamelis, which means “fruit at the same time.” Another eccentricity of Witch-hazel is the exploding fruit. Pressure builds up in the capsule causing it to split open and explosively disperse the seeds. If you get a close look at the flowers, you may get hit in the face with some seeds. It is like the plant is telling you it doesn’t want to be bothered, like the apple trees in the Wizard of Oz.
I have to admit that January is pretty sparse when it comes to winter flowering plants, unless your eyes are good enough to see the blooms on Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). They technically are not flowers, but sperm (pollen) and eggs are produced on separate plants. The flowering structures are tiny, but the male structures can be seen as they swell with pollen. When winter shifts into spring, you can see the pollen carried on the wind from cedar trees in yellow puffs.
There are other startlements such as the orchids Adam-and- Eve (Aplectrum hyemale) and Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor). They don’t bother producing leaves until the late fall and they lose the leaves by May. Even stranger, they are perennials and produce a flower stem in the summer. It is really a great strategy to photosynthesize when there is no competition for light. Since there are no pollinators in the winter, they bloom in the summer sprouting from an underground corm. Both plants have leaves with a green upper surface, but the Adam-and-Eve, also called Puttyroot, has white pin-stripes. The upper leaf surface of Cranefly Orchid has pleats, while the underside is purple. Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata) is just hardy and stays green all year. Sometimes you can find the capsule from the previous summer extending from the top of the plant. Growing close to ground provides some protection from the cold as the ground changes temperature slowly and can hold warmth.
Through much of the winter, until the birds have finished feasting, there are colorful fruits to brighten your day. Hollies put on a show with their red or black drupes. The fruit is often called a berry, but it is a drupe with one hard seed in the middle. Berries will have many seeds in the center of the fruit. There are other red drupes such as a hackberry (Celtis) and sumac (Rhus) which are relished by birds but should be relished by people also. Sugarberry, a type of hackberry, has a sweet taste while sumacs taste like lemon. This does not include Poison Sumac which is in the genus Toxicodendron. No parts of a Toxicodendron should be consumed or touched.
Viburnums often hold their dark-colored drupes that shrivel and look like raisins. Viburnum cassinoides is called Wild Raisin for this reason. Then there are the dark shiny berries of Sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum). They remain on the shrub until late winter. You can snack on this blueberry that is actually black, but there just is not much taste.
Some trees and shrubs bloom in the winter, typically beginning in February. American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) produces catkins for pollen and tiny female flowers that are difficult to detect except for the red stigma that protrude. The male and female flowers on alder (Alnus) are catkins, but the male catkins are yellow-brown while the female catkins are red. Elms (Ulmus) produce tiny green to brown flowers with fuzzy stigmas in late February, several weeks before the leaves appear. Hazelnut, elm, and alder are all wind pollinated, so blooming in the winter is no challenge.
Beginning in late February, Red Maple produces red flowers that are pollinated by bees and wasps. You may notice the bees flocking to one of the few blooming plants on warm days in the late winter. Red Maple and elm seeds will germinate the summer of the year they were produced, while hazelnut and alder seed do not mature until the fall. They will germinate the following spring. A winter-flowering plant in the mountains is Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). The foul-smelling flowers appear in February and can produce enough heat to melt snow. They produce the heat to disperse their foul odor that attracts flies to pollinate the flower.
So, get out of your winter hibernation and explore winter botany. There are fruits to appreciate and even some flowers to observe. You may even become an expert at identifying trees and shrubs by buds. This sounds like it would be difficult, but it is more reliable than leaves. Try checking out a winter botany book from a local library and head for the forest. If you see me hanging out with the witch-hazel, just leave us alone. Our relationship is explosive.
Robert Carter grew up exploring the Piedmont of South Carolina. He attended Clemson University (BS, MS) and Auburn University (PhD) to obtain degrees in forestry. His graduate research involved identifying landscape ecosystems using plants, soils, and landform in the mountains of North Carolina and the longleaf pine ecosystems of lower Alabama. After a career in academia, he moved back to South Carolina where he is a Forestry and Wildlife Agent for Clemson University Extension and Outdoor Education Specialist with the Catawba Indian Nation.