The Urban Pantheist

Photo by cottonmanifesto. Location: the Victory Gardens, Boston.

Urban species #336: WInterberry Ilex verticillata

This shrub, native to eastern North America, has grown in popularity in recent years. Many landscapers who have been scolded about planting old favorites like buckthorn and honeysuckle, have turned to winterberry. It's every bit as attractive as the exotic shrubs, and is effective at attracting and feeding birds. Winterberry (also called black alder) is in the holly genus (Ilex), but unlike the more familiar Christmas hollies, with their hard prickly leaves, winterberry is deciduous. With its leaves fallen away exposing profuse sprays of bright red fruit, this shrub makes for a dramatic winter display. The fruit of the winterberry is not edible to mammals, but a wide array of birds, including songbirds, game birds, and waterfowl, all make use of it. However, the fruit is relatively low in fat, the main nutrient birds crave in the winter, so the ornamental value of the plant will persist until the more desirable shrubs and trees are picked clean. Dry arrangements and wreaths are often made with berry-laden branches of winterberry. Cultivated varieties and hybrids abound, some with yellow or orange fruit. It grows wild in wet areas in the eastern states, but is considered threatened or endangered in some, notably New York, which lists the plant as "Exploitably Vulnerable."