Monthly Archives: April 2023

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Underfoot: EASTERN REDBUD

By Susan Sprout

Going out and about, you have probably noticed our wonderful Eastern Redbud blooming now in Central Pennsylvania. So attractive and conspicuous with those magenta blossoms decorating all the branches! They certainly stand out whether they are growing along a country road or in people’s yards. A closer look reveals that the flowers have appeared before the leaves and are coming straight out of the bark. Growing in little clusters as they do, the branches look upholstered with the blossoms! A common folk tradition stemming from their early arrival is to take some branches inside the house “to drive the winter out.”

Eastern Redbud is widely cultivated as an ornamental.

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is considered a shrub or small tree and a member of the Pea or Legume Family, Fabaceae. It is a native species as are two close relatives, Honey Locust tree and Kentucky Coffeetree. Redbud’s flowers are pea flower-shaped with a lower keel like a sailboat, and two vertical wings spreading out above like sails. The buds can remain unopened for quite a while and retain a darker pink color.  As they mature, the keel splits open revealing two rows of pollen-bearing stamens and the female receptacle called the stigma that receives pollen. At this time, they become a paler pink color. After pollination, groups of two-to-four-inch seed pods that resemble those of garden peas begin growing from the flowers and dangle downward. Starting out green, they mature turning dark brown to black and split open along one side to release four to ten flat bean-like seeds.

Flowers on half-inch stems coming out of the bark

Redbud leaves are bright green and heart-shaped with smooth edges and pointed tips. Three to five inches in diameter, they grow alternately on the branches or twigs and have five to seven veins radiating from the leaf base where it connects to the stem. Underneath, they are a lighter color and have some tufts of hair where the veins meet.

A younger branch with pea-shaped flowers, some split apart and ready for pollination.

Although slightly sour to taste, Redbud flowers are edible and high in Vitamin C. Several sources reported their use in salads and pancakes. In folk medicine, tree bark was used to treat dysentery. Our colonial ancestors used the green twigs to season wild game. Funny thing, the game, AKA venison on the hoof, enjoys those same green twigs as browse!

Interesting Facts, On the Blog

Underfoot: WILD CRANBERRIES

By Susan Sprout

In the Pennsylvania Wilds, growing in my favorite bog are Cranberries! It may seem odd that I am writing about them “out of season,” since they become mostly red and ready for picking in the fall and for eating at Thanksgiving and Christmas times. Who thinks about fresh cranberries in the spring? I do!

Wild cranberry plants with leaves that will green up as spring proceeds

Originally they were known as “craneberries” because the shape of their male reproductive organs, or stamens, tended to resemble a crane’s beak. Wild cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are native here as well as large areas of Canada and Northeastern United States, southward to Tennessee and North Carolina. Cultivars created from wild species are grown commercially in artificial ponds. The top five states in cranberry production are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington.

Cranberry fruit showing bottom side

Cranberries are members of the Heath Family, Ericaceae, along with locally known plants like huckleberries, teaberries, azaleas, laurels, and rhododendrons which all typically grow in acid soils. Cranberries seem to do well in acid soils in wet, peaty, seepy places – like my favorite bog! I visit there several times a year and have written blogs about five plants found growing in it. Never have I visited in March, until this year…and discovered red berries snuggled down in their brownish-purply, copper winter foliage. I tasted some of the berries left over from last fall and found they do not get any sweeter after freezing like rosehips do. Very tart or sour.

Cranberry plants nestled in with sphagnum and dewberry leaves

Why did I never notice them growing there before? I think they kind of blended in with the sphagnum mosses and dewberries trailing over the ground there.  And they do trail, their wiry stems forming dense masses. Cranberries have small oval leaves growing along stems that spread horizontally for a bit, then curve upward. Their tiny flowers with four backward pointing petals open in late June to form a pinkish-white carpet, ready for pollination by bees, and to create fruit ready for picking in September through November. Also in late summer, new terminal buds begin to form for next year’s crop of berries. They will require a period of dormancy in order to successfully produce flowers and fruit. They must undergo a sufficient period of cold temperatures and short daylight hours called “chill hours” during the winter months in order to break dormancy and open in mid-summer of the next year to start the blooming process all over again. If you count the months, you will see that it takes them from fourteen to sixteen months to produce berries. Hopefully the geographical range where the optimal conditions occur will not shrink due to climate change!

We love our cranberries – rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants! Cranberries, according to NIH National Library of Medicine, can prevent tooth decay, gum disease, inhibit urinary tract infections, reduce inflammation in the body, maintain a healthy digestion system and decrease cholesterol levels. Check out The Cranberry Institute for more information about these powerful little fruits!

Interesting Facts, On the Blog

Underfoot:  RESURRECTION FERN

By Susan Sprout

Don’t you just love the spring? Migratory birds passing thru or staying, plants poking up, leaf and flower buds plumping and ready to pop! I cannot help getting excited at the birth and regrowth of the plants and trees here in Northcentral Pennsylvania. My curiosity about plants, their names, and lifestyles (how they live and survive) doesn’t just stop when I leave Pennsylvania. Oh, no, it probably gets worse – so many new ones to discover when traveling! I would like to introduce you to a new one with the remarkable “super power” of greening up again after being dried up and crunchy.

Dehydrated Resurrection Ferns on tree bark

Appropriately named, Resurrection Fern (Pleopeltis polypoidioides) is one of as many as 1300 different species of plants that can tolerate extreme desiccation of their tissues during the absence of rainfall, full-blown droughts, or totally freezing. New studies are identifying more of them. Researchers will undoubtedly continue learning from these plants’ genetic make-up how the molecules they create in normal growth are used against dehydration-induced stress. With fluctuating weather patterns creating changes that damage many food crops, knowledge of how the sugars and lipids of resurrection plants keep them alive and growing may be useful in some way. One protein, dehydrin, allows for the folding up of cell walls in a way that can be easily reversed.

Check out the difference of the rehydrated frond between two dried ones

The Resurrection Ferns I found were a grey-brown, curled-up mass on the huge spreading branches of a Live Oak In Fort Myers, Florida. They are called epiphytes or “air plants” and live on tree bark in the south, starting in Virginia. They are not considered parasitic because they get their nutrients for growth from dust and rainwater on the outside of the tree bark. Sometimes, lichens and moss colonize tree branches first before the tiny air-born spores of the fern move in and start to grow. Careful not to detach the whole plant, I pulled off three dead-looking fronds for a closer look and decided to experiment with one of them by placing it in a bowl of water. Checking throughout the day as the frond slowly unfurled, I noticed that the undersides of it had been curled up over the top, exposing them first to any rainwater. Smart! After being in water overnight, it was totally back to its soft, green fern leaf self. You can see the results on the photo I took.

This species of Resurrection Fern is a neotropical native of the warmer parts of the Americas and southern Africa. It does not grow in Pennsylvania currently. It did and it may again, but not at this time.

Fossil remains have been found dating it back to about 300 million years ago. One reference called its existence “a triumph of adaptive evolution.” It can tolerate the loss of 95% of its cellular water content and exist that way for many years, then be back to normal after a few hours of rehydration. Amazing!