Lindera benzoin

Here's another plant from my class last Saturday: Lindera benzoin or spicebush.  Spicebush is a plant that can easily be missed during the summer and winter, but during spring, when it's in bloom, and fall, when it shows off its amazing fall color, you cannot miss it. 

The fall color is a clear honey yellow on large ovate leaves with entire margins.  The leaves themselves could be confused with other plants, but it's easy enough to confirm that you are looking at Lindera by crushing and smelling the leaves.  They will emit a spicy, lemony scent.  Thus the name spicebush.  The twigs and fruits are equally fragrant.

This specimen must be a male, as otherwise, we'd likely see the red berries that typically appear in late summer/early fall.  Instead, we can only see the flower buds for next spring.  The plant is an important species for survival of the spicebush swallowtail, which lays eggs on the plant.

Spicebush has a long history of medicinal uses by Native Americans and is now available commercially for homeopathic uses.  The leaves, when crushed, can be used as a poultice for burns or cuts.  The plant can also be used for flavoring food and for making a tea.  Lindera is derivative from from the botanist Lindler; benzoin is derivative of the Middle French word 'benjoin' which means 'Java Frankincense' and referring to the spicy aroma of the plant.

Celtis occidentalis

How in the world is it that I haven't yet blogged about hackberry, or Celtis occidentalis? While it's not a particularly great ornamental tree, this native is common in the mid-Atlantic and is an outstanding plant for creating butterfly habitat.  

Everyone knows that butterflies gather nectar from tubular flowers, so when I write about butterfly habitat, I'm speaking more about the habitat it provides for caterpillars and eggs, which is obvioulsy equally important.

I tell students that the bark of hackberry, which is very distinctive, looks like gray molding clay that someone has hacked up with a fork or knife.  But that's not at all why the common name exists.  Instead, it's derivative of the Scottish name 'hagberry' which is actually in reference to a cherry (Prunus) species. 

The word Celtis is derivative of ancient Greek for a tree with sweet fruit, and while there are berries on hackberry, I would leave them for the birds (and caterpillars).  Occidentalis means 'western' which can cause initial confusion for us folks on the east coast.  But in botanical nomenclature, western means the new world, not the west coast of the new world.

The specimen above is at the Smithsonian's Butterfly Habitat Garden, though the top photos are from Central Park.  The plant is prevalent in both locations, though one also regularly encounters C. laevigata or sugarberry.