A Favorite Shrub

Spring is here, the wildflowers are blooming and the trees budding. There is a specific yellow flower that catches my eye, it brightens up the woods as I hike off the rain-soaked, beaten path.
Now if you're thinking that I speak of Forsythia, you thought wrong! The tiny yellow flower that I speak of belongs to a native, aromatic shrub and is in the Laurel family. If one were to scratch at a twig or at the bark it would take them back to their childhood, remind them of the scratch-and-sniff stickers that they were rewarded with in school.
If you haven't guessed yet, I speak of Spicebush - Lindera benzoin. Spicebush can be found growing in the Appalachians and elsewhere in the Eastern U.S., even into parts of Canada. Its growth is somewhat like that of Witch-hazel; it favors habitat with moist, rich soils and stream banks. It is hard to miss in spring but, unfortunately, seems to go unnoticed once summer takes hold. Spicebush flowers from March-May and fruits late summer into fall. It is both edible and medicinal.

The fruit of Spicebush is consumed by several different game-birds and songbirds, the flowers are pollinated by several different bee and fly species, the leaves are used and consumed by caterpillars belonging to that of the Promethea moth, Tulip Tree Beauty moth and several Swallowtail butterfly species, chiefly the Spicebush Swallowtail.

The early spring leaves can be harvested and used fresh by cooking and eating them as a potherb or can be dried and used as an allspice replacement. A tea can be made from the leaves, twigs and bark. Add to the tea, maple syrup or honey and milk for a treat drink! The fruits too can be used as an allspice substitute by drying the fruits and then powdering them. It is up to you whether you want to remove the seeds or crush them along with the rest of the fruit. You can use the tea or seasoning in fish and meat dishes, mix it in applesauce, use it in baked goods...it's all about experimentation!!!
Medicinally, the fruit tea can be used for cough, cramps, menstrual issues (the leaves can also be used for menstrual problems too), measles, rheumatism and anemia. The fruits can also be used for colic, for a gassy stomach and the oil of the fruit can be rubbed on bruises, rashes and where there is any joint and/or muscle pain. The twig and/or bark tea can be used to expel parasites from the body, for fever (helps the body sweat and release toxins), colds and also for colic and upset gassy stomachs. I also like to rub the leaves on my body, they seem to help keep mosquitoes at bay some...perhaps it's just my imagination though!!!

All in all, this is an excellent species to know and is one of my favorite shrubs! VIVA SPICEBUSH!!! ;)

Waiting for spring

It is frightening, to think about the things going on in the world - environmentally. It makes spring all that much more special . I wait for the dog tooth violets to emerge and announce that spring has arrived.

The Alchemy of Forests

Ecosystems are spiraling cascades of energy transformations, and in this sense forests are no exception. Trees and other plants, the forest’s primary producers, transform solar energy through elegant pathways into chemical energy. Carbon dioxide from the air and water are transmuted into lignin, cellulose, and the other building blocks of plant biomass.

It is in this way that sunlight becomes acorn, becomes deer bone and flesh, becomes coyote, feces, and humus. The heartwood of Chestnut oak turns to fungal mycelium and emerges as the brilliant orange of the Omphalotus mushroom, feeding beetles and birds, and onward to soil, holding the roots of the oak’s kin and releasing to them the calcium, phosphorus, and nitrogen once held in the bodies of their ancestors.

With each transformative iteration the forest consolidates into emergent forms, working against entropy by holding the sun’s energy in the bodies of its inhabitants and the richness of its soil.

In the 1988 Science article Self Organization, Transformity, and Information, pioneering ecologist H.T. Odum wrote:

 “The by-product materials released from each unit recycle back into the production process. These patterns emerge after the feedbacks have amplified (and thus selected) those pathways that are mutually reinforcing. In a forest hierarchy, for example, sunlight is concentrated by leaves, which converge their products to twigs and limbs and these to trunks, litter, and animals. In turn, the trunks, litter, and animals feed their support and materials back to limbs and these to the leaves. The connections between units of the systems in some cases are visible, such as roots in the soil, but most of the pathways of interaction are invisible and intermittent, as when bees pollinate flowers or animals communicate. Consumer units are useful because they feedback reinforcing materials, service, and information.”

As Odum tells us, the emergent properties of forests are not limited to the myriad bodies of their inhabitants. They include the subtle exchanges of sound and movement, color and feel. They are the smell of leaf litter after rain, the call of a Barred owl, or a glimpse of a Pileated woodpecker taking flight and disappearing through the canopy.

In this way, the transformations within ourselves imparted by the forest – the feelings of awe, fear, sublimity, and contentedness, to name but a few, are as much a part of the forest as the deer rub or the red of a spicebush berry. They tell us things and we change, we choose and we act.

This blog is dedicated to the transformative nature of forests. It is about how forests work and the ways in which we come to know them.