Over the summer all the plants leaf out. Hidden bushes are there in plain sight, but hiding among all the green leaves.
Autumn arrived. Yellows blazed out. As those leaves fell, the oranges and reds glowed on the hillsides.
Now those leaves are gone. Most of the trees are bare brown and gray branches. Most bushes are the same. Not all bushes.
The hidden bushes are now easy to spot. They are the ones still hanging onto some of their red leaves. These are often the bushes I didn’t know grew here.
All summer I’ve been walking the trails at ShawneeMac Conservation Area because I saw many bushes I never saw here. Some I was glad I didn’t see as they are invasive. Some I assumed didn’t grow here.
My Hidden Bushes
The hidden bushes are proving me wrong in several cases. Carolina Buckthorn is one of them. It’s a pretty bush and can get ten feet tall. I’d never seen it except around the Lakes.
Burning Bush is one I’m not as glad to know grows here. It can become quite a nuisance. There are several still sporting red leaves and fruit.
The advice is to kill out invasive species. I’m sure the reasons are good. But it is a lost cause. Nurseries still sell these plants. People still plant these plants. They have spread into many places.
Eliminating these plants in one area does nothing about the rest. As soon as you look the other way, more of them are growing where you thought they were no more.
Another hidden bush is not identified yet. The tentative name is for a bush unknown in the area and rare in the Bootheel. Now these hidden bushes are spotted, I can keep an eye on them in the spring when all those green leaves try to camouflage them again.
