Ozark wild plants Archives - GoatKeepers Press

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.

This Carolina Buckthorn is a native shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. It can be a large bush, but is usually smaller and hidden by other bushes growing around it. In the fall it is one of the last to lose all of its leaves. Then its red to yellow leaves with the strong ribs are easy to spot. Some even still have black berries although those are relished by many birds.

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.

At first glance this bush is a lot like the Carolina Buckthorn and may be called that by some people. There are several differences in the shape of the leaves, the darker coloring and the occasional thorns on the twigs. Now that these hidden bushes have been spotted, I can watch them in the spring to verify what its name is.

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.