Judging from a quick survey yesterday, it looks like we’re going to have a large supply of Winterberry fruit this year, which is good.
However, it also looks like the Asian Bittersweet berries are coming in strongly as well, which is not good. (See also the image in the first Comment space.)
The red berries of the female Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), a deciduous native holly bush, are winter survival rations for many birds, which help propagate the plant by their droppings.
The same is true of the red berries of the Asian Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), which are just now emerging from their yellow husks. However, that non-native plant is a tree killer and its lethal propagation has proved impossible to control in Maine and other parts of the United States. The plant uses its sinuous vines to squeeze to death trees and bushes that compete for sun and nutrients.
This Asian Bittersweet is a reminder of the dangers of basing an environmental choice on the impulsive pursuit of beauty and/or the wish to increase diversity for diversity’s sake. It was introduced here in the 19th Century to bring variety and spectacular fall colors to gray winter landscapes; as a result, many trees and bushes will never be green again.
There is a native version of bittersweet, aptly named American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), that is environmentally innocuous. But, that’s another story. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 6, 2022.)