Winterberry fruits seem to have come out early and bountifully this year. Some of our shrubs look as if they have been blasted by red shot. Maybe it’s because of our relatively wet and warm spring and summer. When the leaves disappear, winterberry’s red blush on the gray landscape will be a pick-me-up.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) is native to Maine and grows wild here in acidic soils, especially those that are damp or wet, such as roadside embankments and marsh edges. The plant’s berries are among the last to be eaten by birds in the winter, apparently because they are less nutritious than the other foods that are consumed first.
However, the winterberry fruits are reported to be the ultimate survival foods for late-wintering American robins, bluebirds, brown thrashers, cardinals, catbirds, cedar waxwings, grosbeaks, and thrushes, among other birds. Mice and raccoons also reportedly gobble the berries in winter. For humans, it’s another story: The uncooked berries apparently are toxic to some of us and dogs, cats, and horses. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 4 and 6, 2023.)