Multitudes of Asian Bittersweet fruits are emerging from their yellow husks and forming beautiful red galaxies. This is good for birds and disastrous for trees and bushes.
The birds act as angels of death when they eat the fruits and excrete millions of their seeds that will propagate the plant over large areas. The non-native plant (Celastrus orbiculatus) extends sinuous vines that are python-like, squeezing to death the trees and bushes that are their hosts. It’s all about competing for sun and soil nutrients.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 17, 2024.)