Above you see the top of a 15-foot thicket of burning bush (Euonymus alatus) that is alight in yesterday’s wintery cold. Its red leaves have now dropped almost completely, revealing its mass of red winter berries that the birds will consume and reissue in fertilized form as potential seedling bushes elsewhere. Here’s: a lower image of the bush:
Maine wildlife regulators have deemed this once-popular Asian bush to be severely invasive and prohibited further sale and distribution of it in the state. Nonetheless, preexisting plants here abound and there does not seem to be much enthusiasm for removing them. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on December 4, 2024.)