Photo by Linda Lee Christmas and the holidays have come and gone, and I am reminded, still, every day on my way to work. A few holdouts in my neighborhood still have a blinking wreath on the door or a tree illuminated through the living room window. Most of the Christmas trees that only a few weeks ago were so pretty have now been flung unceremoniously out onto the street edge, maybe with a few shreds of tinsel weakly fluttering.

But here’s a plant that will be with us all year long, in a way reminding us of Yule–time, past and future, even deep in the summer.

The mystery plant is hardly a mystery to most readers. It’s one of the most easily recognized species in the eastern US. It’s a true North American, although it has plenty of relatives in South America, Europe, and Asia. Common in a wide variety of natural landscapes from MA to FL, it just gets into TX and OK. It is at home in forests along the Mississippi and can be seen as far north as southern IN. In the Southeast, it is often seen on both dry and damp soils often quite near the coast and frequently on floodplains.

Photo by Linda Lee It’s not very common in our highest elevations, though. This tree has light colored, finely grained wood which is often used for some woodwork, but it’s not an important lumber tree. They may grow to be 50 feet or so, and mature trees often have a columnar shape with the lower branches sometimes dragging the ground. The bark is light grey and rather smooth, almost like American beech. Many of its other American relatives are deciduous, but this one is a true evergreen holding on to its leathery, prickly leaves for a number of seasons. The spines can be quite stiff, and their number varies from leaf to leaf sometimes up to 7 or 8 on a side to none at all, but the tip is always spined. The trees are either male or female, and of course, only the female trees produce the berries. And what beautiful berries they are.

They are not exactly true berries in “botanicalese,” but they may as well be. Each fruit contains mealy pulp for the birds, along with a few hard, ridged seeds. The skin of the berry is commonly deep red or sometimes orangeish or even yellow. Rather than being glossy, the berries tend to have a sort of dull, flat finish. In large part because of these beautiful fruits, this species is widely popular as an ornamental, and not just for Christmas. It is a slow–grower and usually does best with protection from strong winds.

Answer to last week’s mystery plant

Nandina, Heavenly bamboo, Nandina domestica

Dr. John Nelson is the curator of the USC Herbarium.

To learn more about the Herbarium, call him at

777-8196. His department also offers free plant identification.

www.herbarium.org