{"id":5896,"date":"2020-12-22T09:05:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T09:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/?p=5896"},"modified":"2020-12-22T18:29:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T18:29:58","slug":"adventbotany-day-22-let-it-snowberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2020\/12\/22\/adventbotany-day-22-let-it-snowberry\/","title":{"rendered":"#AdventBotany Day 22, let it Snow[berry]!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dawn Bazely<\/a><\/h2>\n

The <\/strong>Snowberry<\/a> makes a great hedge<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Figure 1. Snowberry Hedge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seemed a bit strange that the native North American shrub, the Snowberry[6]<\/sup> (Symphoricarpos albus<\/em>), named for obvious reasons, hadn\u2019t yet appeared in the Advent Botany series. When I asked, Alastair told me that it was<\/em> on his \u201csome-day\u201d plant list, so I offered to write about this common hedge plant in my neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Wild snowberry<\/h3>\n

I first got to see a lot of this plant in the 1990s to 2000s, while doing field work on the impacts of browsing and grazing by white-tailed deer in Pinery Provincial Park. Snowberry, with its attractive pink flowers and opposite leaves, is a distinctive, common, trailing plant in the Black Oak Savanna plant communities.<\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 2. Students sampling the Black Oak Savanna plant community in Pinery Provincial Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, let\u2019s stay in the province of Ontario. As with today, in the 19th<\/sup> century, magazines needed paid subscriptions to generate operating revenue. The Canadian Horticulturist<\/em><\/a> [3]<\/sup> Magazine was launched in 1878 by the Fruit Growers\u2019 Association of Ontario, and soon adopted the practice of luring potential subscribers with free gifts, including the first ever gardening book written specifically for Canadian gardens, by Mrs Annie L. Jack<\/a>[1]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Colour plates<\/h3>\n

The association\u2019s members were predominantly commercial fruit-growers, but they well knew that many of their magazine subscribers and readers included women interested in horticulture. The team behind the Canadian Horticulturist<\/a><\/em> Magazine recognized the need to cater to this group. So, early on, the magazine included colour plates like these Autumn Berries from the February 1881 issue.<\/p>\n

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Figure 3. Autumn Berries in the Canadian Horticulturist Magazine (1881) (courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Hamilton, Canada)[2]<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>The Snowberry takes centre stage in this montage of native and non-native berry-producing shrubs and vines. The plate accompanied an article on pages 26<\/a> to 28<\/a> of volume IV of the Canadian Horticulturist Magazine. You can read this at the online Biodiversity Heritage Library[4]<\/sup>, although its digitized, open access version doesn\u2019t include this particular image.<\/p>\n

Plant identification<\/h3>\n

The beauty of these plants in the winter landscape is extolled, including, clockwise: (1) Climbing Bitter-sweet (Celastrus scandens<\/em>), (2) Whorled Winterberry (Black Alder\/Prinos verticillatus \u2013 <\/em>now, Ilex verticillata<\/em>), (3) Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia <\/em>\u2013 now, Parthenocissus quinquefolia<\/em>), (4) European Berberry (Berberis vulgaris<\/em>), (5) Crataegus <\/em>species, (6) European Euonymus<\/em> or Spindle Tree, and (7) American Holly (Ilex opaca<\/em>), with Snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus (sic)<\/em>: centre top), and Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera<\/em>) (centre bottom).<\/p>\n