April 2024:  Black cherry, Prunus serotina.

As Cape Cod’s April showers continue their rinse and repeat cycle, we impatiently scan our foggy landscapes for unfurling buds.  However, in just one month, the bottlebrush white flowers and glossy green leaves of black cherry trees will be on full display.

Once we see black cherry trees in bloom, we can appreciate how widespread they are in Cape Cod habitats, flourishing along the coastlines of saltwater estuaries and springing up further inland in sun-dappled woods.  In sunny locations in moist loamy soil, black cherry trees will grow with a straight trunk as much as 60 feet tall. 

However, because black cherry trees are prolific seed producers, saplings can also be found in much shadier, less appropriate spots, where their shape is curved and twisting as they seek the sunlight they crave. 

For the gardener tempted to move a volunteer sapling to a sunnier location, it is best to attempt the operation when the sapling is less than a foot high because of the tree’s very long taproot.

Still, the seed production and dispersal makes sense in the species’ survival strategy.  Because black cherry seeds "are often a major component of forest seedbanks in New England,” the Native Plant Trust notes, its seedlings are able “to establish rapidly after disturbances such as fires and logging.”

The tree’s ubiquity has benefited humans and (other) animals alike.  Native Americans used the inner bark to create cough and cold remedies, and the edible but bitter cherries have been used in jellies and to flavor liqueurs.  The wood is prized for furniture, veneers and musical instruments. 

Numerous bird species feed on the cherries, and The Native Plant Trust considers the tree a pollinator powerhouse plant, as it hosts the caterpillars of more than 75 species of moths and butterflies.

March 2024:  Moss

When we think of plants, we most likely picture those with trunks or stems attached to roots.  Indeed, a dazzling array of species fall into the several divisions of vascular plants in the Plant Kingdom under the Linnean classification system.  But one division—Bryophyta—is reserved just for the world’s more than 12,000 species of mosses, which absorb moisture directly through their leaf cells and therefore stay low to the ground or other moist surfaces. 

In New England, mosses perform important ecological functions.  As anyone who has seen moss growing on rock can appreciate, mosses are pioneers of barren terrain.  The New York Botanical Garden notes that mosses can combine with lichen to stabilize sand dunes and provide the necessary conditions for successive vegetation. 

Moreover, mosses act as sponges, retaining many times their own weight in water and then releasing it slowly, helping to curtail flooding and runoff in wet periods, and providing moisture in drier spells.  While mosses prefer moist, shaded conditions, they can go dormant during droughts, and swell into green color once rain returns. 

A carpet of moss has a timeless, primeval quality, as if we sense that mosses were on the earth tens of millions of years before the first mammals and flowering plants appeared. 

In Japan, a proper reverence for moss is a requirement for entering Koke-dera, the famed “Moss Temple.”  Arriving visitors must kneel at a low desk to copy the brushstrokes of a Buddhist sutra with a quill pen as monks chant; only then do they gain admittance to the temple’s velvety, mysterious, moss-covered grounds.

Luckily, as these photos show, we can find our own mossy worlds here on Mayflower Point with a casual walk; reverence is optional but encouraged. 

February 2024:  Pitch pine, Pinus rigida.

Pitch pine is not a conventionally pretty tree.  It looks craggy, even scruffy, at close range with Its scaly bark and stiff needles.  But stand back to contemplate pitch pine’s gnarled branches against a blue sky, and it can have a fierce beauty.  Its resin perfumes Mayflower Point woods on warm sunny days.

The resin also makes the pitch pine highly flammable, and it has evolved to benefit from periodic wildfires.  Pitch pines are often able to “green up” again at their crowns or to produce new shoots from their bases even after wildfires consume all their needles, according to a profile published by the USDA’s Forest Service. 

Barnstable County’s 2012 wildfire risk assessment acknowledges that the pitch pine barrens that dominate Cape Cod contain “highly flammable plant species that are adapted to survive or regenerate post fire.”  It encourages residents to "limb up" all trees within a 30-foot radius of their homes by six to 10 feet above the ground, and to keep the crowns of pitch pines and other conifers within this radius 30 feet apart.

By taking such steps, we can continue to enjoy our proximity to pitch pines and the benefits they provide to a host of creatures.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the tree as “high wildlife value” for the food it provides songbirds and small mammals, who appreciate the seeds its cones disperse beginning in late fall.  The Native Plant Trust considers pitch pine a “pollinator powerhouse,” because 75 or more caterpillar species feed on its needles.  Chickadees, blue jays and various warblers also rely on pitch pines for nesting and cover. 

January 2024:  Inkberry, Ilex glabra.

For a positive resolution for the new year, consider adding inkberry to your garden. 

Inkberry’s evergreen leaves and relatively compact form make it an excellent substitute for boxwood and Japanese holly.  Compared with these non-native shrubs, the leaves of this native holly are slightly longer and shinier, and the overall plant has a fresher and more winsome appearance.  As William Cullina writes in Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines, inkberry “has a certain billowy, mounded character that is wild yet formal at the same time.”

The straight species, Ilex glabra, can grow up to eight feet tall, but cultivars such as “Compacta” and “Shamrock” will top out at five feet.

Moreover, inkberries are not difficult.  They prefer full or part sun but can handle shade.  They like moist soil and therefore supplemental watering during droughts.  Even so, the Native Plant Trust says they are drought tolerant.  In the wild, the Missouri Botanical Garden database notes, inkberry “is most commonly found in sandy woods and peripheries of swamps and bogs” along the coastal plain from Nova Scotia to Florida and the Gulf Coast west to Louisiana.   Here on Mayflower Point, we've got that "coastal plain sandy woods" thing covered. 

December 2023:  American holly, Ilex opaca.

You don’t need to celebrate Christmas to venerate the American holly tree, also known as Christmas holly. Its evergreen branches console our inner pagan as the days grow short and dark.  The red berries that appear in autumn on female plants—if male plants are nearby—pop against the dark green foliage and persist through the winter if not devoured by birds. 

While the berries are poisonous to humans, cats and dogs, they are a welcome sight to hungry robins, mockingbirds, catbirds, mourning doves and turkeys that overwinter or return in early spring.

Cape Cod and the Massachusetts shore represent the northernmost point of American holly’s range, which hugs the northeastern coast before broadening into a swath that extends west to Ohio and south to the Florida panhandle and eastern Texas. 

The species name “opaca” refers to the opaque or dull sheen of its leaves, which helps to distinguish it from English holly, a non-native sometimes found in Mayflower Point woods.  American holly leaves may be less lustrous than their English cousins’, but their spines are also less severe.  You can brush against American holly without undue concern should you choose to deck your halls with its boughs. 

Ilex opaca is the only native holly that becomes a tree at maturity, rather than topping out as a shrub.  The height of its shaggy, pyramidal form varies with location.  In moist woods in the middle of its range, it can grow as tall as 50 feet, but on Cape Cod it is unlikely to surpass 30.  It prefers sandy or loamy soils, making it useful in stabilizing dunes, and it can do well both in full sun and in the shade cast by taller trees. 

November 2023:  Northern bayberry, Morella (or Myrica) pensylvanica.

Northern bayberry, like many shrubs native to Cape Cod, is scrappy and resilient.  Bayberry not only tolerates “poor soils, wet soils, drought, high winds and salt spray,” says the Missouri Botanical Garden database, but it also has no serious insect or disease issues.

It thrives in sandy soils because it fixes its own nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with the Frankii bacteria that typically invade its root nodules. 

When left to its own devices in conditions it likes, bayberry can grow up to 10 feet tall and slowly expand by suckers to form colonies.

By May, Northern bayberry sports fresh green leaves that grow leathery in texture as the season progresses.  It is not evergreen, but it holds onto its leaves into early winter.  It also hybridizes easily with its more southern version, Morella caroliniensis, which is evergreen.

Bayberry’s resinous aroma is familiar to any of us who have sniffed a few of its crushed leaves. 

The silvery berries that appear in the fall on the female plants—if a male plant is nearby—provide that same scent and the high-quality wax for the bayberry candles that grace New England holiday tables. 

October 2023:  New England aster, Symphyotrichum novo-angliae.

New England aster ranges far beyond the region of its name: it is native to a broad swath of the United States sweeping west from the northeast and mid-Atlantic states to the eastern edges of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and even to pockets in New Mexico.

Its rich purple color, a vibrant complement to goldenrod, which also blooms in the fall, captures our attention in meadows, roadside verges and cultivated gardens. 

New England aster prefers relatively sunny locations that retain some moisture.  When these conditions are met, it can grow as tall as six feet. If that is too obstreperous for your garden, you can cut the plant back by half on Memorial Day and then again, if you’re so inclined, on July 4, to produce a bushier plant. 

But you might want to go easy:  the pearl crescent, a pretty orange butterfly with black edges on its wings, lays its eggs on the undersides of the leaves from spring through fall.  Once New England aster flowers, its nectar attracts many other pollinators, including bees and the monarch butterfly.

Four other asters in the Symphyotrichum genus are native to Cape Cod and also beloved by pollinators:  S. cordifolium (blue wood aster), S. laeve (smooth aster), S. novo-belgiae (New York aster) and S. puniceum (purple-stemmed aster).  They, too, bloom in autumn but generally in paler tones of lavender and blue. 

September 2023:  Goldenrod, Solidago. 

This month, our fields and roadsides take on a golden tinge, thanks to the blossoms of the many goldenrod species that thrive on Cape Cod.  While some species can tolerate more shade than others, most revel in bright sun. 

What all these goldenrod species have in common is their status as “pollinator powerhouse plants,” the designation the Native Plant Trust gives native plants that “support a proportionally large number of caterpillar species.”  For herbaceous plants like goldenrod, the label means that they host caterpillars of more than 15 insect species.  (Caterpillars, in turn, often serve as food for birds and their young.)  Adult bees, butterflies and moths also visit goldenrod blossoms for nectar.

Goldenrod’s reputation has suffered in the past because it blooms at the same time as ragweed, the bane of allergy sufferers.  However, whereas ragweed pollen is dispersed by the wind, which is how it ends up in human nostrils, goldenrod’s sticky pollen requires bees and other pollinators for dispersal.

Goldenrod is sometimes considered weedy because it can opportunistically take advantage of disturbed soil to take root, but its exuberance is much more restrained in stable areas. 

Nonetheless, a strong argument can be made for exuberance, as demonstrated by this field of goldenrod at Fort Hill.