From the Contact Station November 2019

Favorite Spots

Many visitors enjoy a favorite spot somewhere on the refuge. It might be a place where you

regularly see a favorite animal or where a big oak gently dominates the landscape, or it might be a place where you can quietly contemplate what floats through your mind while birds sing in the background. Wherever it is, you might sigh, take a deep breath and wonder at the beauty. One of my places is along the walk to the blind overlooking Rest Lake. A lake, by the way, that I am impatiently waiting to reappear with its winter swans now. Our First-Place photo contest winner for plants, Sachi Deshpande, captured a fall photo of this area beautifully.

My favorite spot, or one of them anyway, is about halfway down the walk where an Indian Plum, Oemleria cerasiformis, gracefully arches from many limbs across the path. In the summer, when the Indian Plum is fully leafed out, I walk under it and feel like it is giving me a gentle hug. I usually approach slowly, looking for any critters. Sometimes, a chattering Bewick’s Wren is hopping through the branches looking for tasty insects. Sometimes I hear the chip of a Song Sparrow moving less frantically in search of food. Spotted Towhees can be scratching in the leaf debris for seeds.  There is always something. One fall, as I walked under the bare branches of this deciduous shrub, I noticed an abandoned nest balanced over the arch of one limb. Perhaps a hummingbird nest if memory serves. That was maybe three falls ago, but I always look expectantly for a new nest now. I am more a bird person than a plant person, but I find this shrub/tree interesting. Our Habitat Coordinator, Keith, helped me with plant identification. Indian Plum is described as a fast-growing, short-lived perennial. But looking at our plant, it seems aged with its lichen encrustation. It has some toppled over limbs on the ground and it has obviously spread out. When I started reading about it, I found that it spreads slowly, mostly by root suckering. That means there is a vegetative formation of a new stem and root system from an adventitious bud of a root. There is a pattern to the stems coming up through the soil for our plant, probably following elongated roots from whatever was the initial plant. Makes you wonder how long ago the first plant was here.

Indian Plum is native at lower elevations in our area. It is an adaptable plant, but does like moist areas and dappled woodlands, much like its current location. Often the first deciduous native shrub to flower in late winter, Indian plum is an important early season nectar source for hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, native bees and other pollinator species. Fragrant 1/2-inch greenish white flowers usually appear by late winter in loose hanging clusters of 10 to 20 flowers each. Leaves also emerge early taking advantage of sunlight before overstory trees produce leaves and shade. But to get the plums, we need a male and a female plant in the area. Not having been observant enough, I am going to have to make some late winter into summer visits to see what happens with our plant. Indian plum fruit is edible for humans but is often bitter, even when fully ripe. Native Americans ate the fruit fresh, dried, or cooked. The bark was used as a tuberculosis remedy and a mild laxative. Strips of bark were used to bind harpoon tips. (Note: no trying the fruit here; save it for the wildlife.) One final fact about Indian Plum, if you scratch the bark, it smells like cucumber.

Find your favorite spot and get to know it. How does it change with the seasons? Who visits and why? Why did these plants and animals choose this spot? Maybe take the time to photograph, paint or sketch it. Find your niche in nature.

-Susan Setterberg, Friends of RNWR Board Member & Contact Station Volunteer