"Snowball" Shrub Provides Seeds For Winter Feast The large showy sterile white outer florets of the highbush cranberry shrub help to attract insects that will pollinate the smaller inner flowers. One of the first Latin names of a group of plants I learned as a boy was Virburnum. A showy "snowball" shrub having lovely white spherical clusters of flowers grew near the northeast corner of our house and I can clearly recall my dad referring to it as a Viburnum. Actually it is a fairly large genus of easy-to-grow shrubs belonging to the honeysuckle family. You may recognize some of the members such as the hobblebush, arrow wood, wayfaring tree, nannyberry and maple-leaved viburnum. Undoubtedly the most well known and widely planted viburnum in this region is the highbush cranberry, also known as the cranberry bush and high cranberry. Few other native shrubs have such attractive flowers in June, colorful leaves in fall, or as lovely fruit throughout fall and winter as this tall shrub or small tree. Seldom in past years have I seen more profuse flowering than this year on not only the highbush cranberry shrubs but also on the various dogwoods including the red osier, alternate-leaved and round-leaved species. Various factors may have contributed to this large floral display but one thing that is reasonably predictable is that there is going to be a bountiful crop of fruit this fall is the weather cooperates. Apparently the fruit of the highbush cranberry resembles the real cranberry in that it is red, oval and very tart. Other than that, they are not even remotely related, the cranberry being in the heath family. Actually the fruit of the highbush cranberry is not a berry but rather a drupe, like a cherry, and has a stone rather than a seed, or seeds. However, can you imagine calling the plant the highbush crandrupe? Neither can I! The drupes are flat, hard and light yellow in color and have to be removed from the fruit when making them into jelly. Charlotte and I had the unfortunate experience several years ago of hitting a ruffed grouse with our car and killing it. It was in late fall and the bird had been eating highbush cranberries. Upon impact with the car the bird’s crop split open splattering our windshield with hundreds of the flat yellow seeds. Many people who have planted these handsome seven to 12-foot shrubs remarked to me that they were disappointed to see the birds completely ignoring the attractive and inviting red "berries" all winter. I tell them to be patient, that sooner or later, this year or the next, some cedar or Bohemian waxwings, robins, pine grosbeaks, or even some ruffed grouse will discover the precious emergency food when few other wild foods are available. Should you be the owners of some of these shrubs that the birds have found, you will notice that the snow-covered ground beneath them will be liberally speckled with the red flesh of the fruit. The birds are interested primarily in the seeds, not the flesh. A long hedge of highbush cranberries is a thing of beauty in that the fruit is retained for much of the winter. Viburnum trilobum (try-LOW-bum), its scientific name, reflects the three-to five-inch leaves which are three-lobed above the middle resembling a maple leaf. The rich deep reds of the foliage in autumn are among the great pluses of this ornamental shrub. The flesh of the ripened fruit is reputed to produce excellent jam and jelly. I have heard that the European species, V. opulus, produces a disappointing jelly at best. In the case you may be wondering which species you have growing on your property, the leaves of the native species, "trilobum," or its cultivars are smooth on the underside while those of the European species, "V. opulus," are hairy. Nurseries handle a number of excellent cultivars, known for their superior fruiting characteristics, including Andrews, Hahs, Hogg’s Red, Manitou, Phillips and Wentworth. If I had my choice I would stick with the native species or some of its cultivars that have been listed. One feature of the jam or jelly that may interest you is that it has the distinctive odor of people’s feet – or "dirty socks" as one of our friends describes it. Fortunately it doesn’t taste like the socks! Adding a few slices of lemon or orange peel to the jam or jelly as it is cooking will generally remove the unusual odor. Flowers of the highbush cranberry in bloom are intricate and fascinating to study. There are two distinctly different flowers on each flat-topped, four-inch corymb (KOR-imb) or cluster. The outer ones are large, showy, sterile flowers somewhat resembling those of a hydrangea. These flashy structures are strictly for advertising, for attracting potential pollinators to the real flowers, The fertile flowers are quite tiny and grouped tightly together in the middle of the encircling infertile advertisers. Visiting insects will walk across the tiny florets thereby spreading pollen and ensuring that some hungry birds or other wildlife, including deer, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, mice and rabbits, will have valuable seeds to eat on a sub-zero February day. This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 07/05/2002. © Copyright 2002 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.