Spring In The Woods

Ah, April….SPRING! This is the time of year when the woods comes alive. Of course, it’s been alive all winter, but as buds break and trees burst into bloom, we really start to see and feel the forest waking up. One of the first shrubs to bloom is our native spicebush, Lindera benzoin. The tiny bright yellow-green flowers pop out all along the stems well before the leaves appear.

Although these blossoms are indeed flowers, they are not ”perfect” flowers, in that they do not have all four of the organs that constitute a botanically complete flower. Spicebush is missing petals, which we usually find the most noticeable part of a flower. The showy yellow bits are actually sepals, and stamens. Sepals are the outermost shell of a flower, the folded protection for a growing bud. Usually petals come next, but not on a spicebush. Instead, we usually see stamens, the male pollen-bearing organ of the flower.

Notice we mentioned male flowers. Spicebush also have female flowers, but they bloom on completely separate plants, because spicebush are ”dioecious,” (dye-ee-shus). Dioecious species have separate male and female individuals, and both are needed to create fruit. Dioecious comes from Greek words meaning ”two houses.” In spicebush, male flowers are a little larger and splashier than the female flowers, but only the females bear fruit. These bright red firm 1/2” ovals appear in the fall, and have a resiny, citrusy, flavor that appeals to numerous bird species. The fruits are especially high in both protein and fat, which makes them an ideal snack for avian migrants.

But other things eat spicebush, too. Lindera is the preferred food of the spicebush swallowtail, Pterourus troilus, whose flight season begins a bit later, after the plant is in leaf. These swallowtails have 3-4” wingspans, making them among our larger butterflies, and the females lay rounded, light-colored eggs singly on the underside of spicebush leaves. After about a week, the eggs hatch into tiny larvae — caterpillars — who protect themselves from predators by visually mimicking bird droppings and by folding themselves inside the plant’s leaves. The larvae go through five growth stages, called instars, before they pupate. As mature caterpillars, they are bright green with small blue spots, and huge black and yellow ”eyespots” behind their heads. These eyespots make them look large and menacing, a little like snakes, or predators of sorts, and deters birds from eating them.

Spicebush was used medicinally by indigenous peoples in the Eastern US for treating coughs and colds. Its citrusy, bitter flavor, discernible if you stand nearby and sniff, or in the crushed leaves or snapped stems, is due to a whole suite of chemicals. The most prevalent of these is called sulcatone, and it occurs in citronella and lemon-grass as well. These compounds are the inspiration for the species name of the plant: benzoin, which comes from an Arabic word for aromatic gum.

Try to get out into the woods soon to enjoy the sight and fragrance of our native spicebush!