A winterberry wonderland

When Honesdale’s Dick Smith co-composed the now-beloved holiday song, “Winter Wonderland,” he probably wasn’t thinking about American winterberry. But this bush with its blazing red berries lends considerable beauty to the winter landscape throughout the Upper Delaware region.

Ilex verticillata is a native species of holly that punctuates the natural scenery with brilliant bursts of fire-engine red berries at a time when most color has been drained from the landscape. It is a deciduous shrub whose berries are made all the more prominent when its leaves cascade to the forest floor in autumn.

Commonly referred to as black alder and swamp holly, the plant’s berries were sometimes used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. Many bird species make winterberry an important staple in their winter diets.

Winterberry prefers moist acidic soils and typically grows between six to 10 feet tall at the edge of woods or swamps. Small white flowers appear in June and its foliage is a deep glossy green. Only female plants produce the showy fruit.

“A beautiful sight,” indeed, to be walking in a winterberry wonderland.