Take a walk with me through the prairie

I noticed another beauty today as I was walking. This is New England Aster. It is an excellent deer plant, and they will browse it readily - especially when young and tender. NEA is also an excellent pollinator plant.

Note: The second plant below is another aster, which I believe to be Smooth Aster, although I'm not 100% sure.

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This shrub caught my attention the other day as I was walking. It’s called Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). It is the most common dogwood in our area.

This is an overall good shrub for all wildlife. Deer will certainly browse it, and the berries are favorites of birds. White spring flowers are attractive to pollinators, and when I was a child and squirrel hunted, it was very common to find them devouring the fruits

This shrub does well in partial shade but will do even better with more sun. I’ve never planted any of them, because they are fairly common on my farm.

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I have proven my efforts are not rewarded by planting apple trees on my ground. Rather, we may have to accept what works best on our own ground - and not fight it. Just because a particular plant species does not produce anticipated benefits, does not mean we “hate” it - in fact, the total opposite may be true. And proof again, just because something works in one area, doesnt necessarily mean it works in another area.
Please forgive this response to an old comment, but - I sometimes can't believe how many years it took me to learn this lesson. Lots of plants - forbs, grasses, trees, and food plots that produce wonderfully for other folks simply do not thrive on my dirt. I recommend figuring out what works well on your place, what doesn't. and acting accordingly.
 
It’s getting harder to find plants that I’ve not already covered, but today I found one. This is wild Licorice. It was growing in a shady dry location, which is what it prefers. I’ve read that deer will browse it but I didn’t see any sign of that today. Probably because of the acres of soybeans nearby.

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Edited 7/31/24. I first said Roughleaf Dogwood, but I should have said Stiff Dogwood.

Some dogwood's can be difficult to differentiate. I have identified this one as Stiff Dogwood. It look like the others that have blue berries except that the underside of the leaves are smooth and green. This variety thrives in moist soil and is browsed well by deer. I would rate the browse preference higher than elderberry but less than arrowwood viburnum. These were sold to me as Red Osier Dogwood but I soon saw they were something different.
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Some dogwood's can be difficult to differentiate. I have identified this one as Roughleaf Dogwood. It look like the others that have blue berries except that the underside of the leaves are smooth and green. This variety thrives in moist soil and is browsed well by deer. I would rate the browse preference higher than elderberry but less than arrowwood viburnum. These were sold to me as Red Osier Dogwood but I soon saw they were something different.
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Where did you get them from? I just checked some I got from Iowa DNR that were supposedly ROD, but I noticed blue berries, didn’t get a picture though. Stems were very red in the winter, didn’t grow like other roughleafs I got from MDC, so I was thinking they were silky. I’ll have to take pictures and take a look at the pith.


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Where did you get them from? I just checked some I got from Iowa DNR that were supposedly ROD, but I noticed blue berries, didn’t get a picture though. Stems were very red in the winter, didn’t grow like other roughleafs I got from MDC, so I was thinking they were silky. I’ll have to take pictures and take a look at the pith.


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I got them from a local guy. He never would reveal where he got his trees, but another guy told me it was from MDC.
 
Where did you get them from? I just checked some I got from Iowa DNR that were supposedly ROD, but I noticed blue berries, didn’t get a picture though. Stems were very red in the winter, didn’t grow like other roughleafs I got from MDC, so I was thinking they were silky. I’ll have to take pictures and take a look at the pith.


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I just realized that I made a mistake when I said Roughleaf Dogwood. What I have is actually Stiff Dogwood. I will go back and edit the post. I was researching both species, and that's what helped lead to my error.
 
I have an unusual one for you today. Only found this at one spot and not many of them. It’s called Slender Ladies’ Tresses. My research said it is in the orchid family. The perfect spirals of flowers really caught my eye.

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I found a new one today. This is a plant I’ve never noticed before called Sida Spinosa (aka teaweed). It is supposed to be a good browse plant, but I found it right by my gate at the end of the highway, so not in a good place to be browsed.

This plant is related to the one sold on the Internet for deer habitat called Sida Ulmifolia, which I understand has a more southern range.

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Last year I posted a picture of a Strawberry Bush that had been browsed almost to the ground. The picture below is one of several that I dug up at the edge of my yard, transplanted to my farm and Caged. As you can see, it is now fruiting.

These bushes are the ultimate deer browse - being even more desirable than apple tree limbs.

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Next year I will experiment with removing the cages. I do occasionally find one at the farm, and they are always browsed pretty hard.
 
This is a plant I’ve never posted before. It is known as Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). The plants in the pic below are some I transplanted to my yard. There is a place on my creek bank about an acre in size where these are so thick you can’t see the ground. It’s beautiful down there this time of year.

I’ve read that deer will browse them some but I’ve never noticed it.

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My plant today is one that is not a native, and it is considered by some to be invasive. It certainly is invasive, but it will never be invasive where deer exist. This is because they love to eat it so much, they will destroy it. The plant I'm speaking of is Winterberry Euonymus (aka Euonymus fortunei). The only place I have ever seen this plant thrive is in spots close to houses or roads - and possibly in some spots that are blocked off from deer. As you can see below, the only place on my entire farm that it exists is facing the highway - but even there, deer have stood out on the blacktop at times and browsed it.

This plant is very unusual. It starts as a groundcover, but it can also take the form of a shrub or climbing vine. When it climbs a tree is when it starts making orange berries. I'm sure the birds eat the berries and spread this plant, but before it can establish in a new place, deer will eat it to the ground and destroy it.

I'm going to do a little experimenting with this plant. I'm going to start it in some cages at a few places and let it get established. Then at some point I will remove the cages and see if it can survive the browsing. Or, it might be better to leave the cages and let it climb the cages. That way the deer can eat from the outside and not be able to completely kill it.

I would like some feedback from you guys on where you have observed this plant. My guess is that you will tell me in yards and cities but not out in the wild. Let me know................. PS - this has to be in the top 5 plants of preferred deer browse that I have ever seen.

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You kind of threw me with that one. Around these parts, "winterberry" is Ilex verticillata. It's a common wetland shrub that is most conspicuous in the winter, when it is devoid of foliage but covered with its scarlet fruit. I've never noted deer to browse on it very much at all, even in areas with high deer density.
 

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You kind of threw me with that one. Around these parts, "winterberry" is Ilex verticillata. It's a common wetland shrub that is most conspicuous in the winter, when it is devoid of foliage but covered with its scarlet fruit. I've never noted deer to browse on it very much at all, even in areas with high deer density.
Yes, my plant is Winterberry Euonymus, and yours is Winterberry Holly. From a distance the berries might look similar but the two species are quite different.
 
Euonymus of many types = deer crack.
 
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