4 Chapter 4: Native Pollinator Shrubs on Campus
This fourth chapter describes the Native Pollinator Shrubs on Campus. Information describing the plants comes from the Missouri Botanical Garden website.
Native Pollinator Shrubs
Ceanothus americana (New Jersey Tea, Wild Snowball)
New Jersey tea favors full sun to partial shade, dry to medium water, and can tolerate drought, dry soil, and shallow-rocky soil. It has toothed, broad-ovate, medium to dark green leaves that are gray and hairy below with yellow young twigs. It grows 4’ tall and 3’ wide and has tiny, white flowers that are in cylindrical clusters at stem ends or upper leaf axils. Flowering occurs from May to July, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.
Potential Problems: Leaf spot and powdery mildew.
Calycanthus floridus (Sweet Shrub)
Sweet shrub requires full sun to partial shade, medium water, and can tolerate clay soil. The plant tends to grow taller in the shade then in the sun. The plant is a dense, rounded deciduous shrub producing suckers, and growing from 6’ to 10’ high and 6’ to 12’ wide. Leaves are dark green ovate to elliptic which turn golden yellow in fall. The flowers are brown to reddish-brown at ends of short branchlets, blooming from April to July. Flowers give way to brownish, urn-shaped fruits, which mature in fall.
Ilex Verticillata (Winter Berry)
Winterberry requires full sun, medium to wet, acidic soil, and can tolerate clay soil, wet soil, air pollution, erosion, poorly drained soils, and shade. It prefers moist, acidic, organic loams. It is a slow-growing, deciduous holly shrub, which is upright and rounded. Elliptic to obovate, toothed, dark green leaves and grows 3’ to 12’ tall, 3’ to 12’ wide. Flowers are greenish-white and are at the leaf axils, which blooms from June to July. Tends to attract birds.
Potential problems: leaf spots and powdery mildew, in addition neutral to alkaline soil will cause plant to yellow and die.