January 30 Bittersweet in the Lost City

On this gorgeous afternoon in the Arboretum, we decided to hike through the Lost City Forest in search of some of the original foundations of buildings from the 1920s. As we got closer to a coniferous section in the southern corner, a series of crashing noises called our attention. Turkeys were flying to and from skinny jack pine branches, scraping their wings on tree trunks, and looking hilariously awkward while eating these oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) berries. The red berries are released in fall from the wings of the pod and like buckthorn and mountain ash are gobbled up in late winter by songbirds, squirrels, and ambitious turkeys. While the red berries are a nice accent to the browns and dark greens of winter, the plant itself can be destructive: in this section the bittersweet vines have grown up and around dozens of trees, strangling them to the point of falling over. It's among the ranks of invasive plants the land care staff fight back each year.