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Watching birds, especially in the fall and winter, is a fun way to spend time. Many people put out bird feeders and fill them with food. Berries feed birds and other wildlife without the mess of scattered birdseed. Here are some examples of berry producing native plants for your yard.
Black Chokeberry
Black Chokeberry is a shrub that reaches 3-6 feet. The mound shaped plant has several slim trunks that wind together. Black chokeberry has reddish brown bark and dark, glossy leaves. The leaves turn crimson in the fall. The flowers are flat topped and white with pink anthers.
Black fruit with seeds inside them persists on the plant all fall and some of the winter. The fruit is edible but too sour to eat raw. It is used for pies, jellies, and jams. If you want any fruit for yourself, you will have to pick it as soon as it gets ripe, or the birds will get it.
Black chokeberry is a member of the rose family and is native to North American, predominately the Eastern half. It grows in lowlands, bogs, dunes, and bluffs in the wild and prefers partial shade and acidic, moist soil. Black chokeberry grows in zones 3-8. They are drought tolerant.
Elderberry
Elderberry is a perennial shrub with branches that may reach twelve feet tall. The branches arch at the top. The dark green leaves can reach seven inches long. Elderberries have white, flat-topped flower clusters in the summer.
The berry-like fruit is dark purple and appears in late summer to fall. The berries are toxic if eaten raw, but can be cooked and used in jams, jellies, and wine.
Elderberries grow in zones 3-9. They are native to alluvial forests, bogs, and ditches. They prefer wet, slightly acidic soils and partial shade. Elderberries will grow in full sun in cultivated fields with little competition. They can be planted as a hedge or screen or as a specimen shrub. The roots are effective at erosion control in areas too wet for many plants.
Elderberries attract pollinators with their flowers, provide food and nesting areas for birds, and are interesting to look at all four seasons. Many desirable mammals like deer, bears, mice, foxes, and moose feed off the berries.
American Holly
American Holly is an evergreen tree that can grow 25 to 60 feet in the warmer areas of its range. The leaves are dark green, non-glossy, and have a spike on the tip. The flowers are white or green and grow in the spring. Female trees have bitter, bright red berries that are eaten by a wide range of wildlife but are toxic to humans.
American holly is an understory tree but will grow in sun, partial shade, and dappled sunlight. It is native to shaded woods and stream and river banks. In order to get red berries, you must have a male and female holly tree of the same species near enough each other for pollinators to pollinate the female flowers with the male’s pollen.
Birds and small mammals eat the berries on American holly. This tree has a tall conical shape and works well as a hedge or screen. While it prefers moist, well-drained, acidic soils, it will grow in other soils. This holly doesn’t do well in clay soils. It grows in zones 5-9. The dense foliage provides nesting areas and shelter to birds and small mammals.
Dogwood
Dogwood is a spectacular tree. It grows 15-25 feet tall with a spread of 20-25 feet. It can have single or multiple trunks. The crown spreads and the flowers are showy white or pink and last a long time in the spring. The fruit is red. The leaves are green in the spring and summer but turn scarlet in the fall before falling to the ground.
The wood is hard and is used for weaving shuttles, spools, small pullies, mallet heads, and jewelers blocks. Indigenous people used the bark and roots as a remedy for malaria. They made a red dye from the roots. During the Civil War when medicines were scarce, people used dogwood bark as a quinine substitute.
Dogwoods grow in thickets, shaded woods, river banks, stream banks in partial or full shade. It grows best in rich, well-drained, acidic soil in zones 5-9. Dogwoods attract pollinators, especially native bees and butterflies with its white blooms. It attracts birds and mammals with its fruit. The tart fruit can be made into jams and jellies.
Mapleleaf Viburnum
Mapleleaf Viburnum is a small shrub which grows 4-6 feet tall and spreads 3-4 feet. It has green to dark green leaves that resemble maple leaves. The leaves turn yellow, orange, pink, red, and purple in the fall, depending on the weather and light conditions. Viburnum has flat-topped white flowers that attract pollinators. The fruit starts off red and turns blue black when ripe. They are mildly poisonous to humans, so it is better to leave them for the birds.
Mapleleaf viburnum is native to shaded woods, mixed forests, and thickets. It likes dry or moist soil that is slightly acidic. This viburnum grows in full sunlight, partial shade, and dappled sunlight. They thrive in zones 3-9. Buds that form on the branches are visible in the fall and winter after the leaves have fallen.
Use this plant as a specimen plant, or in groups that form a thicket. Mapleleaf viburnum is native to the eastern half of North America.
Let Us Help
While the plants mentioned above are excellent berry plants, they are not native to all of North America. TN Nursery staff can help you find out which berry plants that birds like are native to your area. Just call us at 931.692.7325 and we will be happy to help you find a berry bearing plant in your neck of the woods.
