Lady Bird Johnson said wildflowers “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”
Always the first full week of May, National Wildflower Week commemorates the colorful blossoms that bring our landscapes to life.
To celebrate this week, I encourage you to visit one of our area nature preserves, parks or trails to view the wildflowers now in bloom locally. Each day of this week-long celebration, I’ll feature a local native wildflower that you may find in bloom at this time.
To continue this week’s focus on wildflowers and for your self-guided search today, I suggest that you go looking for Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Red Baneberry is a bushy herbaceous perennial plant that is 1-3′ tall either unbranched or sparingly branched with large, highly-divided leaves. The central stem and any secondary stems are light green and smooth; leaf stems are up to 6” long, light green, and smooth. Each plant has 1-4 alternate leaves that are thrice divided, becoming widely spreading. Leaflets are 1¼–3½” long and coarsely toothed along their margins. The upper leaf surface is medium green and smooth, while the lower leaf surface is slightly more pale and either smooth or hairy along the major veins.
Above the foliage are dense, globular clusters of small white flowers. The fruit is an attractive, but poisonous, red berry.
The central stem and any secondary stems terminate in solitary racemes of flowers that are 1-2″ long; these racemes become slightly longer when the flowers are replaced by berries. Each flower is about ¼” across or slightly wider, consisting of 4-10 white widely spreading petals that are individually narrowly elliptic in shape, and 15-40 white, long and showy stamens. The ascending to widely spreading flower stems (pedicels) within each raceme are ~½” long (or slightly more) and noticeably more slender than the central stalk (rachis) of the raceme. The flowers have a rosy fragrance and the numerous stamens give each cluster a feathery appearance.
The main way of distinguishing Red Baneberry from White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda), whether in flower or in fruit, is the thickness of the pedicel. The flower stalks of White Baneberry are noticeably thicker than the slender flower stalks of Red Baneberry. This difference is most pronounced after the flowers fade and are replaced by fruit. The stalks supporting White Baneberry fruit thicken and turn a bright red, while the stalks of Red Baneberry fruit are significantly more slender and remain green or greenish brown.
Afterwards, fertile flowers are replaced by bright red, glossy, ovoid berries that become about ¼ inch long at maturity. Each berry contains a fleshy pulp and several seeds. Individual seeds are about ⅛ inch long, reddish brown, and crescent-shaped.
Where Found:
Habitats include moist to mesic woodlands, shady stream banks, and shaded areas where some seepage of ground water occurs. Red Baneberry is shade-tolerant and can grow in moderate to full shade, doing best in light to moderate shade. It is found in hardwood forests, but is also seen in mixed wood forests with conifers.
- Anchor Diamond Park at Hawkwood
- Ann Lee Pond Nature and Historic Preserve
- Ashford Glen Preserve
- Bauer Environmental Park
- Community Connector Trail
- Dwaas Kill Nature Preserve
- Garnsey Park
- Hayes Nature Park
- Historic Champlain Canalway Trail
- Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail
- North Woods Nature Preserve
- Old Iron Spring Fitness Trail
- Peter Desrochers Memorial Country Knolls Trails
- Settlers Hill Natural Area
- Shenantaha Creek Park
- Summer Hill Natural Area
- Ushers Road State Forest
- Veterans Bike Path
- Veterans Memorial Park
- Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve
- Zim Smith Trail
Ecological Significance:
In botany, there is a scale called the “Coefficient of Conservatism.” The scale represents how tolerant a plant is to human disturbances and how representative it is to a pre-settlement natural community of plants. Coefficients of conservatism (“C” or CoC values) are increasingly being used to prioritize natural areas for conservation as well as for the monitoring of outcomes of habitat restoration projects. Species least tolerant of human disturbance and with an affinity for high-quality native habitats are placed in category “10.” Red Baneberry is placed in category “8.”
Red Baneberry’s importance for wildlife is low, because it is generally not an abundant plant. The flowers do not have nectar, offering only pollen to visiting insects, which are mainly bees. Most bees seen on the flowers are Halictid species (including Lasioglossum cressonii and Lasioglossum versans). However, the main pollinator in the Northeast is said to be the European Snout Beetle (Phyllobius oblongus), an introduced weevil.
Because the foliage is somewhat toxic, it is usually avoided by browsing animals. However, some animals feed on the seeds of this plant while rejecting the pulp, such as Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), and Woodland Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). Meanwhile, birds that eat the fruits include the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus), Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), and Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius).
How to Grow Your Own:
NOTE: Red Baneberry is a protected plant listed as a species that is exploitably vulnerable. It is a violation of New York State Environmental Conservation Law §9-1503 to collect or destroy listed plants without the permission of the landowner. The regulation gives landowners additional rights to prosecute people who collect plants without permission.
By division –
Because the root system consists of a vertical rootstock with fibrous secondary rootlets below, it is not possible to propagate by root division.
From seeds –
Best sown as soon as the fruit is ripened in autumn. Seeds have a limited viability, so if sown in spring, germination rates may be poor. The seeds are slow to germinate, doing so in the following year, and then flowering in the third year.