Great video! Should have been sponsored by front loops, though 😉 I have a pollinator garden in my illinois yard & purposely planted spicebush for the swallowtails. 2 things I've noticed about it: this must be a very sought-after plant as there were women at the wild ones native plant sale where I bought them who seriously tried to overpower me & grab my spicebush plants. That was a bit shocking. Made me think I should keep them in my back yard so no one would see them & dig them up. And It's impossible to tell the sex of these plants. I have 3 & they must all be the same sex because I never get any berries. I guess it's just about planting as many as possible & hoping you've got at least one of each. I've seen articles telling me to look at the flowers to tell the difference, but they all look the same to me!
We're lucky enough to have many of these near us. Most were covered in Japanese honeysuckle, which I removed. They were getting overtopped, but now look good and have been producing more drupes than in years before. I hope that was the right thing to do, so much conflicting information out there. Think I ticked off a hunter or two who encourage honeysuckle as winter browse for deer. Don't think they were too impressed with my removal of barberry either (Turkeys are thought to eat the berries).
Good work removing both species!! I can't speak to the nutrition of Japanese honeysuckle (though obviously removing it to favor natives will always be a good habitat management decision), but learned recently that barberry fruits are very low in fats and protein relative to native species. So while turkeys, grouse, songbirds, and others eat barberry, they aren't getting much out of it. I like to say that people who want barberry, multiflora rose, autumn olive, and other invasive plants around for wildlife food should try flying to Costa Rica with just M&Ms to eat!
I had a ton of these growing in my backyard and eradicated most of them thinking they weren’t of much wildlife value. 🤦♂️ At least I’m planting mast trees in their place…
