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Bluebird Berries?

18 years ago

Hi all,

I'm back with a few more photos, and a question for those with more plant knowledge.

Our Blues are still here, despite our dwindling mealworm rations. They still come for nuggets thruout the day, and recently they've taken a liking to the abundant purple berries which grow on our 3 "berry bushes" :

These bushes are @10ft tall, and the berries ripen from light green to ashen white and finally deep purple. They have a thin layer of milky white liquid beneath the purple skin, and the rest (about 80% of the volume of the berry) is a single large hard pit. The Blues aren't the only ones to eat them... Robins, Cardinals, Mockingbirds, and several other birds as well as the Squirrels gobble their share too.

Can anyone positively id this plant?

Kenn

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Comments (9)

griffin_MD
18 years ago
Kenn, I'm not sure but I'd guess elderberry. They can grow to about 13 feet. What color are the flowers when the shrubs are in bloom? Elderberry flowers are white.
Kathy
griffin_MD
18 years ago
. . . . or possibly a viburnum--do the leaves change color in the fall? Viburnums usually display beautiful fall color.
Kathy
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quietman
18 years ago
Kenn,

It looks to me like Dogwood. Try carfeully (and slowly) tearing a leaf in half. If you see a white, stringy latex like substance between the halves (look carefully!) then it is Dogwood. I have loads on my property, and I really like the color of the berries once they've fully ripened.

Good luck!
Quietman (NE Ohio)
anita55
18 years ago
Hi Kenn, I don't know but there are a couple of Garden Web forums that will identify your plant. Name That Plant is one of them; there is also a Shrub Forum and many others where the people really know their plants. See if this link works for you.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/namegal/

Anita
dzyg
18 years ago
Hmmm, I would be interested in finding out what they are. It looks exactly like what we have here however I have never seen the berries turn purple cause the birds eat them all when they are white. We have three different kinds of berry trees on our property and these are the first ones eaten by every bird imaginable. LOL!

Donna
organicgardener
18 years ago
Elderberry leaves have a serrated edge and the clusters contain many more berries than your bush. I think it is Viburnum. There are several species so I'm not sure which one it is. Dogwood (Cornus florida) has red berries, not purple.

Linda C.
griffin_MD
18 years ago
Kenn, still trying to help figure this one out. Does the plant on this link look familiar?

Here is a link that might be useful: silky dogwood
quietman
18 years ago
Linda C,

You are correct! I was talking about one of the other 50 or so species, see link below. The "Silky Dogwood" gets it's name from the fine, latex like sap in the leaves. Also called "Stringy" Dogwood. It has pale blue to light purple fuit.

Quietman
NE Ohio

Here is a link that might be useful: Dogwood - Cornus amomum
kenn3d
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks all,

We've pretty well determined it is Dogwood. Quietman is right, there are many varieties. Ours do have a little of that silky sap when you split the leaf. But it would seem that these are some variation of Red-twig Dogwood, as seen here in some Winter shots:

thanks again,

Kenn

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