How Do You Identify A Shrub With Red Berries?
Whether you saw it on a hike, in a magazine or in your neighbor’s backyard, using a field guide is the best way to identify a mystery plant. As the name implies, field guides are intended to be used in identifying plant or animal species out in the field. However, as long as you can recall enough information about the shrub, it is not always necessary to have one at hand. Revisit the shrub. Take note of leaf shape, thickness and arrangement. Sumac varieties have compound leaves, meaning that there are more than one leaflet attached to a single stalk. The aromatic sumac, with clusters of shiny red berries, has only three leaflets on each stalk. Smooth sumac, on the other hand, can have 11 to 31 pinnately compound leaflets that look similar to the branches of a fern. Its berries grow in extremely dense clusters and are covered with sticky hairs. If it is needle-leaf shrub, there is a good chance that it is a Canada yew. The fruit of these common decorative shrubs is actually a seed that
