CHARLES BURY
I was half right and half wrong in my guess about how far north witch hazel will grow.
The traditional wisdom is that this woodland shrub will grow in and around Montreal and Quebec City, but not further north. My hunch was that as part of the deciduous eastern forest community, witch hazel can thrive in south-flowing river valleys in the Laurentians, as far north as Témiscamingue, Mont Laurier and Lac St-Jean.
To find out more I called botanist Frédéric Coursol of Flora Québeca, our province's association of plant watchers. As it happens, Coursol lives in Mont Laurier. He says witch hazel is at home throughout the St. Francis Valley and everywhere south of the Montérégian hills (Rougemont, Mt. Johnson, Mt. Yamaska, Mt. St-Hilaire, Mt. St-Bruno, Montreal, and have I forgotten one?). He says it is also reported around Quebec City, along the Outaouais, and into the woods around Hull, then "barely up the lower Gatineau and Le Lièvre valleys."
Botanist Coursol admits he's never seen the species, and he lives less than a hundred miles further north. However he also says that doesn't mean it's not present. When you look at the maps," he says, "without fail, the observations are close the roads." Even scientists rarely go off the beaten path, he says, and if you believe the literature there are lots of places where nothing grows at all - "just because no one has been there to report it."
Allow me to introduce you to a couple of my personal heroes - Donald And Lillian Stokes. Together they have authored the series Stokes Nature Guides, bringing a finely crafted lyrical sense to their descriptions of animals and plants, and how they live together. From their Natural History of Wild Shrubs and Vines, here is the Stokeses' take on witch hazel, with sketches by Deborah Prince Smith:
Witch Hazel blooms later than any of our other wild shrubs and vines, at a time when most other woody plants have shed their leaves. Its flowering marks the end of fall, for once its blooms fade, the cold weather sets in and the colors of the woods no longer change with each day, but seem fixed, at least for the early part of winter.
Even though its flowers have disappeared, there are still good reasons for visiting Witch Hazel in winter. One is to find its marvelous seed capsules, which have required almost a full year to mature. They contain one or two shiny black seeds about the size and shape of rice grains. As the capsule dries, it splits across the top; the seeds, now under pressure, shoot out through the opening with an audible snap, and are dispersed five to ten feet from the parent plant.
Another interesting growth on the winter twigs, the Spiny Witch Hazel Gall, is not particularly easy to spot, for it is dark-colored and there are only a few on any given group of plants. It looks like a miniature pineapple and is caused by the aphid Hamamelistes spinosus.
The female aphid irritates the flower bud, causing a gall to form, and then lays her eggs within. Winged adults emerge from the gall and fly to Birches, where the aphids go through three generations before returning to Witch Hazel. Some species of aphids in the north have been observed never to migrate to Birches, but complete their entire life cycle on the Witch Hazel.
There are two species of Witch Hazel in eastern North America. One blooms in late fall after the leaves have shed; the other, sometimes known as Springtime Witch Hazel, blooms in late winter and early spring before the leaves appear. The latter species is more southern in range, the former is more northern.
A question for which I have not been able to find an answer is, Who pollinates the flowers? Both species bloom at times when very few insects are out collecting food. I have watched the flowers when they are in bloom and the only visitors I have seen are ants. In summer, the leaves of Witch Hazel are the main centres of activity. Here you will find a fascinating insect gall, shaped like a minute peak of meringue. The gall-maker, Hormaphis hamamelidis, is an aphid which in spring chews a hole through the undersurface of the leaf, causing a gall to form above. The eggs she lays within the gall soon hatch, and the young can be found crowded inside the gall in early summer.
The aphids emerge and fly to Birch, where they pass through four generations, finally returning to Witch Hazel. Two other signs of summer animal activity can be seen on Witch Hazel's leaves. You will notice that some leaves have been rolled into a tight cylinder for half their length, starting at the tip and progressing toward the petiole. This construction is the work of the larva of a Tortricid moth, Cacoecia rosaceana.
The other occurrence will be seen at the base of Witch Hazel leaves. Here the leaf is often folded over right along one of the side veins and carefully tied back to the rest of the leaf. The Witch Hazel Leaf Folder, Episimus argutanus, is a small moth whose larva makes this fold and then feeds on the inner layer of the leaf in the fold, causing it to turn brown. I find both of these very common and always done in exactly the same way.
Witch Hazel is usually seen in sparse colonies of plants growing in the understory of dry or moist woods. This configuration results because the plant spreads by rootstocks that grow new aerial stems. Its companion plants include Hazelnut, Blueberry, Huckleberry, and Buckthorn. Witch Hazel grows slowly, and after reaching a height of about ten feet, projects almost all new growth in a lateral direction.
For hundreds of years, people have claimed that the oil from Witch Hazel bark can cure a variety of bodily ills. Even today you can buy oil of witch hazel at your local drugstore, mixed liberally with alcohol. I am not certain whether witch hazel oil relieves any of the aches and pains we get from civilization, but I am sure that the plant can provide a healthy diversion. If you take the time to observe its flowers, pods, seeds, leaf rollers, and galls, you will find it always a bewitching source of wonder in the woods.".
Copyright © 1998 Charles Bury/Log Cabin Chronicles/12.98 |
If there is only one time when you are able to visit Witch Hazel, make it the fall. If you arrive and find that the plant has just shed its leaves, that its branches are bare, and that it appears to have settled into its winter dormancy, then you are too early. Wait a week or two and return; you are likely to see the bare branches covered with spidery light-yellow blooms.