Here’s a native perennial that produces lots of fruit for migrating birds.
American spikenard (Aralia racemosa) is a showy plant that grows three to five feet tall and wide. It blooms in airy greenish-white spikes from June to August and ripens its fruit in August and September, just in time for migrating birds. Click here to see it in bloom.
In my opinion, the plant was misnamed. People must have hoped it was similar to the real spikenard, Nardostachys jatamansi, a Himalayan plant in the Valerian family whose root is made into fragrant essential oil (called nard), but American spikenard is not at all like it and isn’t even in the same family. The American plant isn’t valuable to humans; it cannot make perfume.
But Aralia racemosa is valuable to birds. It’s a low maintenance plant that likes full sun or partial shade and spreads slowly by seeds and rhizomes. In August it offers showy fruit for birds.
Click here for more information at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
(photos by Kate St. John)
I love the appearance of the leaves and fruit of this plant. It’s very shrub-like during the growing season, but completely disappears for the winter — a little difficult to accommodate in a garden, but great for naturalizing!
Puts one in mind of a giant weed. Definitely not a garden beauty.
This is timely!I need seeds!