Unknown Shrub.

10-19-13 SHORT HILLS: I think I know everything growing here in our yard, but I still occasionally stumble across something I can’t identify, usually a weed. The shrub/small tree in these pix was an unknown until just recently.


Spring flowers....

Stippled bark....

Fall berries.

So—anybody know it? I do now, thanks to an ID web site. http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/idit.htm The site belongs to The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. Using a leaf and following a decision tree on the site, I was able to ID the plant as Winterberry Holly. It’s in the Ilex genus like the more familiar English holly.

There are two iPhone apps that I have tried for plant ID. The first, VTree ID, is also from Virginia Tech and gives you a list of trees found in your area from your location. The list is by Latin name and provides a description and pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit and bark and the ability to email a question to ‘Dr. Dendro’. There is no way to get a name from a leaf or berry unless you email it in. I didn’t try that.

The other app is called leafsnap. It lets you take a ‘snap’ of a leaf while in the app. It sends the picture in and gives you a quick list of possibilities. It sounds great, but didn’t work well for me. It didn’t recognize the winterberry holly, not in its database, and had trouble with a beech tree leaf and an English holly leaf. Both the correct trees were on the list along with twenty or more other suggestions. It got a sweet gum tree with only two other choices. I love the concept, but the app needs work. The database has pix of leaves, flowers, fruit and bark and can be searched by common name as well as Latin name.

Both apps are free, and free is always good.