Wildlife Strawberry Bush

Eastern cottontail rabbits and deer love to feast on the leaves of the strawberry bush and wildlife hunting site operators have noticed that when this plant is firmly established in a forest, it will practically disappear from foraging deer in the fall until it regrows from the roots in the spring. The Strawberry bush grows well in moist areas but also can easily tolerate droughts. After the leaves turn scarlet in the fall, the stems and twigs are attractive and contrast dramatically as bright green specimens in snow and ice. Many early American colonists used the strawberry bush as a tonic and diuretic. Strawberry bushes are perennial plants, and thus don't need to be reestablished every year on hunting preserves.

• The cold hardy nature of strawberry bushes allow its establishment successfully as far North as New York and throughout the Eastern United States. Songbirds and wild Turkey eat the red berries that grow by the hundreds on a large bush and ripen in September through the fall, when wildlife food is scarce. The Strawberry Bush is also known as the 'burning bush' because of the brilliantly colored Fall leaves.