Euonymous Americana is a native, deciduous shrub known by several unusual names including wahoo, burning bush, bursting heart, and hearts-a-bursting. Wildlife biologists often call it “deer ice cream”, as whitetails can’t get enough of it and will browse it to the ground. It is said that the plant’s name stems from the fact that the capsules somewhat resemble strawberries before “bursting” open in late fall, revealing the berries which are devoured by songbirds such as the eastern bluebird, wood thrush and northern mockingbird. Wild turkeys and small mammals also dine on the red berries. American Indians valued the strawberry bush for its therapeutic value. It is said that they used the roots of the plant to brew a tea for treating maladies of both the urinary tract and stomach. Later, various parts of the plant were used to treat dandruff, constipation, malaria and liver disorders. (Terry W. Johnson) Truly among our most versatile and interesting of shrubs, and stunning in the winter landscape.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D, Canon 70-300mm IS USM Zoom @ 165mm, f5.6, 1/250 sec. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied.
Those are pretty cool. Never heard of them. Was there a way to do some focus bracketing here? It would be nice to see all the fruits in focus. Maybe there wasn’t, but you could give it a go if you try again or if you have some other shots with the other berries in focus you could stack them.
Good suggestions, but I don’t have any focus stacking software, Kris. And I probably could have done better with this, but I just snapped it on a whim for the Weekly Challenge. It was darkly overcast yesterday, the wind was blowing, and I had a wide open aperture. It just caught my eye because those red capsules and berries jump out at a person in a drab winter landscape!
Terry, thanks for lots of great info on the plant and a good photo, showing off the red berries and twigs. This looks like a prime candidate for a vertical, especially if it would include the tip of the branch (that may or may not be just above the frame…).
Thanks, Mark. That’s all the canvas I have at the top. I probably just need to go reshoot it since I have some better light today. However, the wind is still blowing, albeit from a different direction. I’m sure if I took a little more time, I could get a much better framing. This shot was just pretty down and dirty, so to speak!
It is a really interesting plant. One thing I didn’t mention is that Native Americans also used the straight, strong branches of this shrub to make arrows. Okay, it’s supposed to be sunny with light wind tomorrow. I’ll see if I can get a better image. Any suggestions besides a vertical crop?
Try to get more berries in the focal plane but keep the BG soft, and keep the ones that aren’t in it separated and noticeably softer. (Tall order!!) Take a tripod and shoot several shots in manual focus with different berries in focus and layer them in PS and mask by hand for the sharpest of each layer.
