SHRUBS
Shrubs are woody plants with several stems starting at or near the ground. Different species grow to different heights, but shrubs are typically shorter than trees.
Shrubs help to stabilize the sand at the bird sanctuary, and they provide food and shelter to birds and other animals. These plants also provide a colorful array of leaves, blossoms, and fruit, as well as pleasing fragrances.
Thanks to our photographers for sharing these photos with us.
Bearberry - Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
This small shrub helps stabilize dunes. It attracts thrushes, wrens, robins and waxwings. The plant grows low to the ground and spreads out widely but slowly, via surface rhizomes. Hummingbirds and butterflies like its evergreen leaves and red berries.
Blackhaw Viburnum - Viburnum prunifolium
This large shrub is a popular nectar site for butterflies and bees. Its foliage is dark green in summer, and purplish in the fall. It produces clusters of creamy white flowers in spring. The berry-like fruit turns bluish-black, offering food for birds in fall and early winter.
Creeping Juniper - Juniperus horizontalis
Creeping Juniper - Juniperus horizontalis
This large shrub is a popular nectar site for butterflies and bees. Its foliage is dark green in summer, and purplish in the fall. It produces clusters of creamy white flowers in spring. The berry-like fruit turns bluish-black, offering food for birds in fall and early winter.
Gray Dogwood - Cornus racemosa
Creeping Juniper - Juniperus horizontalis
This plant grows in thickets. It provides shelter and nesting sites for birds and small mammals. Eastern bluebirds, cardinals, Northern flickers, and downy woodpeckers eat its berries. Butterflies use it as a larval host plant. It also attracts native bees.
Smooth Wild Rose - Rosa blands
Smooth Wild Rose - Rosa blands
This native plant (also known as Rosa blanda, smooth rose, meadow rose, or prairie rose), comes closest to a "thornless" rose, with only a few thorns at its base. It grows to more than three feet high, providing good cover for birds.
Leadplant - Amorpha canescens
Smooth Wild Rose - Rosa blands
This upright, rounded shrub, native to the Midwest, does well in dry sandy to clay soil. The attractive gray-green foliage and purplish-blue flower spikes in early summer serve as a host to caterpillars, a nectar source for butterflies, and a food source for birds.
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
This is a relatively rare plant in Illinois. It is excellent for attracting hummingbirds, which eat the tiny insects that pollinate the flowers. The luxuriant glossy leaves and bright white flowers make it a durable, drought-tolerant shrub.
Ninebark - Physocarpus opulifolius
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
This multi-stemmed shrub has densely arched, re-curved branches. It reaches heights between 5 to 12 feet, with a spread from 6 to 12 feet. Birds like its dense cover for nesting sites. Its leaves vary greatly in size and shape, even within a single bush.
Red Osier Dogwood - Cornus sericea
New Jersey Tea - Ceanothus americanus
This shrub’s bright red twigs provide beautiful color in winter. In spring, its white blossoms attract bumblebees, flies and butterflies. The berry-like fruit ripens from green to white, or bluish-white. Nearly 100 species of birds use it for food and shelter.
Sandbar Willow - Salix interior
This slender, upright shrub forms thickets by aggressively spreading its dense, fibrous roots. Considered invasive, it has become extensive in the panne area south of the beach house. It is also showing up on the north end, near the NU boathouse.
Sand Cherry - Prunus pumila
This splendid flowering shrub displays small, black-purple cherries in late summer. The fruit blends in well with the shrub’s foliage, but songbirds can still find it. This shrub is well suited to open beach areas, in association with our swaths of Marram Grass.
Sweet Fern - Comptonia peregrina
This beautiful, hardy native plant is perfect for our beach’s dry, sandy conditions. Its foliage smells fragrant, especially when its leaves are crushed. When it colonizes, the plant forms a beautiful fern-like mass. Butterflies love it.