Expressway Plants in Winter

     Early in December of 2016, I was driving about 60 miles per hour along an expressway in southeastern Pennsylvania and noticed, as I always do, various picturesque and interesting plants on the ditched and sloped edges of the highway.  But this time I made a list of the more adaptable and outstanding plant species, vegetation with some beauty and intrigue in winter, and are also helpful to wildlife along major highways with deep shoulders.
     Grass that is occasionally mowed and lines of successional trees dominate those broad roadsides, and hold down their soil against erosion during heavy rains.  Occasional flocks of Canada geese graze, here and there, on the short grass through winter.  And little groups or singles of white-tailed deer nibble twigs and buds on the trees.
     Most of the roadside ditches and low spots are dominated by attractive cattails and phragmites, both of which are wetland plants.  The main beauties of these two plants are there seed heads.  The multitudes on cattail stands look like fat, brown hot dogs, while dense patches of them on phragmites are like downy plumes of beige, which are most lovely when sunlight shines behind them.   
     Seeds of cattails and phragmites blow all around, but only those that land in at least moist soil grow into plants.  Cattails and phragmites also spread from runners in damp soil. 
     These decorative species of bottomland plants provide food and shelter to a limited number of wildlife species.  Song sparrows and marsh wrens live and nest among them.  And muskrats feed on cattail roots and use the leaves of that species to build homes in the middle of larger puddles of standing water along expressways, as well as in ponds and cattail marshes.
     Many red juniper and stag-horned sumac trees, Tartarian honeysuckle bushes, and bittersweet vines, all on higher ground, bear fruits in winter that are not only attractive, but are food for a variety of birds and small mammals, including northern mockingbirds, American robins, starlings and mice.  Juniper "berries" are actually small, light-blue cones with barely visible scale edges.  All these plants are spread by seeds in the droppings of birds that eat the fruits, digest their pulp, but don't digest all the seeds.  Gangs of starlings ingest a lot of berries and spread them over the countryside in their travels.  And since roadside shoulders don't get plowed, or even mowed much, these plants have a good chance of sprouting and growing to maturity.     
     The seed heads and stems of teasel, goldenrod, fox-tail grass and broom grass are about three feet tall, attractive and abundant along many stretches of expressways.  The seeds of these plants are scattered by blowing on the wind.  The dark-brown heads of teasel are prickly and were used by medieval Europeans to tease out wool.  The stems and seed heads of the rest of the plants are beige, and most lovely when sun lighted from behind.
     American goldfinches, house finches, dark-eyed juncos and mice are some of the little critters that consume the seeds of these species of vegetation.  Some of the mice, in turn are caught and eaten by majestic red-tailed hawks and pretty American kestrels, which is also a kind of hawk.  Kestrels hover into the wind to watch the ground for prey.
     The vegetated shoulders of expressways are prettier and more interesting than is usually thought.  Watch for the adaptable plants and animals that are readily seen while RIDING, not driving, along those major highways.