Blackberries, Multiflora Rose and Honeysuckle

     A few days ago, I stopped at a woodland edge covered with blackberry and multiflora rose canes and Japanese honeysuckle vines that were all in bloom.  The blackberry and rose canes had many sharp thorns and white flowers, while the honeysuckle had elongated, white and yellow blossoms.  I saw a male northern cardinal, a song sparrow, a gray catbird, a Carolina wren and a yellow warbler flitting one at a time among those leafy, flowery canes and vines during the 45 minutes I was beside them.  All these species of small birds, and others, no doubt were nesting in that invasive, impenetrable jungle that offers them and their young shelter from predators and the elements. 
     The thorny bushes and honeysuckle began to bloom toward the end of May and will continue to do so into June.  The rose and honeysuckle have pretty blossoms with sweet aromas that travel some distance on a warm, early-summer breeze.  But all these plants are invasive and form dense thickets along sunny woodland and stream edges, hedgerows between fields and along roadsides.  And all of them offer food and shelter to several kinds of wildlife the year around.  Bees and other kinds of insects visit the flowers of these species to sip nectar, pollinating the blooms in the process.     
     When the native blackberry blossoms are fertilized, each tiny female bloom in each flower head develops a small, green bump that grows and becomes white, then pink, red and, finally, close to an inch long, juicy and blackish-purple by the end of June.  A variety of birds, white-tailed deer, red foxes, gray foxes, raccoons and other types of mammals, and box turtles and wood turtles, feast on the multitudes of blackberries.
     Blackberry leaves turn red in October and are beautifully vivid in sunlight.  Eventually that foliage falls to the ground, but the canes still offer protection to wintering birds and mammals.  
     Multiflora rose is originally from Asia and was introduced to North America to be living fences and wildlife shelter, which it has been over many years.  But this rose is invasive in sunny habitats and has become a nuisance to many people in the United States who try in vain to eliminate it.  Green berries form during summer where the flowers had been.  But they are decorative red by autumn, and eaten by rodents and a variety of berry-eating birds during fall and winter.
     Multiflora rose not only reproduces through seeds in its berries, but also by its canes.  Each cane arches up, across and down, sprouting roots when the cane tips touch the ground, forming new bushes.  In this way each multiflora rose shrub "walks" across a meadow, eventually dominating it.
     Japanese honeysuckle is also from Asia, as its name implies.  Ruby-throated hummingbirds visit the flowers of this common, invasive vine to sip nectar and capture small insects.  This vine with its lovely blossoms crawls up trees, poles and across the ground, sometimes smothering other kinds of vegetation in the process.  This vine has black berries that are eaten by rodents and small birds through winter.          
     These plants are scattered across the countryside by the digestive tracts of birds.  The birds consume their berries, digest the pulp of those fruits, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings as they fly from place to place.  
     These lovely, invasive species of plants are here to stay!  They are very hard to eliminate.  But they do benefit many species of wildlife, including insects, birds, mammals and others.  And they have pretty, fragrant flowers.  We may as well try to enjoy their benefits to people and wildlife.