Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is partridge berry, Mitchella repens, pictured below:
Partridge berry is a delicate, creeping vine that does not climb. Instead, it forms a low mat of evergreen leaves. Indigenous to the woodlands of eastern North America, partridge berry looks very much like teaberry.
Partridge berry plants produce flowers with both male and female parts, but they are arranged in pairs, where each flower needs to be pollinated by the other to produce a berry. There are two types of partridge berry flowers, those with long stamens and short styles, and those with short stamens and long styles. However, only one type of flower can be found on any individual plant.
Pollination happens via insects. Each flower pair produces one red berry. There is a pair of shallow dimples toward the tip of each berry, an identifiable feature of the plant.
Partridge berry fruits are eaten by various birds, including ruffed grouse, northern bobwhite, sharp-tailed grouse, prairie chicken, wild turkey, and the now-extinct passenger pigeon. Mammals also enjoy the berry, including raccoon, red fox, eastern skunk, eastern chipmunk, white-footed mouse, and woodland deer mouse. The plant’s foliage is also eaten by deer.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.
