Medicinal Monday - Winterberry Brightens a Winter Landscape

The winterberry is one of the few plants in New England that are at their prettiest after their leaves have fallen. A scarlet mass of these red berries brings a spot of color to the dreariest winter landscape.  Today, we often see the fruit ladened bare branches of this plant used as a colorful component in holiday decorations.  This plant has limited but fascinating medicinal uses in Native American culture and, we would like to think it had decorative uses as well.

About Winterberry

The genus llex is from the holly family of some 400 species of trees, shrubs, and climbers found throughout the world.  There are about 15 species found throughout North America including Connecticut where the species, llex verticillata grows.  Most holly shrubs have glossy prickly evergreen leaves studded with bright red colored berries, the winterberry has neither.  Dark green simple ovate shaped leaves with small teeth that are smooth and slightly glossy above and fuzzy below are characteristics that identify the winterberry found here along with the beautiful red colored berries.  The male plant blooms in the summer with small clusters of white flowers, the female plant has fewer but showier flowers.  Only the female plants produce fruit, and only if there is a male plant nearby that provides pollination. 

The winterberry plant is most often found in wetland habitats, but, it can also be found on dry sandy dunes and grassland.  This plant is referred to by a variety of names including black alder, Canada holly, coralberry, brook alder, fever bush, and Michigan holly.  The berries are poisonous to humans, dogs, cats, and horses, but more than 49 species of birds eat the berries as well as waterfowl, game birds, raccoons, and even mice.  When food is scarce whitetail deer,  rabbits, moose, and snowshoe hares will eat stems and bark.

Medicinal Uses

Native Americans use the bark and leaves of the winterberry plant to treat a variety of ailments.  Winterberry earned its nickname fever bush because Native Americans use the bark to treat fever, internal parasites, and liver ailments.  They also used the bark externally to treat cuts and bruises.  The bark is 4.8% tannin and was harvested before the first frost.  A tea is made from the bark and used as an emetic, a tonic and remedy for diarrhea and a preparation is made from the roots to treat hay fever. The Iroquois make a tea from winterberry bark and berries and used it as a laxative and to induce vomiting.  

Did you know...

A Confederate doctor, Francis Porcher used this plant to treat fevers, diarrhea, ulcers and as a medicinal wash to treat gangrene.

Oriental Bittersweet is sometimes confused with winterberry.  To tell them apart, look at the leaf margins and berries. Winterberry has serrated leaf edges and smooth red berries. Oriental Bittersweet has rounder leaves and red berries with loose yellow skins.

Winterberry leaves when dried can be made into a tea that contains no caffeine.

Swallowing the berries can cause vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and drowsiness and is considered poisonious to humans, cats, dogs and horses.