Medicinal Monday - Vibrant Red Winterberries

 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.  As decorative as this plant is, Native Americans also found medicinal uses for it.

About Winterberry

Winterberry is from the holly family that has more than 400 species of trees, shrubs, and climbers that are found throughout the world.  There are 15 species of holly plants found in North America including Connecticut where the species, llex verticillata commonly known as winterberry can be found growing. The winterberry plant is most often found in wetland habitats, but, it can also be found on dry sandy dunes and grassland. Most holly shrubs have glossy prickly evergreen leaves studded with bright red berries, but, interestingly, the winterberry has neither.  The ovate shaped leaves of the winterberry are dark green with small teeth that are smooth and slightly glossy on the top of the leaf with the underside being fuzzy. Winterberries found in Connecticut have beautiful red colored berries.  The male winterberry plant blooms in the summer with small clusters of white flowers, the female winterberry plant has fewer but showier flowers.  Only the female plants produce fruit when pollinated by a male plant that is nearby. 

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 use 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 is used as an emetic, a tonic, and a remedy for diarrhea. The Iroquois make a tea from winterberry bark and berries and used it as a laxative and to induce vomiting. Another use for winterberry is to treat hayfever by making a tea from the roots of this plant.

Did you know...

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.

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.