Leatherwood
Growth Habit
ShrubBiocultural Value
Several Native American groups used the tough, pliant bark as a fastener or twisted it into cordage. Medicinally, it was employed as a kidney/urinary medicine, cathartic, emetic, and internal analgesic.
Poisonous
The bark, fruit, and roots of this plant are toxic. Some people have allergic reactions from contact with the bark.
Wildlife Value
Leatherwood's yellow, petal-less flowers attract a variety of small to medium-sized bes in early spring, including carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), cuckoo bees (Nomada cuneata), mason bees (Osmia lignaria), Halictid bees (Lasioglossum spp.), plasterer bees (Colletes inaequalis), and Andrenid bees (Andrena rugosa). Mourning cloak butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa) also visit the flowers seeking nectar. A number of insects feed on the bark and foliage, including the leaf-mining larva of a specialist moth, Leucanthiza dircella. Most mammalian herbivores avoid eating the toxic foliage.
Poisonous
YesLocation
Polson Preserve, Mundy Wildflower GardenCultivation
Description
Much-branched, rather dense oval to rounded shrub when grown in cultivation in full sun. In the wild thehabit tends to be irregularly open and spreading. Flowers perfect, pale yellow, 3 to 4 per inflorescence,not outstanding but interesting due to their March to April flowering date. Bark light brown becoming oliveor darker, with conspicuous small white lenticels, very leathery.
Source of plant
Gardens North, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Orchid Gardens, Cornell Botanic Gardens
