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Eloise Butler wrote: "When the red maple blooms, here and there along the river, we find a shrub still bare of leaves but covered with tiny yellow flowers. This is the Leatherwood. If you strip down the bark and try to pull it from the stem, you will understand the significance of the common name and its value to the Indians, who use the bark for thongs." (Published in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune May 7, 1911)
Eloise Butler also wrote a good anecdote about her search for Leatherwood in "Occult Experiences of a Wild Gardener".
Martha Crone wrote: "This is one of the most hardy and easily grown shrubs and can be planted in various situations in home landscaping. It is the first shrub to unfold its leaves in the spring. The small pale yellow flowers appear even earlier sometimes in March. The fruit is a red oval-shaped drupe. This symmetrical shrub seldom exceeds 4 feet in height, growing native in woods [it] therefore will tolerate shade. Altho this family has about 37 genera and 460 species widely distributed, only two species of one genus occur native in the United States. One in California [Dirca occidentalis A. Gray] and Dirca palustris in this area. The bark and twigs of this shrub are exceeding tough and pliable and cannot be broken.” Published in The Fringed Gentian™, Vol. 7 #1, January 1959. |
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Notes: Eloise Butler first noted planting this species on April 29, 1912 with 2 plants obtained from Gillett's Nursery, Southwick, MA. This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time and on subsequent census' . It is native to Minnesota in a number of scattered counties east of a diagonal line running from Fillmore in the SE corner to Becker in the NW. In North America it occurs in the Eastern half, i.e. from Minnesota eastward in the U.S.
Lore: The bark is smooth and very pliable but so tough that it can hardly be broken by the hand. Native Americans used it for weaving, bow strings and fish lines. An infusion of the bark was considered a diuretic; and an infusion of the root was used for pulmonary troubles. Densmore, in her study of the Minnesota Chippewa (Ref.5), quotes a Chippewa woman. . . "Cut up the stalk and dry it, pulverize, put about a tablespoon in warm water, steep but do not let it boil, do not eat after taking it. Green stalk may be chewed." This was taken internally as a physic (a purge). Densmore also reports a decoction of the root was used as a wash to strengthen hair. It is not a plant for the home garden when deer are expected as they eat the twigs and buds.
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| References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details. |
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