As we know, nature is the recycler par excellence. While we are stomping on cardboard, washing cans and bottles, and separating plastic and paper, fauna and flora are doing so on a vast scale. Lichens, earthworms, beetles, mushrooms, and microscopic creatures spend their lives turning dead plants and animals into nutrients for new life. A case in point is rotting stumps and decaying logs, which might seem useless in gardens but are far from it.
Along with fall leaves, dead and downed wood is so essential that many plants cannot survive without it. Decomposing wood has many complex eco-functions like supporting fungi that live in symbiotic relationships with plant roots. Eventually, the stuff that may look messy to us turns into fertile soil which supports plants which support insects which support birds…
Here are two Northwest native plants that need decaying wood to thrive.
Red huckleberry (vaccinium parviflorum) grows directly out of the center of old stumps. It’s an attractive deciduous shrub with small flowers, and the berry that follows is a beautiful bright red, edible too. Your chances of success with red huckleberry increase by planting it with rotting wood or any decaying organic matter. It can look dead for up to two years, so don’t give up hope and pull it.
Bunchberry (Cornus unalaschkensis) is a charming deciduous ground cover, another plant that wants some rotting wood or other decaying organic matter as well as compost to grow well. Like red huckleberry, it is often difficult and slow to get established—up to two or three years—but is worth the wait. In spring it bears small dogwood flowers, just like its larger cousin, the lovely native dogwood tree (Cornus nuttallii). Bright red tight clusters of berries follow in late summer or fall. Bunchberry needs water throughout the growing season, preferring moist acidic soil in a cool area of your garden.
Pictured: Red huckleberry growing from a stump (image by Pam Keeley); Bunchberry's white blossoms (image by Halcy, https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/groundcover/bunchberry-dogwo...)