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TH: Rosaceae [Part I of II] ...

                                                              Tree-House
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 Hi Folks -

 Today's posting comes from the 3rd edition of Ruth Shaw Ernst's
 book _The Naturalist's Garden: How To Garden With Plants That
 Attract Birds, Butterflies, And Other Wildlife_ (1996).  Published
 by Globe Pequot Press (US), try <Admin@Globe-Pequot.Com>.

 Remember that we always recommend cultivating homegrown native Flora,
 to further restoration of local ecosystems.  Richard@Flora.Com ...

                  Dedicated to all who love flowers
                 and gardens and the wild creatures
                       that come to visit them

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 Rose Family
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    No family has more genera useful both to gardeners and to
    wildlife.  In addition to roses the family includes apples,
    crabapples, cherries, plums, peaches, hawthorns, mountain
    ashes, serviceberries, and such shrubs as spireas, pyracanthas,
    raspberries, and blackberries.  All members produce five-
    petaled flowers and edible fruits.  They offer cover, nesting,
    and food for hundreds of songbirds and game birds.  The flowers
    entice bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.  Browsing deer
    and rabbits eat the bark and twigs.

    Gorgeous clusters of fragrant white, pink, or rose-colored
    flowers clothe the branches of apple and crabapple (Malus spp.)
    in spring.  The apples we grow for large red, yellow, or
    green fruit were developed from 'M. pumila,' which was intro-
    duced by European settlers and has now naturalized in many
    parts of the country.  Five native species, including southern
    crabapple (M. augustifolia), prarie crabapple (M. ioensis),
    and Oregon crabapple (M. diversifolia), have pretty blossoms
    and small, attractive fruits.  Many desirable cultivars have
    been developed from American and Japanese species.

    Few ornamentals are as prized by gardeners as cherry (Prunus
    spp.).  Both wild cherries and hundreds of garden cultivars
    with white to rose pink, single or double spring flowers, and
    fall fruit are savored by all sorts of songbirds, as well as
    bees and butterflies.  The fall color of some and the attrac-
    tive winter bark of most cherry trees make them especially
    important for year-round beauty.  You'll find weeping forms
    and hundreds of cultivars.  Chokecherry (P. virginiana) and
    black cherry (P. serotina) are especially nice species.  Ever-
    green Carolina cherrylaurel (P. caroliniana) produces small
    black fruit, beloved by birds but poisonous to people ...

 [To Be Cont] ...
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