Dirca palustris 25/5 Restock in time an open shrub

in time an open shrub or small narrow tree

treat rockrose as a sun-baked Mediterranean and ask little else

nutty treasure inside

makes immediate sense in bloom: the flowers are essentially all stamens

where the plant has been cultivated for well over a thousand years

Dirca palustris 25/5 Restock in time an open shrubDirca palustris, the leatherwood, is a quiet native shrub with a hidden trick: branches so supple and tough they can be bent, twisted, even tied in a knot without snapping. That remarkable pliability, born of unusually soft, low lignin wood, gave rise to the names leatherwood and ropebark, and made the bark a favorite of Native peoples for cordage. A slow, rounded, understory shrub of rich eastern woodlands, leatherwood is seldom offered and quietly