Subject: -Holly Trees (and "English Laurels") (DEGRADE) bird habitat
Date: Feb 23 09:21:07 2004
From: Stewart Wechsler - ecostewart at quidnunc.net


Thank you Steve for the correction.

I just checked on the internet and found the native range of P.
laurocerasus aka "English Laurel"/"Cherry Laurel"/"Laurel Cherry" listed as
SE Europe and adjacent Asia. I guess that puts Prunus laurocerasus,
sometimes known as "English Laurel" in the same category as "Canada
Thistle"/Cirsium vulgare - not native to Canada, but Eurasian, and "Kentucky
Bluegrass"/Poa pratense - not native to Kentucky, but to Eurasia. Another
illustration of the advantage of scientific names.

I suspect that the imprudent use in England of this pesty Prunus in hedges
led to the moniker "English Laurel"

Berry eating birds like American Robins and Starlings eat the fruits and I'd
bet that it is sometimes recommended as a good plant to plant for backyard
wildlife habitat.

After a short web search, I just found this Brittish website that
reccommends planting it in schoolyards as part of wildlife habitat:

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:PWCzRS58yNcJ:freespace.virgin.net/schoo
l.scapes/hndbkv8.pdf+%22wildlife+habitat%22+%22prunus+laurocerasus%22&hl=en&
ie=UTF-8

Stewart Wechsler
West Seattle
mailto:ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Barlow [mailto:sb326 at mail.gatech.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 6:48 AM
To: ecostewart at quidnunc.net
Subject: RE: -Holly Trees (DEGRADE) bird habitat


>If present trends continued indefinitely there might eventually be
>no native forest, but only English Hollies, English Ivy
>(Hedera helix) and English Cherry Laurels (Prunus laurocerasis),
>which are almost, but not quite as bad as the Hollies. The bird
>I've noticed most often perching in the Hollies are

I'd just like to point out that altho' the Holly and the Ivy are
indeed native to England, the Cherry Laurel is not English and is, in
fact, a nuisance species in England as well, where it forms dense
dark understories under native woodland shading out the ground flora
and preventing tree regeneration.
I can't remember its native range off-hand, but I'm guessing SE
Europe. Sadly, along with Rhododendron ponticum, very popular in
Victorian shrubberies and very good at escaping from them.

Cheers
Steve (English)

--
Dr Stephen Barlow,
Senior Research Scientist
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA 30332-0400, USA
Phone: 404-385-6053
Fax: 404-385-6057
Email: stephen.barlow at chemistry.gatech.edu

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