Mississippi Delta Native Plants

• Previously, river swamps represented this part of the central United States.

• The trees could survive in areas that flooded or were covered with water for part of the year.

• Two hundred years ago, bottomland forests covered almost thirty million acres across the Southeastern United States.

• Today, only 40% of this area supports these type of habitat.

• These native plants provide food source for birds, insects, and other native wildlife.

• Mississippi Flyway, a bird migration route utilized by migratory waterfowl, songbirds, and shorebirds.

• The flyway is predominantly used by these birds for food, water, and shelter.

• Agriculture and urban development have eliminated most native plant communities through forest clearing.

• The introduction of exotic and invasive plants have replaced many natives.

• One goal is to restore native habitat to help migratory wildlife and enhance their food availability.

• Native plants have many advantages over non-natives:

1. Tend to be disease resistant and require less maintenance (less fertilizer, less pesticide application)

2. Better adapted to local temperature and rainfall patterns

3. Generally non-invasive and don’t outcompete other species

Bald cypress - Taxodium distichum Bark Is red-brown, fibrous and stringyTrunk may swell at base and be surrounded by

"knees". Intermediate shade tolerance. The wood is decay resistant The seed is eaten by waterfowl.

‘Knees’ occur at the base of the tree

• Oaks, beeches, and hickories are considered to be mast trees – produce lots of food for wildlife–White-tailed deer, raccoon, squirrels, chipmunks,

opossum, mice , fox. turkey and quail.

Swamp chestnut oak - Quercus michauxii

• Leaves with rounded and shallow lobes• The acorn has a cap covering half the nut

Water oak - Quercus nigra • Leaves usually spatulate, and with a bristle-tip

at the apex.• Acorn cap sits on the base of the flat-topped

nut.

willow oak - Quercus phellos Leaves are simple, thin, up to 5 inches long

and 1 inch wide, and with yellow tufts of hair on the midrib.

• Fruit is an acorn 1/4 to 1/2 inches long with the green-brown, saucer-like cap covering up to 1/4 of the nut

• Bark is gray-brown and smooth becoming shallowly fissured with age.

Red maple – Acer rubrum• Leaves - opposite, simple, 3 to 5 palmate lobes with

serrated margin• Twigs: Reddish and lustrous with small lenticels• Flowers: small, occur in hanging clusters, usually bright red• Bark: smooth and light gray on young trees, older trees the

bark breaks up into long, fine scaly plates and is darker.• Fruit: Clusters of 1/2 to 3/4 inch long red samaras.• Crown is round

Sweetgum - Liquidambar styraciflua Leaves are star-shaped and toothed.  Fruit is a spiny ball containing many capsulesSeeds are eaten by birds, ducks and squirrels

Red buckeye – Aesculus pavia• Understory shrub• Flowers are red, showy and attractive to hummingbirds

Pecan - Carya illinoinensis • Naturalized in the southern U.S. and is intolerant of shade.• Heavy wood is used for handles and pulpwood• The pecan nut is known world wide

Shagbark hickory – Carya ovata• Bark is smooth on young trees and dark gray breaking into

long loose strips on large trees.• Twigs are brown, stout and hairy  

• 4-ribbed white nut is enclosed by a thick husk which is pale on the inside and splits to the base. 

• The hard wood is used for pulpwood, furniture and novelty items. 

• The nuts are eaten by many small animals.

Sugarberry - Celtis laevigata  • Leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous, and

ovate with toothed margins, long pointed apices and 3 main veins arising from the petiole.

• Twigs are thin and zigzag.  • Bark is gray and smooth with corky warts. 

• Fruit is a sweet, orange-red drupe.  • Usually found on moist sites in the southeast U.S.

and is tolerant of shade.  The wood is used for furniture and boxes, and the fruit is a favorite of birds.

American elm - Ulmus americana • Leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous, doubly

serrate, ovate, smooth to rough, up to 7 inches long and often with a greatly unequal leaf base. 

• Twigs are red-brown and mostly hairless with black-red striped ovoid buds. 

• Bark is gray with interlacing ridges and brown-white inner bark. 

• Fruit is a deeply notched, round and hairy samara. 

• The elms display a vase-shaped form.   • Its distribution was reduced by Dutch Elm disease.

interlacing ridges and brown-white inner bark

winged elm - Ulmus alata• Leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous,

doubly serrate, elliptical, up to 3 inches long, leathery and with a rounded, slightly uneven leaf base. 

• Leaves of seedlings may be rough. • Twigs can be corky-winged and buds are ovoid

and black-red striped. • Bark is brown-gray and grooved to somewhat

scaly.  • Fruit is a notched, elliptical, hairy samara.• Heavy, shock resistant wood is used for boxes,

posts, and hockey sticks

Sassafras - Sassafras albidum • Flowers are yellow in early spring and the fruit is a dark

blue drupe on a red stalk.• Young twigs are mottled red, black, and green, pubescent

and aromatic. • Bark is dark green when young and brown-gray to red-

brown, thick and ridged on larger trees

• The wood is used for fence posts and home-made fishing rods. 

• Oil of sassafras extracted from the roots is used in perfumes, tea and herbal remedies. 

• Many birds and mammals eat the fruit and bear and deer browse the foliage.

Sycamore - Platanus occidentalis • Bark is brown and peels to expose striking white inner

bark. Fruit is a round ball of achenes.• The trunk is often hollow, this species is a den tree for

wildlife.• Leaves - large, and with 3-5 roughly toothed lobes.

American beautyberry – Callicarpa americanaAn understory shrub found on a variety of sites in the southern U.S.  Butterflies like the flowers. 

Drupe clusters;look like berries

Flowers small, light purple, in clustersWarty lenticels on stems

River birch – Betula nigraBark: papery scales, exfoliating horizontally with several

colors (creamy to orange-brown) visibleLeaf: Alternate, simple, pinnately-veined, conspicuously

doubly serrate, with a wedge-shaped base, green above, paler and fuzzy below.

Twigs – orange-brown

Not native trees: Chinaberry - Melia azedarach Naturalized in open and disturbed areas

throughout the southeast and is intolerant of shade.  Fruit is a yellow-brown, poisonous drupe that persists over winter.

Chinese privet - Ligustrum sinense • Fruit is a blue-black, round drupe.  • A shrub to small tree that has aggressively

colonized open areas in the eastern U.S.

Crape-myrtle - Lagerstroemia indica

Drought tolerant; colorful clusters of flowers

Used for buffer strips around parking lots

Small, multi-stemmed tree; mottled bark

Chinese tallow tree – Triadica sebifera

- Trees may reach 60 feet in height; spike-like flowers

- Three lobed capsules appear from August to January and release 3 white, wax-coated seeds resembling popcorn.

- Decaying leaves are toxic to other plants

Bradford pear - Pyrus calleryana Planted as an ornamental throughout the U.S. because of its showy white flowers in spring and red leaves in fall.