Leatherwood is an unusual and uncommonly encountered woodland plant perfect for the avid plant collector or shade gardener. Drooping yellow flowers hang like tinsel from the stems early in spring before bright green leaves emerge for the season, giving way to clear yellow fall color. Smooth grey-brown bark on young twigs gives way to a wrinklier, greyer, older bark on – let’s call them more mature – stems. Slow growing but long lived. The young stems are extraordinarily flexible, even more so than willow. They have been used for cordage and basketry.
Conditions: Part sun to medium shade; moist to mesic, slightly acidic soils with loam
Size: 4’-6’ tall, 4'-6' wide
Zone: 3a – 9b
Wildlife Value: Flowers attract various bees, including carpenter bees; berries feed some birds; larval host for various insects; mildly toxic to mammals, so generally deer and rabbit resistant
Photo: Laura Flohr Reynolds