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Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Found throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic,* this drought-tolerant, adaptable shrub grows in open woods, river and stream banks, and rock outcroppings. Ninebark provides seasonal interest with showy flowers, winter-persistent fruits, and papery bark, which molts in thin strips on older branches to expose reddish to light brown underlayers.
*It is native to DC and MD and is historical in the DE Piedmont. It grows throughout the middle and southern parts of PA. In VA, it is frequent to common in the mountains, infrequent to locally common in the Piedmont, and rare in the Coastal Plains.
When botanists say, as in describing this plant’s capsules, that they are persistent, it means something different than it does when we refer to a person who refuses to give up.
Learn more about Physocarpus opulifolius and about persistent…