Indian Plum

As we drove home from church yesterday, I stopped the car so that Emma (my 12-year-old daughter) could see the Indian Plum blooming in the woodlands. My family calls this "sarvis," and I had to grow up, go to college, and meet a botanist (in poetry class!) to figure out what it really is (also called Osoberry, Latin name, oemlaria cerasiformis). I'm told it has small, bitter fruit that one can make into jelly, but the plant always seems to disappear into more interesting foliage once spring arrives.