1. Note three characteristics of shrubs that distinguish them from trees and herbs. Why is a grape vine sometimes regarded as a shrub?
2. Name three important wild or cultivated food shrubs of your locality. Name a shrub that produces edible nuts.
3. Name two cultivated shrubs and two wild shrubs of your locality that produce showy flowers.
4. Do most shrubs blossom in the spring, summer, or autumn? Name one shrub whose flowers open before the leaves appear.
5. What parasitic shrub frequently used for indoor decoration grows on the high branches of different kinds of trees?
Mistletoe on a Silver birch tree
Mistletoe is a plant parasitic on the branches of a tree or shrub. The species grow on a wide range of trees, and can eventually prove fatal to them where infestation is heavy, though damage more commonly only results in growth reduction. All mistletoes are hemiparasites, bearing evergreen leaves that carry out some photosynthesis on their own, relying on the host mainly for water and the mineral nutrients it carries.
Mistletoe figured prominently in Norse mythology (which some believe is the origin of the modern Western custom of kissing under bunches of it hung as holiday decorations). Nowadays, mistletoe is commonly used as a Christmas decoration. According to a custom of Christmas cheer, any two people who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss.
6. Give an example of a shrub whose leaves in autumn turn from green to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, or red.
7. Observe some shrub which is in bloom and list as many kinds of insects as you can (at least three) which come to its blossoms for pollen or nectar.
8. From what shrubs do birds prefer to eat the fruit or seeds? Name a shrub whose flowers attracts birds.
9. In what shrubs do birds prefer to build their nests?
10. Collect, preserve, and correctly identify the flowers, leaves, seeds, seed pods, or twigs with buds of ten wild shrubs.
