#unknown berries

The tiny pretty red ones

The elusive black ones (hard to see from afar)

Other red ones that look like rosehips but that is not a rose

Red-leaves red ones + a plant that was ornamentally planted, but what is that? So filled with berries!

me and 2019, running late on posts. today has a perfectly reasonable explanation, however. either a bird flying very far from home dropped some out-of-season berries by my door, or i was visited by fae. which is it? i don’t know, but look at the little lovelies i found on my way out the door today

none of the plants nearby show any signs of bearing berries at this time of year, nore do any of them have bark that color. and what a color! i was originally going to post today about colors and withcraft, but this piqued my interested and i’ve spent the last several hours trying to figure out what this berry is (besides, obviously, poisonous; trust nothing brightly colored if you value your health). there were no leaves on the plant to properly identify it, but i’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: Cornus obliqua  (swamp dogwood) or Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper). many dogwood of the genus Cornus have blue fruit, generally around autumn, and swamp dogwood is native to this area. the berries, however, look more similar to virginia creeper vines, which have a more consistent color palette like the ones i found, but these vines are generally found several states north of here. both species are wetland plants, both with small, round berries, and both, notably still not located on this plot of land, at least as far as i can tell. these berries are lovely, and fascinating.

generally, in wicca as i practice it, small things out of the ordinary, particularly as associated with nature (certain birds, feathers in your path, weather), are considered portents, omens, or just small flickers of the universe trying to get our attention, for good or for worse. i joke that these berries were a gift from fae because of their unusual coloring and the way they came across my path, but i also know better than to ignore them, and i’ve looked into the meanings of the two possible plants it could be, just to see.

dogwood symbolizes wishes and is frequently used in protective magicks.1 it may also mean devotion, fertility, loyalty, passion, desire, determination, and illusion, the latter of which comes from the fact that its “berries” and “flowers” are neither berries nor flowers but clever mimics.1 dogwoods are often reverred in christianity as well, thanks to a legend about the Christ in which the base of his cross was made from a dogwood tree. the tree “felt his pain,” and in sympathy he commanded it never to grow big enough to be used for a cross again.1 in that sense, it can also be a sympathetic tree. in the victorian language of flowers, dogwoods symbolized “love undiminished by adversity”.2 dogwood is also an excellent resource for communicating or operating with fae, as it has strong ties to the devic realms of light.1  they’re particularly popular for dryads, and may bleed instead of leak sap. dogwood branches also makes excellent air wands and wards, but if this is dogwood, i may have brought myself bad luck by bringing the berries inside. whoops.

virginia creeper / vines were a little harder to find any information on as far as symbolism goes. their name Parthenocissus translates from Greek to virgin ivy3 , and their berries are poisonous to humans but not birds, but i otherwise couldn’t find much. for magick and symbolism, i had to refer to ivy and vines, in general. in the language of flowers, ivy referred to fidelity and friendship2, and in wicca, it and other stubborn vines like it (i.e. virginia creeper) are symbols of strenth and determination (Bell, 2014). Ivy, particularly, was also seen as a plant of artists and poets (Bell, 2014).

both plants seem to be associated with friendship and fidelity, determination and protection. so, maybe i was visited by fae after all. some gift from the devic realm to make friends, to inspire determination. …or maybe it was just an illusion meant to bring me bad luck. today thus far has been pretty lucky, i’d say, so here’s hoping not.

fair winds and following seas, and watch what you bring into your home, lovelies.

~ 𝓻𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓲