Credits

Created by Virginia Pellington, Christina Prehn, and Robert Copus, Explore Natural Communities Interns Summer 2016, NatureServe.

Music: Sunshine by Kevin MacLeod, modified (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0.

Photo: Rich Successional Tuliptree Forest, by Milo Pyne, courtesy of NatureServe. Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Transcript

Podcast time: 3:13 minutes

Whether they're jumping in front of your car when you’re driving or eating up your favorite garden plants, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can be a real nuisance. You can build a fence around your garden to protect your plants. But, what happens to the plants growing in open forests where deer live? Deer play an important role in our forests. As they feed, they prune and thin shrubs, young trees, herbs, and other plants. But when deer populations are too large, this can spell trouble for a forest, as well. Overabundant deer can decimate plant communities, wiping out understory and new growth that are vital to the forest. There are a few plants however, that deer avoid eating. Among them is the pawpaw tree . This shade-loving understory tree is abundant in the natural community that we call the rich Successional Tuliptree Forest.

The pawpaw grows a sweet, custard-like fruit which tastes like a banana-mango hybrid when ripe and is desired by most forest wildlife. The fruits attract wildlife, which disperse the seeds. But, the pawpaw has the ultimate defense to keep animals from eating other parts of the plant that it can’t spare. Its leaves and twigs emit a kerosene scent that deer, most insects, and other animals avoid. Interestingly, the pawpaw flower also gives off an unsavory smell – the scent of rotting meat. In this case, the stinky smell is a tactic to attract pollinators, like flies, ants, and beetles. In a sense, these unique smells allow pawpaw to adapt and influence its external environment, meeting the needs and challenges it faces.

The rich Successional Tuliptree Forest is a prime habitat for plants needing deep, fertile soil like pawpaw, eastern redbud , and tuliptree . In spring, you’ll find this lush forest dotted with beautiful blooms from these and other species. The giants in this forest are the tuliptrees. Their size gives us clues about the history of this land. Tuliptrees need lots of sunlight to germinate and develop, which couldn't happen under a heavily forested canopy. There must have been a time when this land had fewer trees or was not forested. Perhaps, it was a treeless, open pasture land. Once left to itself, the tuliptrees shot up to create a new forest. Their canopy creates a shaded habitat where other shade-tolerant forest species like beech  and pawpaw thrive.

The community is in a slow transitional phase. Eventually, the tuliptrees will grow old and die, opening up large gaps in the forest canopy for sunlight to reach patches in the understory. Oaks (Quercus spp.) and other slower-growing trees will mature and fill these gaps, creating a completely different forest compared to what you see today. While the rich Successional Tuliptree Forest will eventually be a small part of the history of this land, the diverse nature of the natural community that follows it will remain.

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