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On a cool January day as you are hiking along the river you notice something. Can it be? Are my eye fooling me? That looks like a bloom! You have just caught sight of the earliest blooming shrub in Missouri, the Ozark witch-hazel. Ozark witch-hazel is a shrub that is native to the Ozark Plateau. It is typically found in gravelly stream beds, bases of rocky slopes along streams, and rarely in rocky draws on wooded hillsides. Its pale yellow to dark reddish-purple flower emerges before its foliage, blooming from mid to late winter. Sometimes even when snow is on the ground. Each flower has four, narrow, ribbon-like curled and crinkled petals that are usually red at the base and changing to orange at the tip. In fall a hard, woody capsule will split open and release seeds up to thirty feet away.
This species has been used as a source for making witch-hazel extract, used in shaving lotions and ointments for treating bruises and sprains. It has also found a niche in native landscaping and erosion prevention. In the Ozarks, forked switches of this plant have long been used by "witch wigglers" or "water witches" (water finders) to find the best places to dig wells. It is valuable to wildlife as well. Deer eat the shoots and leaves. Beavers, squirrels, and rabbits sometimes eat the bark. Turkey and grouse eat the seeds and flowers.
For more information on Ozark witch-hazel, visit Ozark Witch-Hazel Vernal Witch Hazel | MDC Discover Nature (mo.gov).
 Ozark Witch Hazel Flower
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