On every NPN’s hit list…but should it be? Hmm. Well…’bigly’ might be the best word to describe the sheer number of native animals that eat from this plant.Timing can be everything in nature. Oftentimes you cannot eyeball a blooming Autumn Olive and not also see a native tiger swallowtail ‘hanging’ around.A literal pollinator magnet. The way you know this to be true is a shrub laden with fruit come late summer.A native junco getting its vegetables.After a sapsucker is done dining, other birds, mammals, and insects out and about on warm days will lick the leakage when discovered. The Autumn Olive is probably no Sugar Maple but it substitutes quite well for winter carb loading. BTW, I just read that the Sugar Maple is allelopathic. NPNs will want to take them out someday, I expect. Too much shade casting and ‘poisoning’ of their true love—the cherished spring ephemeral.
