The three species of
native mock-orange in, or at least adjacent to northeast Alabama are scentless
mock-orange, Philadelphus inodorus L., streambank
mock-orange, P. hirsutus Nutt., and hoary
mockorange, P. pubescens Loisel.The difference between them appears to be the
amount of fuzz in various vegetative organs, such as leaves, stems, and/or
flowers.The white flowers, reminiscent
of blossoms on Citrus L., bloom on terminal cymes in early May thus making
it a good time to use these flowers for weddings.The flowers have four petals thus
superficially resembling the inflorescence of flowering dogwood, Cornus florida L., additionally the leaves are also
opposite and these similarities result in another common name of summer-dogwood for Philadelphus.The worst review regarding the aesthetics of the genus only acknowledges the beautiful blooms otherwise there are no redeeming qualities noting that some stems can become leggy, but I
maintain that exactly the same thing can be said about Forsythia Vahl, which makes it good for switches.Most of the mock-orange plants I have seen are in Coon
Gulf Small Wild Area, which is accessible from Gorham’s Bluff.I saw a small mock-orange in PaintRockValley, but it was cut, under protest,
just to clear a shooting lane from a new treestand, but if there is anything to karma that
explains why no deer were ever seen from that stand, while the ecological explanation is that so much cover was removed for shooting lanes that deer began
avoiding the area.The sweet
mock-orange, P. coronarius, is an
exotic species that is more likely to be found in the nursery trade as well as heirloom gardens due to having
fragrance in addition to the ease of vegetative propagation within the genus, including cuttings and sharing divisions where the occasional root sucker that allow the shrubs to gradually spread.
