Following my nose to a new discovery

The Toledo Botanical Gardens are not as colorful this spring as they have sometimes been. Yet another Winter That Would Not End has delayed quite a few of the spring bloomers, though the daffodils are being their usual cheerful selves and looking quite lovely amidst the birches.

Walking along the path next to the walled garden, though, I was hit by a sweet scent too powerful to be coming from a few ground-level narcissi, so of course, I had to follow my nose. The scent was coming from a shrub I had never seen before.

This not-particularly-impressive-looking thing was the source of a spicy sweetness noticeable several yards away. My first thought (after "what is that thing?") was that it looked like a white forsythia, and a little snooping revealed that this is more or less what it is. White forsythia is one of the common names of Abeliophyllum distichum, a Korean endemic now listed as "endangered" in the wild, with fewer than 4000 specimens remaining. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists habitat loss from deforestation and "ruthless collection" as contributors to the species' precipitous decline in its natural habitat.

Given that Abeliophyllum is as easily propagated as its yellow cousin, there is no excuse for wild collection of this plant. Any branch that touches dirt can be rooted by simply pegging it to the soil or even placing a brick to keep it in contact, so if you feel the need to acquire white forsythia, please make sure that it was nursery-propagated and not wild-collected.

The scent is wonderful, but allowing this plant to become extinct in the wild would not be sweet.