While you’re out and about enjoying our winter wonderland, keep your eyes open
for the flowers. Yep, the flowers. You’re looking for the late-season blooms on witchhazel, a
large shrub found in our Metroparks Toledo woodlands.
The bright yellow scraggly-looking blooms are small but distinctive, a welcome
sight for any of our insect pollinators that might emerge with an occasional warm snap
and be on the hunt for something to nectar on.
Witchhazel has many practical uses, mostly in ways that benefit our skin. It’s also
the “witch” in water witching, a folksy and largely debunked method of dowsing to detect
underground water.
