Know Your Deer Plants: Blackgum

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Blackgums occur in a variety of soil types from boggy to sandy and can be found from southern Ontario, Canada to Minnesota, south to Texas and Florida and in all eastern states from Maine southward. This tree is also known as sour-gum or pepperidge and was called tupelo by Native Americans. The elliptic leaves are …

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Know Your Deer Plants: Horsemint

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There are many plants that deer will rarely consume, if at all, and will only do so when there are few other options available. These plants are typically referred to as “low preference” forages; however, when it comes to your plant identification skills, they should take a high priority. Why would I choose to profile …

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Know Your Native Deer Foods

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Food studies have identified several hundred plant species that deer will consume during the course of a year.  Some are used seasonally, some only when little else is available, and some are preferred regardless of season and other species’ availability.  As deer managers, it is important to understand the preferred forages where you live and/or …

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What Are Hybrid Oaks?

| By Lindsay Thomas Jr.
In fall 2005, QDMA received a house-warming gift for our newly constructed National Headquarters in Georgia – four containerized hybrid oak seedlings from Charlie Morse of Morse Nurseries in Michigan. Charlie admitted he wasn’t sure how these trees would fare in the heat of the South, far from their native grounds, but that was part …

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Know Your Deer Plants: Beggar’s Lice

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If someone were to ask you to name the most palatable, high-quality, warm-season forage you could plant in your food plot to satisfy the elevated summer protein demands for white-tailed deer, how would you answer? Most of us would immediately shout, “Soybeans!” Well, meet one of Mother Nature’s substitutes. Desmodiums, better known as a large …

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