What's Happening in January, February?

 Quiet months, at least on the surface.  After a year we can look again at winter identifications with more confidence.  Every month is mindful but attention, awareness, looking, seeing is especially rewarding in February.  Here are a dozen twigs showing some of the winter detail.  I will leave the IDs to the end if some want to test their knowledge.

These are less specific for a couple of reasons.  To keep things simple. We still do not know the landscaping identifications.  So it is elm rather than a type of elm or a possible hybrid. Or the sycamore may be a London plane tree hybrid.

Teaser for March.  Expect more action.  Watch the seviceberry.  It was said to predictive shad migration (shadbush), and ground melting enough to have funeral services. 


























From the top: 

Locust

Fringe Tree

Cherry

Hornbeam

Elm

Norway Maple

Oak

Redbud

Serviceberry

Tulip

Maple

Key to the twigs

Sycamore

Ash





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Happening Last Week July

Image
Since last week there is a ragweed plant growing up at the edge of a rough garden near the playing field, incase anyone wants to point out ragweed.  The purple flower nearby is one of the thistles.  The leaves of one of the maples have a yellow pattern interspersed with green.  The author of "How Plants Work" says this may be an indication of abnormal minerals in the soil.  Or another suggestion is too much phosphate around the roots.  Every leaf has a story. There is a hearty little mulberry tree trying to grow up through the pavement .  At the far northeast corner we missed a unusual tree which is mentioned here, probably a paper bark maple.  It is not a native but in an overgrown area (poison ivy) so not in the recent plantings at the time of building the Y. One ragweed plant so far, not a hazard, just an example Something going on with this maple, possible chlorosis indicating abnormal minerals or too much phosphate in soil? One of the thistles in ...
Read more

What's Happening in November

Image
 Though there is a lot of activity within the trees this month, preparing for the winter, outside  there is the color change and the leaf fall.  What to be mindful of?  Some trees, tulips and elms have already lost most of their leaves in the first week of November.  Here are some variations on color, some suggesting the identification of  the tree.  Color is  "overdetermined", humidity, temperature, light, many factors. maples, bright yellow to red Large maple, possible silver maple, below is red oak, dull red but holding most of its leaves So driving in western Maryland (Rocky Gap)  you might expect the dull red trees on the far hill to be oaks.  The remaining yellow-green to be maples.  At the Y we are dealing with a small sample however. There have been recent online comments about Ginkgo trees shedding their leaves all at once causing a golden carpet beneath. Below is from Roland Park but there may be Ginkgo trees closer. Hills...
Read more

WHAT'S HAPPENING SEPTEMBER?

Image
There are a few changes here in early September.  There were a scattering of funnel spiders on the yews near the front entrance.  You can see the horizontal web easily when highlighted with dew.  The spiders are usually shy but this one posed briefly for a picture. On the south side English ivy is going to seed.   And also on the south fence is the Japanese autumn clematis, or more poetic "virgins's bower".  Comments heard about this are: non-native, invasive in some areas, displacing the native clematis.   In the over-grown flower bed west of the parking lot is a cardinal flower.  How did he get here?  A random act of kindness by human or animal? The ragweed which was one small plant early August is now producing a fine crop. There are still a few bindweed flowers, this one to the west side. The porcelain berry is maturing, growing everywhere.  If the question is " Daddy what's that vine?" it is probably porcelain berry. Along the fence on n...
Read more