With their dominance in our Cape Cod forests, it’s hard to miss the oaks unfurling their leaves and sending forth their flowers. Interestingly, what we see are the male flowers, which appear as obvious hanging catkins; the female flowers, on the other hand are much more difficult to observe with the naked eye, particularly from where we stand on the ground. However, it is much easier to overlook the spring emergence of some of our common understory trees, like sassafras…
By January, most deciduous trees have completely shed their leaves. Two major exceptions to this rule are oaks and beeches. If you look outside and see a tree still clinging to masses of dried, curled up brown leaves, chances are you have one of these trees. To help you pick out the eastern white oaks (Quercus alba) from the rest, look for the following characteristics: Light grey to nearly white bark, broken into numerous chip-like scales, sometimes with a pink…
Galls are formed when a plant is stimulated to develop irregular growths, caused by growth regulating chemicals produced by some insects or mites, or in some cases a fungus. Examples of galls include cedar apple rust and oak apple gall. These growths can occur on any part of the plant, including the leaves, bark, flowers, buds, acorns, or roots, however leaf and twig galls are often the most noticeable. In the case of an insect induced gall, the irregular growth…
With leaves still absent from many trees, it is not hard to see evidence of galls caused by insects, such as the oak apple gall, or by fungi, such as the knobby black protrusions on black cherry trees referred to as black knot. A gall is an abnormal outgrowth of plant tissue, which can be caused by all sorts of parasites, from fungi and bacteria to insects and mites. Another fairly common gall in this area is one called cedar-apple…
If today’s warm, sunny weather doesn’t convince you that spring is finally here, look no further than the emergence of silky pearly grey pussy willow buds – a sure sign of spring. Pussy willows (Salix discolor) are a dioecious species (male and female catkins appearing on separate trees). Although it’s these soft fuzzy grey incipient catkins that most people recognize, only the male trees produce these “cat paw”-like catkins that give the species its common name. Also, even these male…
This past weekend’s nor’easter brought heavy rain and hurricane force winds to Cape Cod, knocking down numerous trees. While downed trees can cause immense damage and disruption if they fall on houses, on power lines or into roads, they can also provide a rarely seen look into the tops of trees. During a walk through the forest on Saturday afternoon after the worst of the storm had passed, I encountered dozens of toppled trees, including this pitch pine (Pinus rigida)….
Despite its name, the eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is actually a species of juniper rather than cedar. Eastern red cedars have two types of leaves depending on the age of the tree and/or the branch. Young shoots and seedlings have predominantly prickly leaves, while mature trees and branches have tightly overlapping scale-like leaves. In fertile soil, eastern red cedars can grow up to 60 feet tall, in a regular conical shape. In sandy soil common to coastal Cape Cod,…
Last weekend, the American Beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) in Falmouth’s Beebe Woods seemed to be the the only species still clinging to their now yellow leaves. In fact, many American Beech branches, particularly those lower to the ground, will cling to their brown leaves throughout much of the winter. Botanists call this retention of dead plant matter marcescence. Although most commonly observed on young trees and on lower branches, there is considerable debate about why some species, such as American…
While visiting my boyfriend’s parents in Oregon for Thanksgiving week, we found time to explore the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway along the North Umpqua River. (Last year we took a day trip to the Redwoods in California and spent some time exploring the local hiking trails in Roseburg.) Despite the cool temperatures and persistent rain showers, the North Umpqua River and its surroundings were still beautiful. We hiked into 3 different waterfalls (Toketee, Fall Creek and Susan Creek Falls), and made a quick…
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a small deciduous tree, that produces alternate leaves in three different shapes: a mitten shaped leaf with one large lobe and one smaller “thumb” lobe, a simple oval shaped leaf, and a three lobed leaf. All three leaf types can occur on the same branch. During the growing season, sassafras leaves are bright green above and glaucous below. The species name “albidum” is derived from the Latin word “albus”, which means white, referring to this lighter…