Buckthorn or not buckthorn? 'tis the question!

Threats of rain have come and gone all day without, as of writing this sentence, any precipitation. The weather apps on our iPhone have set a new record for being incorrect today. The forecast of rain caused us to defer spraying poison ivy. Tomorrow or Friday look promising.

black cherry foliage flaming in Autumn

Photo by J. Harrington

We've found, encountered, created, fostered a new and potentially serious conundrum. A handful of times last year we posted about our new-found "religion" for removing buckthorn. We've made some progress. In the process of figuring out what to pull and what to leave, we thought we had identified a black cherry tree surrounded by a number of seedlings. The other day, the Better Half suggested our "cherry tree" might well be a large glossy buckthorn tree. We've been in a funk since then because, if the tree behind the house is buckthorn, there's another large one in front of the house. Each of these are tall enough that we're not sure we want to play lumberjack. One the other hand, we know there's a black cherry tree a couple of hundred yards West of the house (photo above).

Today, as we were writing this, we (re)discovered the following information about black cherry fruit.

Fruit is a shiny, round drupe, dark reddish purple to nearly black, around 1/3 inch in diameter with a single hard seed inside. The sepals typically persist until the stalk drops off. [emphasis added]

Then, there's this information from Minnesota DNR about glossy buckthorn.

 Round, berry-like fruit; 1/4–inch diameter; less fruit than common buckthorn; red-brown (unripe) to black (ripe) color. Each fruit has 2–3 seeds. (Common buckthorn fruit has 3-4 seeds.)

This is fundamental and basic enough that even someone [like us] with a track record of finding specimens that don't match the field guide pictures should be able to handle it. We're going to go check before it rains. (Oops -- the skies opened before we got to the door.) We'll report the results tomorrow.

Praise the Rain

By Joy Harjo

Praise the rain; the seagull dive

The curl of plant, the raven talk—

Praise the hurt, the house slack

The stand of trees, the dignity—

Praise the dark, the moon cradle

The sky fall, the bear sleep—

Praise the mist, the warrior name

The earth eclipse, the fired leap—

Praise the backwards, upward sky

The baby cry, the spirit food—

Praise canoe, the fish rush

The hole for frog, the upside-down—

Praise the day, the cloud cup

The mind flat, forget it all—

Praise crazy. Praise sad.

Praise the path on which we're led.

Praise the roads on earth and water.

Praise the eater and the eaten.

Praise beginnings; praise the end.

Praise the song and praise the singer.

Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

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