About forests, trees, leaves and an Autumn breeze

During the course of unusually wet Spring, Summer and early Autumn, we lost track of how quickly the water in a heated birdbath will evaporate as cold weather sets in. At least we think that's what happened, unless the chickadees and nuthatches drank it all. The birdbath has now been refilled and is much happier with water in it. You can almost see a smiley face shining up through the water.😊

We've finally managed to get 90% of this year's (plus almost all of last year's) leaves cleared from the driveway, limiting the likelihood that we'll jam the snowblower's auger or discharge chute when it comes time to clear this Winter's snow from that same drive. Winter, at least the cold weather part, has started early this year. Although we haven't yet needed to shovel or blow cold from the drive. Oak leaves, on the other hand, seem to fall during three seasons, probably because they do, but the number remaining on the branches diminishes greatly by the end of December.

late December, mostly leafless oaks

Photo by J. Harrington

In the course of learning about oak leaves we discovered what's become one of our favorite words: marcesence, "the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed." Of course you know that one of the better ways to pull carbon dioxide, a green house gas, from the air is through the photosynthesis of trees. From some of what we've read over the past few months, it doesn't make much difference which trees we plant but it does make a difference whether we plant them in monoculture plantations (not good for biodiversity) or in analog forests of mixed species and heights.

Winter tamaracks

Photo by J. Harrington

We've noticed that we find the aesthetics of a more open understory without buckthorn to be much more appealing than areas where we've not yet pulled most of that invasive species. We're undecided about our aesthetic preferences of the clear, barren branches of maples compared to the partially leafed oak branches. We do note that neither evokes the melancholy that late season tamaracks call forth. Perhaps we'll spend some time this Winter looking at and comparing oak branches with tamaracks and see if we gain any insight. During the past few years we've learned that there is much more to trees and forests than we ever imagined. How about you?

Learning the Trees

By Howard Nemerov

Before you can learn the trees, you have to learn

The language of the trees. That’s done indoors,

Out of a book, which now you think of it

Is one of the transformations of a tree.

The words themselves are a delight to learn,

You might be in a foreign land of terms

Like samara, capsule, drupe, legume and pome,

Where bark is papery, plated, warty or smooth.

But best of all are the words that shape the leaves—

Orbicular, cordate, cleft and reniform—

And their venation—palmate and parallel—

And tips—acute, truncate, auriculate.

Sufficiently provided, you may now

Go forth to the forests and the shady streets

To see how the chaos of experience

Answers to catalogue and category.

Confusedly. The leaves of a single tree

May differ among themselves more than they do

From other species, so you have to find,

All blandly says the book, “an average leaf.”

Example, the catalpa in the book

Sprays out its leaves in whorls of three

Around the stem; the one in front of you

But rarely does, or somewhat, or almost;

Maybe it’s not catalpa? Dreadful doubt.

It may be weeks before you see an elm

Fanlike in form, a spruce that pyramids,

A sweetgum spiring up in steeple shape.

Still, pedetemtim as Lucretius says,

Little by little, you do start to learn;

And learn as well, maybe, what language does

And how it does it, cutting across the world

Not always at the joints, competing with

Experience while cooperating with

Experience, and keeping an obstinate

Intransigence, uncanny, of its own.

Think finally about the secret will

Pretending obedience to Nature, but

Invidiously distinguishing everywhere,

Dividing up the world to conquer it,

And think also how funny knowledge is:

You may succeed in learning many trees

And calling off their names as you go by,

But their comprehensive silence stays the same.

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