The Value of Looking Down

--maybe not all the time--but definitely look down every so often as you walk.

Out walking the dogs on the same route I've walked perhaps a hundred times, a single leaf stopped me in my tracks.  

It was certainly a maple leaf, and was broad like the commonplace Norway maple, but this leaf was toothed more like a red maple (also commonplace).  (If you're curious, you can learn to distinguish these here.)  It is also more strongly-veined than either of these. 

Only one tree fit the bill--sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)--an introduced tree.  I know it only from the neighborhood where I grew up: it grows on the grounds of the old Aldrich Estate, where I assume it escaped from cultivation.  (The one little sycamore maple I could reach there without trespassing died last winter.)

Where is the tree this leaf came from?  I'm sure it isn't near the street, or I would have been able to find it.  Probably it is in a nearby backyard.  I will keep my eye out for others; maybe I will be able to triangulate.  

Spring 4a

Five of the trees I follow have been changing all through June.

Black Oak with acorns begun last season and maturing this season (on woody twig), and tiny new acorns in their first year (on green twig).  (Both second and first years occur in the 1st & 3rd photos.)

River birch with expanding leaves and maturing fruits on May 30th, maturing leaves and fruits on June 5th, and shedding and shed, winged seeds on June 16th (3), and the "spikes" remaining after seed drop. plus a portrait, on the 19th (2).

White pine with male cones nearly ready on May 23, and just beginning to shed pollen on the 30th. Spent male cones and young female cones (hanging from branches right of middle) on June 5th (2); and shed male cones and growing female cones on the 16th (3).

 

The sugar maple on the corner still had its rather meager stock of samaras on June 13th.  By the 16th (2) many had fallen.  Fewer were visible on the 19th (3) and 22nd (2).

 

 Basswood finally flowers.  Flowers beginning to open on the 13th, huge bud mortality shown by fallen bracts, but remaining flowers in full bloom on the 16th (3), and 19th (3).  Finally, on the 22nd, two trees nearer to home finally began to bloom (2).

 

 

Spring 3b: Maples

Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) flowered very early-- at the same time as quaking aspen.  I place it here with other maples for comparison.  Red maple (Acer rubrum) bloomed more than a week later than silver maple, and sugar maple and Norway followed close behind.

 Red maple is the only maple around here that is typically dioecious--male and female flowers on separate trees.  Pictures are all of a young female tree.  [Whoops! so is ash-leaved maple, below.]

Silver maple April 29th, May 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th and 16th.

Red maple (always same twig) April 28th, 29th, May 4, 7th, 11th and 16th.

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) flowers and leafs out at almost the same time--rather like Norway maple.  Sugar maple, like silver maple, is monoecious--having male and female flowers together on the same tree.  Unfortunately, there are no low twigs on any of the trees I monitor.

May 7th, 11th, 13th and 16th.

(Sorry for the contortions.)

Norway maple, an alien invasive introduced as a street tree, gets included because it is so common here.  Norway maple has rather confused flowers: a single flowers cluster may have some that are male, some female, and some that are both.   (Look in the early photos for the central styles of the female and the outer, powdery, pollen-bearing stamens of the males.)

Norway maple (Acer platanoides) May 4th (2), 5th (2), 11th, 13th and 16th.

Only well after flowering did I discover a few ash-leaves maples (aka boxelder) at the high school.  Unlike other maples, ash-leaved maple has compound leaves similar to the (unrelated) ashes.   This makes five species of maples in this area!

Ash-leaved maple (Acer negundo)

May 8th (3) and 14th (2).