Tree-Watching Project: Of Seeds and Autumn Leaves and Dreams
September 21, 2012
“And so the root
becomes a trunk
And then a tree
And seeds of trees
And springtime sap
And summer shade
And autumn leaves
And shape of poems
And dreams —
And more than tree.”
— from “For Russell and Rowena Jelliffe,” Uncollected Poems 1961-1967, by Langston Hughes
Time marches on, as evidenced by the slow changes on my “adopted” maple tree. My photo for this post captured the dappled shade on one of the last days of summer. The autumn equinox is at 7:49 a.m. tomorrow morning in Seattle.
Tree-Watching: A Few of the Many Varieties of Maples
June 2, 2012
If variety is the spice of life, you’d do well to pay attention to maple trees which seem to come in endless variations. I haven’t a clue to their names. I picked up a handful of maple keys on a recent walk, and they are as varied as can be.
Tree-Watching: Time of the Falling Maple Keys
June 1, 2012
The maple keys on my “adopted” trees are falling by the hundreds, possibly thousands. Yet, hundreds more remain on the trees, and I expect some will stay attached until winter. I marvel at the excess, nature’s way of ensuring that some of the seeds will take root.
Tree-Watching: Paint a Leaf, Paint a World
May 18, 2012
Tree Watching: First Maple Keys
May 5, 2012
I’ve been watching for the first signs of maple keys, and they suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere. My “adopted” maple trees are now full of tiny, but abundant, maple keys. I like how Wikipedia describes them: “These seeds, or ‘whirlybirds,’ occur in distinctive pairs each containing one seed enclosed in a “nutlet” attached to a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue. They are shaped to spin as they fall and to carry the seeds a considerable distance on the wind. Children often call them “helicopters” due to the way that they spin as they fall. Seed maturation is usually in a few weeks to six months after flowering, with seed dispersal shortly after maturity. However, one tree can release hundreds of thousands of seeds at a time.”
I found more information about maple keys in The Rarest of Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History by Nancy Pick: “Botanists call seeds that produce their own life samaras . . . The maple’s asymmetry gives it an advantage. Its samara is designed to flow through the air like a bird or an airplane wing, with a slicing leading edge.”
Spring All in a Rush
May 5, 2012
“The first days of May bring spring all in a rush.”
— Elisabeth Luard, A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse
My camera is getting a workout every time I step outside my door. Here is a sampling of the Spring “rush” seen through my camera lens.