Sunday, March 18, 2012

At Lock 7

Today at Lock 7 I saw some trees that I visited early in my days of tree study, on August 28, 2010.   Now, I can see at a glance, even with no leaves on the trees, that there are cottonwood, Norway maple, and aspen, all trees I did not recognize in 2010.  Okay, well I don't know for sure that it's an aspen.  I have not studied the books thoroughly to positively identify it, but it is a tree that I see often and recognize.  Here's a picture of one that I took not at Lock 7, but at the bike path.


The one pictured below and several others appeared to me to be obviously Norway maples. I didn't check the buds. Just seeing the trunk and branches from a distance, I thought they looked like Norway maples. I remember, in my early days of of tree identification, I was so frustrated because I could not tell the difference between a Norway maple and a sugar maple.  It's nice to realize that I have made progress.


The white pine I did recognize in 2010.  That's a tree I've known all my life.  It was good to see it, and to smell it.  We don't seem to have as many pines around here as they do in New England.


I also took a look at a spruce.  I have not yet gotten very much into distinguishing different types of spruce.  That's something I should study in the future.





And like the spruce, this is one that I know generally but not specifically. It's one of those cedar type things.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Sunlight sparkles on twigs like ice

The trees sparkled so much in the sunlight, it was almost as if they had ice on them. But no ice, it was in the 60's today.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

What kind of maple?

Didn't this tree have the fall foliage of a sugar maple? Doesn't it look like a red maple now?

Oak twig

Oaks are easily recognized by their leaves, even in winter, because leaves cling to them through winter.  But once I've recognized something as an oak, that does not mean it's time to stop looking.  There is still much to be learned.  I recognized this tree as an oak by the leaves, but then I took a look at the twig, so I could learn what an oak twig looks like.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Red maple buds and flowers

I think these are all red maples. I'm pretty sure about the first two photos, the ones that are still buds,  since these photos are from a tree I have watched throughout the seasons.



These flowers are on smaller trees which I have not identified in other seasons.  It seems to me that the twigs and buds from which the flowers have emerged in the photos below match the buds in the above photos.




Why have these trees flowered before the other red maples? The trees that have flowered seem to be younger than the trees that are still showing buds.  Do younger trees flower earlier?

Or are these flowers not really red maples? Silver maples have been flowering for a month.  In The Sibley Guide to Trees, the picture of silver maple flowers looks similar to the picture of the red maple flowers.  However, the  flowers that I see on the silver maple trees look different.  So I'll stick with the theory that these are red maple flowers.

According to The Sibley Guide to Treees, on red maples, usually female flowers are red and male flowers are yellow, so the ones in the photo must be male.

According the the Wikipedia entry about red maples, the flowers are red and "The tree itself is considered Polygamodioecious, meaning some individuals are male, some female, and some monoecious."

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Buds on Hutton Street

Trees have buds throughout the winter, but with the coming of spring, buds are growing larger and more noticeable, as if swelling with pregnancy.

This is not a tree I visit frequently, so I don't know if the buds look different now than they did in winter, but here is one of many trees whose buds caught my attention.
This tree is on Hutton Street, near 17th Street. There were two small trees, planted on the sidewalk, so they are cultivated trees. They had two buds together on the ends of the twigs, plus alternate side buds.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The maples think it is spring

I took this picture of a silver maple on 15th Street on February 10.

Today I visited the silver maples on the hill, and they too were flowering.

And the red maples looked like this:


Last year, it was about one month later than this when I saw the silver and red maples looking like this. However, I did not really check them any earlier last year, so it's possible they looked like this earlier.