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TT: Re: California dreaming
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Bah, humbug on beautiful California days! Here in Kentucky it has been
cloudy and gloomy for several weeks, with no payoff of snow.
Out in the woods, where I have spent considerable time over the last couple
of weeks, there are patches of color here and there. The hawthorn fruits
are gone, but there are still berries on the hollies, hips on the pasture
roses (from an Old High German word hiafo, for rose fruits; apparently
unrelated to the word for human hip), and a few other red fruits. In town,
there are still plenty of crab apples. The brightest things around right
now are stems: red stems of red-osier and multiflora rose, yellow willow
stems, the bright green of boxelder and sassafras. Red and silver maples
have huge red flower buds, and the buds of slippery elm are swollen. I
expect them to flower early in this mild winter (they often flower in
February).
The witch-hazels are finished flowering, and their winter moth pollinators
seem to be gone; I did see one late witch-hazel in flower a few weeks ago. I
wonder why witch-hazel is not used more as an ornamental; it is a lovely
little tree, and the winter flowers are surprising.
One of the things I missed the most in my years in the tropics was the
seasons. So I'm quite happy to be out on these cold gloomy days, looking at
the subtleties of trees in winter.
Tom Kimmerer
Forest Biologist
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40546
Ph: 606-257-1824
Fax: 606-323-1031
tkimmer@pop.uky.edu
Visit the TreeWeb at http://quercus.uky.edu/treeweb
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Bedard <mlbedard@ucdavis.edu>
To: Treetown@majordomo.flora.com <Treetown@majordomo.flora.com>
Date: Saturday, January 17, 1998 9:42 PM
Subject: TT: California update
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Hi Treetowners,
>
>After a few weeks of solid drizzle or downpour, I couldn't let today go by
>without an update of local color. Today was a glorious California day,
>warm enough for bicycling in just a sweater, and sun shining on evergreen
>growies. Here in Davis there are a lot of Washington Thorn (Crataegus
>phaenopyrum), used as street and lawn trees, and they are lovely right now.
>No foliage, but deep crimson berries hanging like clusters of tiny
>Christmas tree ornaments.
>The seed pods of the crape myrtle are still clinging, adding more interest
>to bare branches, and the California Holly or Toyon, (Heteromeles
>arbutifolia) is especially colorful right now. It too has red berries, but
>is an evergreen shrub. These red-berried things seem to be the favorite in
>this area, although there are also a lot of privet (not one of my personal
>favorites, even if they have purple-blue berries.)
>I have some narcissus greening up in a pot on the patio -- can spring be
>too far away?
>For snow-country folks, is there anything going on outdoors besides more
snow?
>
>Enjoy the weekend,
>Mary
>Putah Creek Bioregion
>USDA Zone 9(?)
>
>
>
> ==============================(TreeTown)===============================
>
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