March 18, 2015

Alder catkins (male flowers) and last year's cones (female flowers)

Hazelnut catkins

River birch catkins

Red maple flowers

March 11, 2015

Bird's nest fungi grow on spall pieces of wood debris and are particularly common in mulched garden beds. A raindrop hitting the cup will splash the "eggs" (spore packets) several inches to a few feet.

February 18, 2015

Even when it's fiercely cold and snow-covered in the middle of February, color is still visible at Secrest: some moss is bright green and witch-hazels are in blooms of both yellow and orange.

January 14, 2015

Spotted “thunderbirds”— which appear like dark wings at the place where branches come off the main stem of a tree. Two trees in particular have these markings: paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum).

Paper birch thunderbirds

Sugar maple thunderbirds

January 14, 2015

We had a grand stomp and crunch in the snow and came upon a bit of narrative drama: frenzied footprints dodging in circles, then darting off, and finally—wham!—some guts and wing prints in the snow.

January 6, 2015

 {This post is from Secrest Arboretum Director,Joe Cochran, who found these winter wonderland snow-plant features at the Arboretum}

Pristine snow, winds that blow, fruits for all to see.

Mercury falling, blue jays calling, no better place to be.

A Dragon’s eye, a clear blue sky, rabbits on the run

Larches weeping, Pieris peeping, and clouds that mask the sun

Bark is peeling, oh what a feeling, to be a part of this

There’s so much here, and not a fear, it’s only Ken I miss.

Dragons-eye pine in the snow 1-6-15

What are the animals doing this time of year? 1-6-15

Winterberry holly in the snow 1-6-15

Sargent weeping hemlock in the snow 1-6-15

 

Paperbark maple in the snow 1-6-15

Pieris in the snow 1-6-15

Winterberry holly and snow 1-6-15

American holly and snow 1-6-15

Evergreen holly and snow 1-6-15

January 4, 2015

January 4, 2015

Witch hazel 1-4-15

{Note: Here is an update on witch hazel blooming from David Wiesenberg of The Wooster Book Company:

It's never too early to anticipate spring. I went over to the Arboretum today to look over the stand of black and sugar maple trees in compartments D2 and D4 which I tap for sap and of course took a general look and walk around. Last fall, I started looking for witch hazels in bloom as a graduate student in entomology was hoping to gather its pollen to fill in a database. In mid-October of last year, I noticed that a few small witch hazel plants (Hamamelis virginiana) were blooming along the blacktop path by the slide and play area. I sent my friend a note of head's up.

In any event, witch hazel was on my mind this winter and I saw a few blooms right at the base of a different species of witch hazel (H. vernalis) along the path between the entrance pavilion and the Nault pond on Christmas day. As you can see, more have sprung. Now my goal will be to see one of the woody capsules catapult its seeds.

As a post script, I might mention that many of the witch hazels that are sold commercially are often hybrid crosses with Asian species. The one in our backyard, for example, doesn't look typical of either H. virginiana or H.vernalis.