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Category: Trees

Nature Journaling: Mashpee River

Nature Journaling: Mashpee River

I spent some time on sitting along the bank of the Mashpee River today, enjoying the weather and studying some of the wildflowers growing at the river’s edge. There are multiple access points and conservation areas along the Mashpee River (click here to view the Town of Mashpee’s trails webpage). I accessed the river this morning through the Fitch Conservation Area, managed jointly by the Town of Mashpee and the Trustees of Reservations. While many non-aster wildflower species are no…

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Red maple (Acer rubrum) flowers

Red maple (Acer rubrum) flowers

When people think of flowering trees, species with showier flowers, like cherries, magnolias, and redbuds, probably come to mind.  But there are understated flowering trees that are worth a look as well.  For example, the red maple (Acer rubrum), one of our more common trees, is currently flowering. Its name actually derives not only from the red buds and flowers the tree produces in the spring, but also from its red leaf petioles in the summer and its brilliant red…

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Oak apple gall

Oak apple gall

This time of year, with the leaves still absent, it’s hard not to notice the tan spheres attached to the ends of some oak branches.  These ball-like objects are oak apple galls, and can range in size from 1 to 2 inches in diameter (approximately golf ball sized).  A “gall” is a general term for a plant deformity caused by an insect or a fungus.  These oak apple galls are caused by gall wasps in the family Cynipidae. Female wasps…

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Book Review: The Hidden Life of Trees

Book Review: The Hidden Life of Trees

I was given this book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, as a gift from my aunt who over the years has introduced me to many of my favorite books. This one was no exception. This fascinating work turned out to be an unlikely world-wide best seller. For one thing, it was originally written in German, a language in which few people outside of Germany are…

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Smooth vs Speckled Alders

Smooth vs Speckled Alders

Both Smooth Alders (Alnus serrulata) and Speckled Alders (Alnus rugosa) are commonly found near streams, rivers and wetlands.  Both species are deciduous trees with alternate, simple, serrated leaves.  And they have distinctive flowers, called catkins, that take on two different forms: the male catkins, which are pendulous, and the female catkins, which are smaller and develop into cone-like structures in the fall. Despite many similarities, there are noticeable differences between the two species: The cones of the Specked Alder are…

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Zimmerman Moth (Dioryctria zimmermani)

Zimmerman Moth (Dioryctria zimmermani)

While exploring Johns Pond Park in Mashpee a couple weeks ago, I noticed one pine tree that was covered in hardened sap blobs, each with a distinctive circular hole leading back into the tree’s trunk.  At the time I attributed the condition to a pest infestation, but had no way of identifying the specific pest. Thanks to some asking around and sharing the photos of the sap blobs with a professional entomologist, I now know that these “wounds” were caused…

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Faraway Places: Trees at Barataria Preserve, LA

Faraway Places: Trees at Barataria Preserve, LA

A few days ago I posted about the reptiles and amphibians I saw while at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. This post will focus on some of the dominant tree species. The three most notable trees were bald cypress, dwarf palmettos and live oaks. Bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) are one of only a handful of deciduous conifer trees (other North American examples include the Dawn Redwood and various species of Larch).  Like other conifers, they have needle-like…

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Faraway Places: Redwoods in California

Faraway Places: Redwoods in California

While in Oregon last week, I was able to take a day trip south to California and visit Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, the northernmost location in a string of redwood parks stretching up California’s northern coast. Most of the park consists of an old growth forest, which had never been logged, giving the forest a primeval feel. It is unsurprising then, that one of the park’s groves contains four of the ten largest coast redwoods measured, including one called…

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Faraway Places: Roseburg, OR

Faraway Places: Roseburg, OR

On a recent trip to Roseburg, Oregon, I got to spend two days exploring the North Bank Habitat Management Area, a 6,500+ acre property, which is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for Columbian white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus leucurus). Columbian white-tailed deer are one of three subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America. They were listed as federally endangered in 1968, but the populations in Oregon and Washington have since rebounded enough that in 2013 their status…

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Tar Spot Fungus on Norway Maples

Tar Spot Fungus on Norway Maples

While admiring the colors of some of the remaining fall leaves on the trees around my neighborhood, I noticed that all the Norway maples (Acer platanoides) had leaves with conspicuous black spots on them. By late fall, its not uncommon for leaves to have a number of marks and blemishes, but these seemed unique to me in the regularity of their shape (the spots are almost completely round) and the darkness of the marks (almost black). Norway maples are not…

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