Frost

We had two frosts whilst the apple trees were in full bloom. Here are the consequences.

Cedar Waxwing Feast

I watched cedar waxwings quietly blanketing a black tupelo tree and devouring the ripe, blue fruit. 

Green Brains

Green brains.....that is what my children call hedge apples. This time of year it is common in Kentucky to find the osage-orange trees (Maclura pomifera) dropping their hedge apple fruit. The fruit was named hedge apple both because of the large round shape (4"-5" diameter) and the fact that most osage-orange trees can be found along hedge and fence rows, and that is precisely where I stumbled upon this particular example.  

 As I cut open the fruit, it oozed a white sap quite profusely. This liquid dries very quickly into a sticky pitch-like substance which will not wash off with soap and water and would make a very effective water-proofing substance. I had to resort to mineral spirits to clean my knife. In the days of yore, hedge apples would be placed under beds to keep the spiders away. Scientific studies have shown that the sap of the fruit does indeed contain a substance which repels several insect species as effectively as our synthetic DEET insect repellent. However, you won't find me slathering the sap on my skin or clothing!

Dixon Springs

 
On Saturday, we visited Dixon Springs State Park in Southern Illinois. (I originally posted on Dixon Springs back in 2008.) It was a balmy 72 degF, and the fall colors were at an ebb which was a bit surprising given that just 45 minutes to the south in Kentucky, we are still enjoying a strong display of foliage.

The creek had still not recovered from our severe summer drought as there was no water in the creek above the dam in spite of recent rains. The spring was still producing a slight trickle which kept the pools from becoming stagnant. 
 
We did our usual hike down Ghost Dance Canyon. The path was covered with recently fallen leaves which obscured much of the moss and a plenitude of hickory nuts.

I am always in awe of the distances a tree will send out its roots in search of soil, In this case, an eastern red cedar.

Here is an unidentified rather amorphous fungus. It reminds me of crack sealing expanding foam.

A sun-illuminated northern red oak.

New Beginnings...but first....

I have decided to reinvigorate this blog but before I begin again, I must mention a very important event that occurred that greatly affected our area ecologically.


In January of 2009, we had an extremely severe ice storm. We had two days of consecutive rain in which the temperature hovered right below freezing. This resulted in a 1 inch coating on all plant life. The damage to mature trees was quite significant with many losing well over 50% of their leaf mass. During the second night of rain, one could hear large branches cracking and crashing at a rate of one every 3 to 5 minutes.


We were without power for 12 days. While I wish that we had done more to document the conditions with the ice in place, we were spending most of our daylight waking hours simply doing what was needed to live....cooking, cleaning, keeping pipes from freezing, collecting ice for the refrigerator, heating water for bathing and keeping the fire going to keep the house warm, as well as clearing trees from the driveway. I was concerned about the creek behind our home flooding due the amount of tree tops that had fallen into it, thus my son and I spent an entire day cutting and clearing limbs.

During the 3 months that followed, I spent all of my free time running a chainsaw while the rest of my family dutifully carried nearly 4 tractor trailer loads of small limbs in the process of cleaning up our 3 acre smallholding. We kept everything over 3 inches in diameter for firewood, and the rest was piled for the county to remove.


We are surrounded by woods but within our actual our yard, I was forced to cut down (1) River Birch, (1) Weeping Willow, (1) Silver Maple, (1) Red Maple, (2) Yellow Pines, (1) Chinese Elm, (1) Scarlett Oak and (1) Eastern Red Cedar.

Pin Oaks, White Pine, and White Spruce did well. Being largely symmetrical, the branches were able to fold down like an umbrella without putting undue strain on the trunk itself.

Last spring, I planted (2) Willow Oaks, (1) Red Shumard Oak, (1) Pin Oak, (1) Bald Cypress, (1) River Birch, and (1) Eastern Redbud in the yard area.

After 18 months, one can see the results on the damaged trees. Instead of the normal series of spreading branches which form a crown of foliage terminating in the spray, one sees the new growth sprouting along the main branch lines, as seen on this 60 ft. tall Sweetgum and Black Oak.




Interestingly, it is the oaks that have responded with the most vigorous shoot production, and unexpectedly, the red maples are the slowest.

The extent of the damage to the trees is still not known. I expect that more will die in the coming years due to the loss of leaf mass and disease. Though this area rarely experiences forest fires, I am concerned about the potential for them in the next 3 years while the wood is still dry. I cut up all of the limbs in the woods within my property boundaries so that they were all laying on the ground thus accelerating the decomposition process but as you can see in this picture of the woods behind my property, there is an enormous amount of fuel on the floor.


On a positive note, it allowed much more sun into our 1/2 acre front wood that lines our driveway . I had been attempting to get some seedlings going in that area with little success. Last spring I planted 60 seedlings of various native varieties in that area including Service Berry, Scarlet Oak, Black Oak, Southern Red Oak, Dogwood, and Shag Bark Hickory. But to be honest there are many more small seedlings popping up on their own. Unfortunately, the increased sunlight has also promoted the growth of the Honeysuckle and Poison Ivy, which is something that I will have to address.

You may view more pictures of the ice storm here.

Red Shumard Oak

One of my goals on my smallholding is to plant native species whenever possible. A Kentucky Division of Forestry Agent was passing out Red Shumard Oak (Quercus shumardii) seedlings several years ago at a local Master Gardner's plant sale. This one made its way onto my property and appears to be doing well. What struck me today was how late it is retaining its fall color. All of the other oaks in my area have had their leaves turn completely brown a fortnight ago, but this little Red Shumard Oak is still a vibrant red at the top of the tree.

Shumard Oaks are supposed to be drought resistant. That has been important the last two years since we have been on the edge of the severe drought centered in the southeast.

I was a little worried about whether it would survive as it had a bad case of powdery mildew its first and second year. But this year, it seemed to establish itself and thrive. I have found that it is often that case that the 3rd year is when bare-root deciduous trees really take hold or continue to languish until finally perishing. Now that I can confirm that it is well suited to my soil, I may order some seedlings next spring to sprinkle throughout my wood.

If you plant these on your property, be sure that you have enough space as they will grow to be well over 100 feet tall, with crowns as large as 60 feet in diameter.

Dixon Springs State Park

We made two visits this fall to Dixon Springs State Park which is located within Shawnee National Forest. I will do a longer post on Shawnee National Forest but will only mention that most of Southern Illinois is a well kept secret and is topographically quite distinct from the rest of the rather bland state. The park is on a large block of rock (Caseyville Sandstone) that has fallen 200 feet along a fault line. The resulting boulder formations make for some beautiful scenery as well as providing plenty of climbing challenges.


A moss and fern embanked creek meanders through the moist and boulder strewn valley. It is fed by a spring which runs throughout all seasons. At the head of the spring, there is an artisan well that is commonly frequented by locals for drinking water. The park has several hiking trails that follow the ridge and valley. The woods are dominated by various species of oak, maple, beech, pine, sycamore, sweet gum, cedar, and several species of hickory including my favorite - the shagbark hickory. The hickory nuts were quite plentiful this year and there were numerous signs of squirrels feeding on the nuts.


I am always amazed at the great lengths a tree will go to establish itself in very inhospitable conditions. This sizable sycamore apparently finds plenty of water and nutrients within the cracks and crevices of this rock formation.

Ike in Kentucky?

We were only supposed to receive some much needed rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ike, but the hurricane was re-energized when it met a cold front right over our region. We did not receive any rain but the winds were near 70 mph. Unfortunately, we lost a nice Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) that I planted about 12 years ago. The tree was ~50 feet tall and around 14 inches in diameter at the base. The tree snapped almost exactly in half. It was under this tree that we regularly ate our family meals, weather permitting. Now it will serve to provide heat for our home.

Leaning Cherry

The Christian Naturalist's entry about trees leaning for light reminded me of this Black Cherry tree (Prunus serotina) on my property. You are looking at the central trunk of the tree. It must extend out a good 30 feet from the edge of the wood and the trunk is around 8 inches in diameter at the base. It has required some branch pruning underneath so as to allow me to mow under it.