Trees recovering from freeze

New leaves appearing

On the home front, I am happy to report that some of our trees are beginning to send out new leaves, although their dead leaves from the late freeze are still clinging to the branches. The old leaves will eventually drop, and hopefully, we won't see much lasting damage from the shocking temperature extremes the trees have endured.

I don't think the leaves on the trees above even went through the freeze! I think they saved their leaves by waiting just a little later to put them out. When all the trees are this green, we will rejoice! It's just not right to have dead brown leaves hanging on the trees in spring.

Curious bark of the winged elm

Ulmus alata

This tree, with winged bark on its twigs, grows in a fence row along a low-lying pasture. Another of these trees grows near our mailbox, also in a fence row near a small creek.

I tried to identify them about a dozen years ago and I decided they must be winged elm. The leaves are smaller than most elms, but they have the rough texture, veining pattern, and general shape of elm leaves.

Birds eat elm seeds, and that may be the reason that the two ulmus alata in my personal experience are growing in fence rows. (The growth in rural fence rows usually reflects what birds have been eating.)

The various reference books and websites I've been looking at this evening don't agree at all about the height that winged elm can be expected to attain. Estimates range from 40 feet to 100 feet. I'm sure it depends on the location and the amount of sunlight the tree receives. (Winged elms like a sunny location.)

The two winged elms in my experience are nondescript, rather scrubby little trees about 15 to 20 feet tall. Their blooms and seeds are inconspicuous in early spring. In the summer, their leaves are usually bug-eaten, and in fall the foliage turns yellow.

The most interesting thing about the appearance of the winged elm is the wings on their twigs. The corky growth is most noticable in winter . When no leaves are present, the silhouette of the branches is irregular and rather fuzzy-looking.

Winged elm would be a risky choice as a landscape tree because it is susceptible to Dutch elm disease, powdery mildew, and other diseases, wilts, etc.

Best fruit trees for wildlife

Important food-producing trees for birds and animals

The title of this post --"best fruit trees for wildlife" -- was a search engine query that brought someone to this blog today.

This phrase brought several thoughts to mind.

• Wildlife eat some fruits that humans don't often eat (such as dogwood and red-cedar berries).
• Some fruits that humans eat are not eaten by many animals (such as pawpaws and wild plums.)
• Some trees produce nuts and seeds (not fruits) that are important wildlife foods.
• Wildlife often eat flower buds, leaves, bark and twigs, not just the fruit, nut, or seed.

Keeping all that in mind and remembering that the word "wildlife" means everything from hummingbirds to moose, here are some great native trees for wildlife.

Ashes Aspens Beech Birches Cherries Chokecherry Cottonwoods Crabapple Devil's walking-stick Dogwoods Elms Firs Hackberry Hawthorns

Hickories Maples Mulberry Oaks Persimmon Pines Pricklyash Redcedar Serviceberries Spruces Sumacs Viburnums Willows

Sources: Hightshoe, Martin, Zim & Nelson

To obtain information that is specific to your area, contact your county extension office and/or your state wildlife conservation office. Don't hesitate to consult them. After all, we are paying their salaries with our tax dollars. Most of these public servants are pleased to be asked and very willing to help.

The yew-tree of Lorton Vale

An ancient tree immortalized by William Wordsworth

Take a few minutes from your busy day and enjoy this description of a wonderful tree. This is excerpted from William Wordsworth's poem, "Yew-Trees." As you read it, it's helpful to remember that yew wood was used to make bows and arrows.

THERE is a yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore:
Not loathe to furnish weapons for the Bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched
To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, or Poictiers.
Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary Tree! -a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed...

-- from "Yew-Trees" by William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

The yew tree of Lorton Vale still stands, though part of it broke away in a storm. Previously, it was 27 feet in circumference; now it is is only 13 feet. It is over 1000 years old.

You can read some of Wordsworth's commentary about yew trees at Everypoet.com.

The Lorton Vale yew is believed to be the tree that Quaker preacher George Fox (1624-1691) mentions in his autobiography. The event he describes took place in 1653, and the soldiers he mentions were from Oliver Cromwell's army.

We came the next day to the steeple-house where James Lancaster had appointed the meeting. There were at this meeting twelve soldiers and their wives, from Carlisle; and the country people came in, as if it were to a fair. I lay at a house somewhat short of the place, so that many Friends got thither before me. When I came I found James Lancaster speaking under a yew tree which was so full of people that I feared they would break it down.

I looked about for a place to stand upon, to speak unto the people, for they lay all up and down, like people at a leaguer. After I was discovered, a professor asked if I would not go into the church? I, seeing no place abroad convenient to speak to the people from, told him, Yes; whereupon the people rushed in, so that when I came the house and pulpit were so full I had much ado to get in. Those that could not get in stood abroad about the walls.

When the people were settled I stood up on a seat, and the Lord opened my mouth to declare His everlasting Truth and His everlasting day.George Fox (1624-1691)

About a century later, John Wesley, the leader of a religious movement called Methodism, preached under the Lorton Vale yew as well.

The leaves of Taxus baccata are highly poisonous and they remain poisonous even if they are brown and lying on the ground. For that reason, livestock must not be allowed to graze around a yew-tree. The seeds are also highly poisonous. However, the pulp of the berry-like cone that contains the seed is sweet and is enjoyed by birds.

Related webpages:

• The Vale of Lorton, Cumbria - Includes a photo of the Lorton Vale yew which survives to this day.
• Yew - An interesting page by Anna Fraser with descriptions of many traditions associated with the yew as well as a summary of facts.

Credit: Yew leaves & cone image is from Wikimedia Commons.

Bald cypress : Trees with knees

Taxodium distichum, baldcypress

Young baldcypress at Land Between the Lakes, KY

The three young bald cypress trees in the photo above should thrive at the lake's edge. They are already developing the buttressed trunks that are typical of the baldcypress. Before long, their roots will grow beneath the water and begin sending up the woody projections that are called "knees".

Scientists aren't sure what function the knees have. One theory is that the knees are a mechanism to supply oxygen to the roots. Another theory is that the knees help stabilize the tree when it's growing in mucky conditions.

The possibility of knees should be considered when planting a bald cypress in your landscape. If you are planting the tree in a boggy area, knees will almost certainly develop. This could be a problem if you want to mow around the tree. If you are planting the tree in a moist, well-drained area, it will probably never develop knees.

Baldcypress roots don't send up knees unless they are submerged in water at least part of the time. However, bald cypress roots are attracted to moisture and when they find a boggy place, they will send up knees there, even though it may be far from the trunk.

Here's an example of distant knees. I saw a baldcypress tree growing on a riverbank, probably 30 feet above the water. Down at the bottom of the river's little canyon, in the shallow water at the river's edge, the bald cypress roots had grown a little forest of knees.

Wherever you plant your baldcypress tree, keep the soil moist during dry weather. They won't tolerate hard dried-out soil. This is one tree that it will be hard to overwater!

Check out this beautiful, massive old baldcypress, growing in an Arkansas swamp. (Scroll down to the second photo on the page.) Its knees are huge!

Kentucky Birds and Oak Trees

Acorns are an important winter food for some birds.

Some Kentucky birds are likely to consume acorns as a part of their diet, particularly in winter. The sweeter acorns of the white oaks (white oak, post oak, bur oak, chestnut oak, etc,) are probably more widely eaten than the bitter, tannin-rich acorns of the red oaks (red oak, pin oak, scarlet oak, black oak, willow oak, etc.)

Wood Duck*
Bobwhite
Wild Turkey
Eastern Crow
Blue Jay
Eastern Meadowlark
White-breasted Nuthatch
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Brown Thrasher
Tufted Titmouse
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Carolina Wren

*The wood duck's winter range includes a few counties in southwestern Kentucky.

This list was compiled from American Wildlife and Plants (bibliographical info.)

Terrible Tree Mistake

How to kill a tree

Yes -- that's asphalt poured all around this tree's trunk. I hope they won't be surprised when it dies from lack of air and water.

The urban forest : Diversity is essential

A mixture of species is best for street trees.

Brigham Street in Salt Lake City, Utah, about 1900

Detroit Publishing Company photo at the Library of Congress

More information about this photo

American botanist Charles Sprague Sargent, writing in 1890 for his weekly magazine, Garden and Forest, expressed a strong opinion about street trees:

It is plain that trees of one variety only should be planted in a long, straight row parallel with the lines of buildings in a continuous street. Much of the desired effect will be lost if the trees vary in form or size, or expression, or rapidity of growth, or in the time of putting forth their leaves or shedding them.

An avenue of American Elms, with their lofty overarching tops, is always beautiful, because the charm of each tree is renewed in the next, and the effect of the whole is constantly intensified and multiplied by repetition. An avenue of stately Tuliptrees is equally beautiful, but in an entirely different way. The same might be said of a double row of Pin Oaks, where there is space for their drooping lower branches.

But if all these trees were intermingled, and Sugar Maples, Horse Chestnuts and others still were added, the result would be incongruous and contradictory. There would be no continuous lines extending through the entire vista to help the perspective and to give unity of character and expression and consistency of purpose to the whole.

And yet in our city street-planting it is the common practice to allow each lot owner to select the tree which suits his fancy. The immediate effect is bad enough, but it grows worse as years roll on and the individual trees become more and more unlike each other as their peculiar characteristics are more strongly marked with age.

(Professor C. S. Sargent, Garden and forest, Volume 3, Issue 108, March 19 1890, p.137.)

Professor Sargent was wrong!

Sargent was no stranger to trees and tree management; he was the director of Harvard University's Arnold arboretum from 1872 until his death in 1927.

Evidence of Professor Sargent's importance in the field of botany persists to this day. When you see the word Sargentii or the abbreviation Sarg. in the name of a tree or other plant, it refers to Charles Sprague Sargent.

But despite his well-deserved and long lasting fame, he was misguided in his advice that street tree plantings should be homogeneous.

When all the trees on a street are the same species, the neighborhood is at danger of a tree pest or disease wiping out every one of them, leaving the street bare and shadeless. Professor Sargent's ideas about desirable street tree plantings were conceived before the days of Dutch Elm disease, chestnut blight, and emerald ash borers. He had never seen a disease or insect sweep down a street, killing tree after tree.

Insuring diversity in street tree plantings

Today, urban foresters agree that street tree plantings should be as diverse as possible to help insure the health of the trees. Site variables, aesthetic considerations, and maintenance requirements will always limit the list of trees that may work in any particular urban location, but within those parameters, as much diversity as possible should be maintained.

A growing number of municipalities have ordinances that specify the minimum number of tree species that should be represented within a block or a development.

Due to the tree ordinance that [consulting urban forester Robert A.] Cool helped implement, new developments in Lansing [MI] are now required to have at least five different genera of trees planted on each block. No two adjacent trees can be the same genus.

"If you plant a block in one type of tree, in five years some will grow faster and others will grow slower. Some might die. So you've lost your uniform effect, anyway," says Cool. "If another epidemic like Dutch elm disease comes along, you've lost your whole block. Mixing your plantings is like hedging your bets."

(Helen M. Stone, "Municipal Arboriculture: Street Tree Smarts")

Is your urban forest diversified?

Does your town or city have guidelines for diversity in the planting of street trees? When you drive through your neighborhood or subdivision, do you observe a variety of species in the street trees, or are they all the same? The answers to questions of this sort may indicate the future health of the urban forest where you live.

Spring in Pennyrile Forest

Kentucky's largest state forest

Dennis and I were at Pennyrile State Forest today. Spring is in full progress. Some trees have brown dead foliage from the late freeze, but others are fully green. It's interesting that some dogwoods are blooming now. Apparently, they were still in bud when the multiple nights of freezing temperatures occurred, and thus they escaped damage. That's good -- there will at least be a few dogwood berries for the birds and squirrels this fall.

Narrow trees for small spaces

Native trees with small crowns

Shape can be one of the most important attributes to consider when choosing a tree. If your garden is small, you probably don't have room for a tree with a wide crown.

For the smallest of spaces, you'll need a tree that is narrow or even columnar in shape. Be aware when choosing such a tree that it won't make much shade! If shade is a consideration and space is limited, perhaps a row of narrow-crowned trees will fit into your landscape.

Here are some native trees with very small crowns (usually less than 20 feet) to consider. All links lead to the appropriate page in the USDA Plants database.

Evergreen:

• Balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
• Black spruce (Picea mariana)

Deciduous:

• Mountain maple (Acer spicatum)
• White fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
• Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)
• American smokewood (Cotinus obovatus)
• Eastern wahoo (Euonymous atropurpureus)
• Franklinia (Franklinia alatamaha)
• Common hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata)
• Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra)
• Bebb willow (Salix bebbiana)
• Pussy willow (Salix discolor)
• Northern mountainash (Sorbus decora)
• Nannyberry viburnum (Viburnum lentago)
• Blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)
• Rusty blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum)

Related posts:
Five Tall, Narrow Trees
Ten Tall-Growing Trees
Five Tall, Narrow, Deciduous Trees

Fossil of early tree discovered in New York

Prehistoric, fossilized Wattieza trees near Gilboa, New York

In the 1870's a forest of fossilized tree trunks and roots was discovered when a quarry was excavated in Schoharie County, New York, near the town of Gilboa in the Catskill Mountains.

They were early trees of the Wattieza genus, so ancient that they predated dinosaurs. However, nothing was known of their appearance except for their trunks because no crowns were preserved in the fossil bed.

When another fossil-rich area was discovered about ten miles from the original find, the state of New York protected it, and researchers from Binghamton University, New York, international research teams, and the New York State Museum have recently been conducting digs there.

Yesterday, Nature reported that the researchers had found:

... spectacular specimens from Schoharie County, New York, showing an intact crown belonging to the cladoxylopsid Wattieza (Pseudosporochnales)8 (sic) and its attachment to Eospermatopteris trunk and base. This evidence allows the reconstruction of a tall (at least 8 m), tree-fern-like plant with a trunk bearing large branches in longitudinal ranks. (Source)

The reconstruction indicates that the branches of the Wattieza trees were similar to giant fern fronds, and the trees would have dropped 200 or more during their lifespan. At any time, the trunk of the tree would have been bare except for a cluster or clump of fronds at the top. The trunks were probably green inside (rather than woody), and it is possible that the trees conducted photosynthesis. (Source)

Dr [Christopher] Berry (of Cardiff [UK] University) said: "This is a spectacular find, which has allowed us to recreate these early forest ecosystems. Branches from the trees would have fallen to the floor and decayed, providing a new food chain for the bugs living below.

"This was also a significant moment in the history of the planet. The rise of the forests removed a lot of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused temperatures to drop and the planet became very similar to its present-day condition." (Source)

Some of the tree fossils have trunks over twice as large as the specimen that has been reconstructed, so it seems likely that many of the trees grew much taller than 8 meters (26 feet).

Read more:
The earliest trees, preserved from trunk to tip
Fossilised trees mystery solved
World's first tree reconstructed
385-million-year-old fossil reveals first tree
Journal features Gilboa trees

Frosted tree leaves

A tree whose leaves were frozen

These two trees standing side by side in Christian County, Kentucky, demonstrate the state of our trees at present.

The tree at right has suffered leaf-dieback from the freeze. The tender new leaves of many trees were killed by cold temperatures recently.

The tree at left had not yet put on its leaves at the time of the freeze. With its new growth still held safely in its buds, it survived the drastic change in weather without any apparent damage.

The vast majority of the trees will survive the setback and put out new leaves soon.

Many of the trees were blooming (maples, ashes, oaks, and others), and since their blossoms were killed, they won't make nuts or fruit this year. This will make it harder for wildlife for the entire next year. The various tree seeds (especially ash and maple) and the acorns and various sorts of wild fruit won't be available.

I am not sure if the hickory trees were affected or not, but if their blossoms froze as well, the squirrel population will definitely be affected.

Related news report: Non-native trees took worst of frost damage

Related post: Tree damage in the late freeze

Tree Damage in the Late Freeze

Trees across the nation have suffered damage during the recent cold snap.

Unseasonably warm temperatures in March and a severe cold snap over the Easter weekend froze the young leaves and flowers on many trees and shrubs across the U.S.

In my own yard, the lilacs and privets seem to be all right, but the ashes and maples have been hit hard. Their leaves and blossoms are hanging like limp black rags on the branches.

There's not much to do but wait. Shrubs and trees that were in bloom won't flower again, but they should recover and produce leaves within the next month. Similarly, shrubs and trees whose tender new leaves were frozen will put out a new set of leaves after they realize what happened and adapt.

Most of the dead leaves will drop off by themselves as new growth starts. Pruning away dead growth would be risky because it would be so easy to inadvertently damage the area that will produce new growth.

Take a look at these news articles for some comments more expert than mine about freeze-damaged trees:

• Time is best response for freeze-damaged plants: Dealing with the aftermath of the hard freeze on landscape plants - Johnson County, Missouri Extension column
  
• Freeze causes devastating loss - The Northeast Georgian
  
• Freeze Causes Damage to Early-Blooming Plants, Trees - The Times Union (Warsaw and Kosciusko Counties, Indiana)
  
• Spring Freeze: What to Do With Injured Plants - 14 WFIE Tri-State (Evansville, Indiana)
• Healthy trees store energy and therefore will be able to survive a late spring freeze - The Birmingham (AL) News
  

Another helpful document:

• Effects of Cold Weather on Horticultural Plants in Indiana, a publication of Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service.

As always, for good answers that are specific to your particular area, it's best to call your local Extension Service. You'll probably find the Extension Service listed among the state agencies in your telephone book.

Kentucky's primeval forest

The forest before the white settlers came

The following passage is quoted from Kentucky, The Pioneer State of the West by Thomas Crittendon Cherry.

Before the coming of the earliest explorers and settlers, Kentucky was a vast wilderness and rugged waste still unchanged by the hand of civilized man. It was bounded by the broad Ohio on the north, to the east lay the cloud-capped Allegheny Mountains, and to the south the endless forests and streams of what is now Tennessee, while the mighty "Father of Waters" washed its western shores. This territory, comprising over forty thousand square miles, shield-shaped, and sloping westward, made a changing scene of hills and mountains, rivers and valleys, forests and open stretches of fertile lands called "Barrens."

Numerous rivers, choked by fallen trees and fed by pure springs wound in and out down the fertile valleys. Most of these streams rose in the mountains or highlands and after wandering in many directions poured their waters into the beautiful Ohio. Here and there the silence was broken by rippling shoals or roaring waterfalls which mingled their music with the discordant cries of wild animals and fowls and the war whoop of roving bands of savages.

Beneath the everlasting hills lay vast beds of coal, iron ore, and pools of oil, and from its surface grew endless forests of finest timber, all waiting the coming of the white man and the needs of civilization. Many wild flowers and shrubs bloomed in abundance everywhere, fertile stretches of open land were covered with clover and wild pea vines, and beautiful birds of many varieties gladdened the scene with their songs.

Fish of many kinds swarmed in the creeks and rivers and swans, ducks, geese and many other native water fowls floated upon the peaceful waters or wound their flight from stream to stream and lake to lake in large flocks. Pigeons in countless numbers and beautifully colored parrakeets [sic] swarmed in the forests, and great owls uttered their solemn notes in the twilight of the dismal woods. Numerous flocks of wild turkeys fed upon an abundance of acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts, wild berries, and the many varieties of insects that infested the woods and Barrens.

Dense forests crowded to the waters edge and reaching back in endless confusion, through valleys and uphill slopes, were matted in many places with a tangled undergrowth of bushes, briars and vines that made difficult a passage even for the wild animals. Giant forests of oak and tulip, beech and ash, sycamore and linden, cedar and pine, and many other varieties of trees grew so close that their leafy branches spread a canopy through which the rays of the sun could scarcely penetrate, producing twilight effects even at high noon.

Through these forests roamed immense herds of buffalo, deer, and elk, which broke out paths or trails to watering places, salt licks, and barren patches of land covered with wild grasses.

Many other animals roamed the woods, and birds in great abundance swarmed in the forests. Panther and wild cat crouched in the dense canebrakes or on overhanging cliffs ready to spring upon their unsuspecting victims. Bear and large packs of wolves that lived in the caves prowled through the forests in search of their prey. A solemn stillness reigned everywhere except when broken by a confusion of forest sounds. Nature seemed to have heaped up her many bounties in this new land to make it a fit dwelling place for God's wild creatures.

The ruthless hand of civilized man had not yet disturbed the natural beauty and freshness of this wonderful scene. For unnumbered years, the seasons came and went but there was none to plow, sow and reap as civilized men are used to do, but the forests, each year, yielded a rich harvest of wild fruits and nuts. No roar of engines, no rumble of machinery, no hum of commerce nor ringing of church and school bells broke the stillness of this wild region.

To this picturesque land of natural wealth and rugged beauty, nearly two hundred years ago, came the first white explorers, hunters, and settlers, with rifle and ax to convert it into a land now inhabited by civilized man and ruled by the arts and institutions of civilized life.

From Kentucky, The Pioneer State of the West by Thomas Crittendon Cherry. Published by D.C. Heath and Company of Boston, New York, and Chicago, 1923.

Photo credit: Appalachia Forest Action Project volunteers looking at "Big Red," an old-growth red oak tree on Joe Aliff's property. Photographed by Mary Hufford, 1994. From Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia at the Library of Congress.

A Circle Bench Under aTree

Shade at mid-day

A favorite midday gathering place of Civil War veterans.

Dept. of Veteran Affairs photo.

I am guessing that this photo was made between 1885 and 1900. Looking at the men, I think that they might have been in the War when they were in their 20's, 30's or 40's, and now they are in their 50's, 60's or 70's.

They seem a little self-conscious in the presence of the camera, but I can imagine that many lively conversations were carried on under the shade of this tree, as these gentlemen traded stories of their wartime experiences and exploits.

I've seen benches like this in quite a few old time photographs. I think they're very inviting. At any time of day, you could find a place to sit in the shade.

I wonder why these benches have fallen out of fashion? Are we so comfortable in our houses and on our decks that we don't venture out to sit under a tree anymore?

Best practices for logging

Careful ways to harvest a woodlot

A neighbor is having some logging done and I've mentioned before that it is unpleasant to watch. I can understand the harvest of mature trees, but I'm aghast at the damage the loggers are doing to the young trees.

It is sickening to see that many good young trees that have been growing for 20 years or more have their tops snapped off and will surely die. Today I saw a stump they had left that must be 8 feet tall -- why?! This logging company is doing a careless, heartless piece of work. Plundering is a word that comes to mind.

When you go into your woodlands and take logs, there are careful ways to do it. The idea is to leave as light a footprint as possible, to avoid compacting the soil, to avoid injuring the trees that you aren't cutting, and to get the largest usable logs possible from the trees you do cut.

Here's a website that gives a quick, short list of General Harvesting Guidelines. A good quantity of information is available on the internet, and of course you also get free advice from your state forestry service and from your county extension agent.

Our neighbor's woods won't be ready to log again for a long, long time because of the damage done to the next generation of trees. Don't make this mistake in your woodlot.

For the sake of the young trees,
leave a light footprint in the woods.

Photograph credit: Going into the woods for another load. Logging camp near Effie, Minnesota. Photograph by Lee Russell for the Office of War Information, about 1944. From the Library of Congress. More information.