Tree ID is nothing to sneeze at

The outdoor allergy season is over for the northeast,with very low pollen counts. Which trees in our neighborhood are threats for the spring season?  Thomas Ogren rates trees on an index of 1-10.  Male trees are often near the high or worse level. The 10 rating goes to cryptomeria or Japanese cedar.

Cedar allergy has become a public health problem in Japan.  There are hundreds of references on pubmed.com.  Rhinitis does correlate with the February-April pollen season.  They have developed pollen chambers in which the dose of pollen can be standardized, confirming the cause of symptoms.  In severe cases there can be eczema or asthma.  Treatment is mainly symptomatic.  Forty percent of middle age Japanese are sensitive to the cedar tree.  Their exposure is to large cedar forests and not just isolated trees.

Other high ranked trees are the fringe tree(10) sycamore (9) and silver maple(9).   Oak pollen is also high in the spring and summer.  The final note from Japan, dust mite allergy is the most common perennial allergy, equal in intensity to the cedar sensitivity.  So other allergens and viral infections can be similar to the tree pollen reaction.

cryptomeria pollen grain

There are skin tests and blood tests for the specific allergen,or pitch a tent around the nearest cryptomeria and monitor the symptoms.

What's in a name(of a tree)?

Here's a coincidence.  Yesterday, a national newspaper, had an article about the monarch butterfly and the dearth of milkweed among monoculture fields.  In passing the article mentioned the biodiversity index of common trees.  The oak supports more than five hundred types of caterpillars and insects, the non-native gingko supports 3 species.

When you see the nursery ads about "pest resistance"(gingko) it also means "not part of the natural food chain."  There has to be a balance but the local native oaks appear to be doing well despite being a lunch venue.

Also yesterday toured a neighbor's(BC) new grove of oak saplings.  Maybe not a news flash for the NYT but a small step, anticipating their advice on what to plant.  The second best time to plant oak trees, next to twenty years ago.  So it's a process of observing, categorizing, and occasionally taking action.

Abscission Decision

The raking of leaves this fall started months ago as the leaf was being formed.  A specialized zone of cells developed at the base of the leaf, the abscission zone, which would allow the leaf to be shed when no longer necessary.  In response to certain plant hormones,auxin and ethylene, the mature leaf separates  as light and temperature conditions change.  The abscission zone then seals the leaf scar preventing further damage.  The first growing edge of the leaf are cells preparing for the leaf's demise.

Abscission, the shedding of parts is common, fruits and flowers are separated.  Deer shed antlers after rutting season.  Leaf fall is the visible abscission event.  The variation is striking.  Some trees lose leaves early, some all at once, some not until spring.  The evergreens lose their leaves at a slower constant rate all year.  There seems to be a premium on diversity.

There is an interest in the exact biochemistry of the process (second figure).  The interest is in part due to civilization depending on abscission.  The wild wheat seeds 10,000 years ago, had weak abscission zones.  The seeds blew with the wind like dandelions.  Over time  the early farmers selected varieties of wheat with strong abscission zones.  The seeds stayed more firmly attached and were easier to harvest.  Without strong abscission zones there would be no modern culture, no Ipads.

The moral is to plan ahead for the shedding of unnecessary parts, clean out the attic.

The next December the remaining leaves still on the trees seem to be oak or beech.  The first photo is the oak tree at the end of Wagner, progeny of the famous Wye Oak. Leaves are mostly still intact.  The second picture is the beech along Cloverlea, though there are a number of small beeches in the woods with leaves still on the branches.  Trees make some complex decisions, maybe the leaves will provide nutrition in the spring. At least there is a little added color during the winter.

The first noticeable frost on the windshield, seems a little late this year.  The frost dates for the area are October 29 in the fall and April 11 in the spring.  These are fifty percent before, fifty percent after dates.  If you had skin,or crops in the game  there may be difficult decisions.  The growing season is 200 days. But not every season.

Our hardiness zone is 7a implying a minimum extreme low temperature between 0-5 degrees (F).  The trees listed for 7a are the ones we see,beeches,maples, dogwoods and oaks. There is a more specific zone at sunset.com, zone 32, taking rainfall and humidity into account.  The northward movement of hardiness zones is slow but posibly faster than trees can adapt.

The moral is that farmers and gardeners are serious gamblers, and when successful true mathematicians.

Small change in Hardiness zone but a blink in geological time.

Some Context

At the start of the ramble you were approximately 39.391 degrees latitude north and minus 76.690 degrees longitude west.  This is a brisk walk south of the Mason-Dixon Line, a little further south of  the southern edge of the glaciers in the last ice age (no natural gouged out lakes here). Lake Roland is all man-made.

Going east you would hit Lisbon, Portugal and Naples, Italy.  Going directly west you could walk to Sacramento, and then hit Korea just above the DMZ along the 38th parallel.  We are almost directly south of Ottawa and traveling south we would miss almost all of South America to the west,just passing through parts of Peru.  Time wise we are five hours ahead of London, although this may vary with the season.

Latitude can determine part of your attitude: climate, vitamin D, and the seasonal affect.  Let's concentrate on the winds.  The November wind rose shows the prevailing winds are westerlies.  Both frequency and strength are high for winds from the west.  Winds are predominantly determined by temperature difference between equator /pole and the rotation of the earth. Easterly trade winds are below 30 degrees, westerlies between 30 and 60 degrees latitude.

Baltimore is a relatively poor area for wind energy,winds average about 6 mph though gusts can go above 60 mph.  Wind generators are either west along Maryland's Back Bone Mountain or east along the coast. Wind power increases with the third power of wind speed. Our winds are stronger in the winter, January,February.

Wind can carry pollen and seeds for many of the local plants.  The classic example is the dandelion, wind-blown but requiring numerous seeds to compensate for the random distribution.  The plant needs extra energy and  that deep root.

Wind is an erosion factor, carrying dust to the east coast from as far away as the Gobi Desert.
Check your windshield.  Most of the dust is more local.

The moral is an ill wind may blow some good but a chill wind gets rapidly hazardous over 20 knots.

Life's a Beech

There are a couple of reasons these two beeches are so different.  The one on the left,taller thinner and higher branches is growing with other trees in the gully along Cloverlea Rd.  When competing with other trees beeches can grow faster and taller to get to the canopy.  The tree near the end of Wagner Rd. is competing only with a few small evergreens, probably not present during its early years.

On the other hand there are American and European beeches, with many subdivisions of the European:purple,copper, oak leave.  This may become more obvious in the spring.  There were beechnuts at the base of the trees, food for animals and man alike.  The nature course also mentioned the word beech comes from the root for book.  Either the leaves feel like paper or the early German tribes wrote on pieces of beech wood.

There is a complex interaction going on under the soil between various fungi and the beech roots.  The interaction seems to benefit both.

A possible moral is that the peer group influences the adult tree.

White Pine on Cloverlea (Tree that Started the Revolution)

The tree that started the American Revolution. The white pine was valued for masts and spars or ships in the colonial days.  Representatives of the king would mark the best specimens with three slashes of an axe,  If soldiers found the marked trees in sawmills, the owners were arrested.  This created more animosity than the tea tax.

The needles are in bundles of five,as in five letters in "white".  One row of branches is added each year.Cones are long 5-8 inch, narrow cylinders.  The tree was on early colonial flags.

The moral of the story is that events are over-determined, but the white pine was an actor,

Gingko Trees on Wagner Rd

As you start up the hill on Wagner,there is a certain hint of fall in the air.  The smell of rancid butter caused by the fruit of the female Gingko.  There is a tall straight female Gingko in the field above and to the left.  The picture shows the typical fan-shaped leaves and the round fruit.  Supposedly there is an edible seed in the fruit if you can tolerate the smell.

 

The tree is a "living fossil" related  to conifers.  It is no longer found in the wild, cultivated in temples in its native China and cultivated on both coasts in the US.

 

There is no obvious male tree here, but there is one paired with a female after the two bends on Wagner. The tree is almost bare of leaves but still numerous berries.

The Wagner Walk

The Wagner Walk

Here is an extension of the Rolandvue walk, in the same tentative vein, emphasis mostly on the tree identification.

At the intersection of Cloverlea Rd and Rolandvue turn west rather than east.  Face the driveway across from Cloverlea.  There is a green Smoke Bush on the right, then a large hybrid American chestnut to the left of the drive.  This brings up the historic chestnut blight of the last century. This tree is less than 100 years old,after the blight. Further up the drive is a Japanese Dawn Cedar about 70 feet tall.  Next to this is a white pine, while behind the garage are a white oak and then a red oak.  Even in the winter the white oak can be recognized by right angle thick branches.

On the path leading to the pool is a star magnolia. Look for large white flowers in the spring. The large hemlock near the road,closer to Bellona is being treated regularly for wooly adelgid.  A little further along is a Leyland cypress, a hybrid between two cultivated cypress varieties which would have been 500 miles apart in the wild.  Being sterile hybrids, Leylands are now spread through cuttings.

Near the corner of Bellona and Rolandvue are two beeches,an American beech an a Copper beech.  The copper is closer to Rolandvue, but this may need to be checked in the spring by the difference in foliage.

Looking north across the yard to the stream there is an interesting mixed grove of dawn redwoods and bald cypress.  Knees have formed around the cypress but barely visible above the ground.  The cypress are close to the stream. The redwoods are 25 years old,reddish trunks with deep vertical furrows. There are a mixture of maples adding color to the grounds in the late fall. (many thanks to B.C.)


Take Wagner Road, uphill to the South.  On your right is a Redbud, a line of Roses, and a Magnolia.  At the corner of the lane entering from the west, is a Box Elder, a maple relative and a tree that when large can also be tapped for sugar.  Above the lane on the right are more Sage Oranges, and a grove of Tulip Poplars.   On the left climbing the hill was a Catalpa and some Hemlocks.  Behind the hemlocks, higher on the hill is a tall female Gingko with the fragrant fruit on the ground and still clinging to the branches.

Between the gingko and the road the smaller tree is a persimmon,something to watch through next year. Further up the hill on the left  there is an evergreen with the awl shaped leaves, cryptomeria.

As the road bends at 1015 drive there are White Pines on the left and Japanese maples on the right.  The small tree to the right next to the fence looks like a Chinese Elm, the typical small round seeds or samaras.  Across the road is an evergreen with shedding bark, lacy needles, an eastern red cedar.  This is the tree of cedar closets,cedar chests but confusingly actually a juniper and not a cedar.  It was also the main source of #2 pencils for many years.

In the yard to the left  is a remnant of the Apple  orchard previously common on the hill.  Fruit bats were more common years ago and would frequently be found in the houses.  The evergreens along the roads are former Christmas trees.  The three to the west are Colorado blue spruce.  The fourth, close to the driveway is a Fraser fir.  The twigs on the latter have a softer feel.  There are other firs such as Balsam very close to the same?

Large Ginkgo trees are on the straight narrow part of the road on the right.  Stop to smell the fruit on the road in the fall.  This is an evolutionarily old tree in the evergreen group.  The use of ginko biloba as a medication remains controversial. The walks have included most of the evergreens except for the Larch/Tamarack group.  You have to go near the top of the Bellona  hill on the left to see a larch.  It has lost its needles here late in the fall, but has unusual knobby twigs.

There is a Norfolk pine near the fence to the right.  It has gotten too large for containers, but is well outside its usual range.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Toward the end of Wagner are pines, mostly white pines based on the 5 needle bundles. There is spruce and  another Linden on the left, two white oaks and more cryptomeria on the right.  The oaks are from acorns of the Wye Oak, the Maryland state tree on the eastern shore. The Wye Oak itself was an acorn in the 1500s.

Walking  back along Wagner toward Rolandvue there is a tulip Magnolia Tree, inside the white gate, more spectacular blossoms in the spring.

This is an overview of the local trees.  There are more details to be seen in the spruce,pines and maples.  Each could be more specifically identified.  Identification is just a start,the tree behavior is interesting, is the pollen allergenic, is it male,female or both?  What are the interactions with wildlife?  How do the variety of trees deal with energy, temperature and humidity through the variety of leaves?

Update: Even trees are dynamic, the Norfolk pine did not survive the winter.  a Ivory Silk Tree was found in the wooded area along the north side of Wagner just  beyond the Christmas trees. Watch for the white flowers in June and brown capsules into the fall.

Common Trees Along Cloverlea Rd and Rolandvue

A Narrative Walk along Cloverlea and Rolandvue (map to follow)

This is a tentative rough draft, corrections and additions welcome to jimkell at aol dotcom.

Starting at the mailbox 1009 Cloverlea Rd. at the top of the hill,face south along the driveway. On the right is a small Dogwood with opposite simple leaves, a help in future identification.  A few feet further along the drive is a pair of tall horse chestnuts.  In the fall there are numerous large nuts but these are high in tannins and rarely used.

Next on the right of the drive just west of the fence is a large sugar maple, just waiting to be tapped in early spring.  Near the bend of the drive closer to the house is a pair of Lindens. They lose their leaves early but flower in the spring, leading to the name bee tree.

On the left of the driveway are Spruce trees, and further along near the house a line of arbor vitae, the tree of life.  One story is a tea made from the trees leaves saved the early French explorers from scurvy.  On your left hand is a flat-leaved evergreen I am calling an Eastern Cedar, similar to the arbor vitae.  Behind you is a Yew bush and behind that a couple of unknown maples, but possible relatives of the sugar maple.

Glancing in at the driveway at 1005, there is a Catalpa with the large heart-shaped leaves near the south west corner of the house.  Further from the house and closer to the fence is an oriental chestnut, bare at this season but producing the spiky nuts in the fall.

Turning to start down the hill, on the right  there are alternating white pines and yews. About halfway down on the right is a Fraser Fir, with the typical 2 parallel white lines on the underside of the leaves.  This fir seems to be free of disease, such as whitish scum on the top of the leaves.  Behind the pines is a grove of Hollys.

Where the lane joins Cloverlea from the north, There is a group of trees closely packed.  Nearest the point of land are two Osage Orange trees.  They still have the large round heavy fruit balls.  At other seasons they can be identified by the thorns, they were planted as fences before barbed wire.  There may once have been large animals in this area who ate these fruits like candy, now extinct.

The two tall trees have pinnate compound leaves suggesting locust or walnut but no identifying fruit on the ground.  Near these trees is a shorter Mulberry  bare now but coating the street with the purple berries in the spring. Across the road, on the left going downhill, is a hemlock and behind the hemlock, a willow oak (somewhat tentative since few leaves).

Just downhill from the lane on the left is a large Sycamore, leaning sharply away from the road.  It has the usual splotchy "sick" bark making ID easy.  The large leaves may have been used by Adam and Eve, according to some stories.  Sycamores like their feet wet, tend to be along streams or at least shallow water tables.  With this tree on your left, another can be seen in the woods to your right about 100 yards away.

Further down on the right is a Tulip Poplar,tall straight trunk with the large somewhat tulip- shaped leaves.  There are a number of them in the area.  One forest type is spruce-tulip poplar-maple and this will be common as you walk over the Rolandvue hill.  The plantings and long term cultivation would mean an asterisk on the term forest.

If you have an urge to carve initials in the smooth grey bark, it is usually a Beech.  There are a couple of these in the gully on the right.  There do not seem to be any beechnuts left on the ground, supposedly a good food source.  There are hollys, small sycamores and baby horse chestnuts as you reach the corner of Rolandvue.

Cloverlea to Malvern

Turning to the northeast on Rolandvue, there are spruce on your left, the stiff bottlebrush leaves,evergreen and pendent.  Between the garden and the road is a Cunninghamia,tall with long leaves, which can turn brown and shed in the fall.  The fragrant wood is, in its native China, favored for making coffins.

Near the gate of the Kellys is an edible Fig with mitten shaped leaves.  Further along a Red Maple,colorful in the fall.  On the right,before 1101 on the small hill is an interesting oak. It has narrow leaves but definite acorns,possibly a Willow Oak according to the distribution maps.  Across the 1101 driveway is a magnolia.   In the small triangle formed by the driveways on the left is a  Yellow Wood, named for the lumber color. A tree for the future,a little outside its normal range.

Above the triangle on the hill, a White Oak is on the left and a Red Oak  on the right.   The red oak has sharper leaves pointed at the end of the lobes.  The red oak produces acorns less often than the white oak.  Ecologists are interested since more acorn equals more mice and more mice mean more ticks,more Lyme disease.

Starting up the hill there is a Paper Bark Birch on the right and further along a Paper Bark Maple on the left.  More maples and more beeches.  There are some small trees on the right with lobed leaves, possibly mulberries.  The birds could have carried the mulberry seeds from Cloverlea.   There is a Cherry tree near the top of the hill on the left, more white pines and more spruce.  A small group of Japanese Maples on the right are very colorful in the fall.

No attempt to identify the small trees on the other side of the hill.  There are more maples and more sycamores. Above the 915 driveway is a Redbud, small tree with heart shaped leaves.  On the left going down the hill is a group of small Sassafras trees.  I have chewed a few twigs, unimpressed, but not tried the roots for tea or beer.

On the right above the 909 drive is a evergreen in the Cryptomeria genus.  Native to Japan they can be 230 feet tall,but there are many cultivars.  It has round cones, male and female.
On either side of the 910 driveway are Fringe trees. Watch for the flowers in the spring and fruit in the late summer.

End the walk at the bridge on Malvern.  The rocks in the stream bed are most likely, Loch Raven Schist, a metamorphic rock more than five hundred million years old.  This was formed at a time of active volcanoes in the area.  Baltimore gneiss is visible in some Towson areas and is more than a billion years old.  It might be seen in areas along the stream. There are the expected sycamores along Towson Run, as well as spruce and maples.