Rolandvue,4th Week of October: Falling Pine,Cedar,Cunninghamia Leaflets

In the category of "what's that in the road? A head?".  This week is was road debris from all the evergreens or conifers in the neighborhood.  The photos show the tall white pine up Cloverlea and the pine straw on the road beneath.  All the conifers were shedding but the last picture is the Cunninghamia boughs on Rolandvue.

The immediate cause of dropping leaves was the wind last week, but it must be part of the natural process.  Conifers are both evergreen and everbivalent, constantly dropping their needles at all times of the year.  It seems heavier during this transition into winter.  The pine needles show the usual five parts typical of the white pine(white five letters,five needles).  The pine needles last about two years on the tree, bristle cone pine needles in the west can last decades.  Pine straw may help the tree compete with other trees by making the soil more acid.

Evergreens make an economic calculation, less energy to replace the leaves in the spring but some energy to protect the needles from freezing in the winter.  The needles become dehydrated and trade starch for sugar, acting as anti-freeze.  This protects the pine needles down to -5 degrees centigrade. Shedding leaves reduces the need for water during the winter, evergreen make special adaptations to preserve water and continue to bring water to the branches during frosts.  Evergreens can manage some photosynthesis on the occasional warm winter days.  Evergreens can lose branches due to snow loading.  Trade offs.

This tall white pine shows asymmetrical growth to the southeast or "flagging".  We wondered if this was growing toward the sunnier south, but it can also be due to effects of the prevailing northwest winds.  Either way the tree is somewhat a compass.

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Rolandvue, 3rd Week October: Osage Oranges and Holly Berries

We thought that the Osage orange might not appear this year, like the mulberry and the gingko nut.  But with patience it is on the trees and beginning to fall in some numbers.  We have already mentioned the tree, its thorns and use as a early version of barbed wire. Still left unsolved is the mystery of who ate these fruits, probably in one gulp. Candidates are among the megafauna that became extinct as humans spread across North America.  The giant ground sloth is one possibility.   It is in the mulberry family so might have had the same weather or periodic production sensitivity.  Possibly the yield is slightly reduced.

It is native to the Red River valley in Texas, where the local indians profited by the popularity of Osage wood for bow making.  It is resistant to rot and burns efficiently, with high heat yield.
The trees are on the west side of Wagner going up the hill and the north side of Cloverlea near the lane.  The fruit is not toxic but said to be tough and tasteless. Squirrels will sometimes eat the seeds.

(I had a habit of saying sage orange, as in possum but the indian tribe for which it is named is Oh Sage in English so it is not a silent O?)

Just a photo of holly berries to show the seasonal timing.  Technically the red fruit is a drupe or stone fruit rather than a berry.  It is mildly toxic to humans but eaten by birds and small mammals.  This leads to spreading of the trees or bushes sometimes to an invasive extent. The holly is often evergreen, although overlooked when listing the evergreen trees. It has the characteristic shiny leafs with spiny edges.  The picture is from the north side of Rolandvue.  Not sure of the variety, there are the local favorite Nellie Stevens in the area.  That variety tends to be in hedges and have showier fruit, but it is early season.

Osage orange fruit, candy for the giant sloth?

Holly berries beginning,unknown variety

Rolandvue,2nd Week October: Horse Chestnuts

   One sign of fall is the squirrels gathering and burying nuts (according to a note intended for middle schoolers).  This is true in the neighborhood, squirrels particularly like to bury the chestnuts in planters on the porch which will be moved in for the winter.  We will watch for new chestnut shoots.  The kids know it is not the squirrel activity which is primary but the falling nuts, and even that can be traced further back for its actual causal relationship to the season.

Most animals seem to leave the horse chestnuts alone.  They are falling in similar profusion, and are larger with a smooth rather than spiny capsule.  But depending on the species they contain toxic amounts of tannin or other poisonous compounds such as aescin and saponins.  We left horse chestnut as generic last year but when considering uses it might be helpful to be more specific.  Aesculus hippocastanum bears the greek for horse chestnut and has the horseshoe shaped leaf scars with "seven nails" after the palmate leaves fall.  It has a fruit with spikes, not the smooth husk.

The large trees at the top of Cloverlea and by extension the many smaller buckeyes in the area may be Aesculus flava or the yellow buckeye.  The nut has the smooth capsule typical of our neighborhood.  It is native to the Ohio valley and the Appalachian mountains. The nuts  are toxic to eat but can be treated to leach out the poisons.  The buckeye leaves are falling as well, a little earlier than the oaks, slightly after the lindens. The leaves,at least this year are mostly a dull yellow.

With a little imagination the nuts, with their white basal scar and dark color look like the eye of a deer, thus the common name.  There are medical uses, treatment for venous disease, for extracts of nuts depending on the species.  Conkers, another name for the nuts were used in an English game and as a war time source of chemicals in England.

The first photo shows the fine teeth at the leaf margin, a distinction from Ohio buckeye. The second photo shows the flaking bark on an older buckeye.  The night shadows highlight the plates.  This starts as smooth patterns on the younger trees.

Rolandvue 1st Week in October: It's Nuts, Chestnuts,Walnuts, Beechnuts

There is renewed interest in the field of neuro-botany.  How to trees "know" predators or "remember" past droughts? How do trees communicate? How do they know the seasons? For whatever reason,the nuts are dropping due to some combination of time,temperature and light cycle.

The walnuts support whole industries in Europe but are rarely used here.  They have to be gathered and separated from the outer green skin quickly.  Then the cracking or hulling requires more than the usual pressure,consider car tires.  It is a common tree in Baltimore county, but not much interest in either the nut or the liquors produced elsewhere.

The chestnuts are essentially all asian with possible hybrid on Rolandvue near the entrance of Cloverlea.  Making them edible also requires work.  The worms which can be frequent motivates cooking them rather than eating them raw.  They are not easy to free of skin but can be made into a potato-like mash. Pretty good with a little seasoning.  The loss of American chestnuts by blight may have worsened the Great Depression by dislocating whole populations.

Chestnuts do not in general self fertilize so with enough distance there would be fewer balls from hell, but here on the top of Cloverlea hill there are four close to each other. The pollen can spread up to 200 yards. The spiny outer husk can be opened with your shoes before carefully extracting the nuts.

The beechnuts are so small they are hardly worth foraging.  Maybe better as animal feed.  Then enjoy the animal.

"ball from hell" protecting the asian chestnut.

Contrast between the large walnut and the beechnut.Rarely used for food.