Saturday, November 6, 2010

On a different note, I looking at some of my photos taken during the last 2 or 3 months, and found a few that might be worthy of posting:


A big moth of some kind on a screen door to the back porch. It was about 1.5 inches wide,
with a distinctive color pattern.



A small tree growing alongside the sidewalk along the main street in my town.
I believe that it might be an American Chestnut growing back from
the remains of a much older one - the leaves seem to be the right size, shape
and configuration.



An Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in the front yard. At about 20 years old,
it has gotten a little too tall to easily fit into a picture taken from near the house.



A fall-flowering wildflower - I'm not sure which one, but it was pretty.
Note the 3-leaved menace, poison ivy, sneaking into the picture to the
upper left. By now, they've both probably gone dormant for the winter.



Maple trees showing patches of color a little more than a month ago.
They might be either Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) or Red maple (Acer rubrum)-
I can't tell from this picture. By now, they've almost certainly lost close to 100%
of their leaves.



A single Red maple leaf lying on a juniper bush in the backyard, looking kind of like
the Canadian flag would look of the Canadian flag had a background
of green juniper foliage, and a differently shaped maple leaf with dew on it.



Sometimes individual maple leaves get patches of color while the rest is still green.
This might be a Silver maple based on the shape of the leaves, which look more
deeply lobed than either Sugar or Red maple leaves.



White oak (Quercus alba) fall foliage, from a small branch that broke off a white oak next door.
Oaks usually don't get showy fall foliage, but white oaks sometimes get
this sort of burgundy-like color.


Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), a native vine related to wild grapes,
often gets bright red foliate in the early autumn. The neighboring invasive
Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) to either side of it remains green later
into the fall, and then turns yellow briefly before dropping off.


Ginkgo biloba is a unique species of tree that is the last survivor of what was once a widespread group of plants. It is also a popular ornamental tree in this area, since it can grow
in heavily built-up areas, has a nice, symmetrical form, and a unique shape of leaf.
Ginkgo has separate male and female trees. The male trees are more popular to plant because
they do not produce any fruit - ginkgo fruit is edible but gives of an unpleasant smell.
I had assumed that this was a male tree until the fall when I saw what were quite clearly fruits hanging in the branches. I didn't notice any unpleasant smell, either. Either I was just
lucky or I'm unusually insensitive to the smell.
Ginkgo leaves turn a nice bright golden yellow later in the fall, and then drop off quickly.
One day last week I noticed that this particular tree was almost bare, and all the fallen leaves
formed a nice bright yellow carpet on the ground. I'm not sure what happened to the fruit.


1 comment:

Phil said...

Fascinated to see a picture of a Ginkgo in fruit - never seen one. Often wondered what they look like. No one plants the female trees here. Thanks for posting.