(no subject)
My lake.
Three days in a row of beautiful weather. Wonder how long it will last.
Windy days... almost a few actual waves.
Always looks odd to me to see these two different kinds of catkins, especially the woody cones, on a deciduous tree, but alders aren't as common here as they are where some of my friends live, and the ones native to North America are smaller and more shrubby than European black alders.
Leaves. I know you probably have 'em where you live too, but these are pretty. If I remember correctly this one's a maple... they are some of our most colorful fall trees.
This is a young oak dressed in bright red. I think it might have something to do with age, because most of the bigger mature oaks don't seem to turn this color, but this might also be a different species with a different growth habit.
These assorted poplars, birches, and nut trees have been stripped completely by the windy weather... their leaves cover the path.
The trail can be a little slippery when it's covered with leaves, but the sound of them underfoot is always pleasant. The bright green leaves overhanging the trail belong to the big beech tree I've posted pictures of before... it shows no signs of changing color even though almost everything else has. Beeches do have an enormous root system and perhaps this one is still getting enough water and nutrients to keep being productive. If you remember science class, leaves need to have their pores (stomata) open to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, but this also means that they lose water by evaporation. This water loss through the leaves is what pulls water up into the canopy from the roots like sucking it through a straw, a process called transpiration. Cold air is drier than warm air, which means it pulls more water from the leaves, and as the air gets cold and the days get short, the water loss increases and productive photosynthesis decreases. I wonder if this huge beech's massive root system lets it keep up with the increased pace of water loss later into the season.
Most of the benches beside the lake are fairly worn and warped, since they sit there all year through rain and snow, but it makes them look like they belong. The water level in the lake is quite low... nornally it would be right up to the wooden rail on the ground in front of the bench.
A field full of wildflowers, mostly goldenrods, gone to seed and waiting for their seeds to fully mature so they can be scattered by the wind. Goldenrod seeds don't have very big tufts to catch the wind, and perhaps that's why it's usually found growing in extremely dense numbers, taking over entire fields... many of the seeds land very close to home.
Some other flowers, on the other hand, produce seeds than can drift a long distance. That might be why ironweed (which I think this is) usually turns up as one or a few plants, fairly common in any particular location but usually one plant here and one there, not all clustered together like goldenrods.
This is a bush full of nothing but bad news. These seeds get dispersed one way... by sticking themselves to animals that brush past the plant and hopefully falling off in a good location. These particular ones aren't as good at attaching to human clothing as some, but they're excellent at attaching themselves to your dog or your wool socks. matheius will probably want to make underwear out of them too.
While he's at it, he could make himself a hat out of this paper wasps' nest, although after the near-freezing nights we've been having, it is most likely abandoned for the winter. If you are sitting on one of the wooden benches and stay very still and very quiet, you can actually hear a wasp that lands near you scraping away at the wood with its jaws, ready to chew it into paper and plaster it onto the nest. These nests are permanently abandoned and left to crumble in northern climates like this... all the wasps in the nest die except for the season's new queens, which hibernate under bark or in other protected locations and start a new nest from scratch in the spring. Unlike hornets and yellowjackets, which sometimes build paper nests but also nest in the ground, paper wasps are not aggressive unless their nest is disturbed, and they are vital for control of pest insects, particularly larvae that would otherwise decimate many plants, including food crops. They may not like visitors but, as Robert Frost said, good fences make good neighbors.
.
.
.
Three days in a row of beautiful weather. Wonder how long it will last.
Windy days... almost a few actual waves.
Always looks odd to me to see these two different kinds of catkins, especially the woody cones, on a deciduous tree, but alders aren't as common here as they are where some of my friends live, and the ones native to North America are smaller and more shrubby than European black alders.
Leaves. I know you probably have 'em where you live too, but these are pretty. If I remember correctly this one's a maple... they are some of our most colorful fall trees.
This is a young oak dressed in bright red. I think it might have something to do with age, because most of the bigger mature oaks don't seem to turn this color, but this might also be a different species with a different growth habit.
These assorted poplars, birches, and nut trees have been stripped completely by the windy weather... their leaves cover the path.
The trail can be a little slippery when it's covered with leaves, but the sound of them underfoot is always pleasant. The bright green leaves overhanging the trail belong to the big beech tree I've posted pictures of before... it shows no signs of changing color even though almost everything else has. Beeches do have an enormous root system and perhaps this one is still getting enough water and nutrients to keep being productive. If you remember science class, leaves need to have their pores (stomata) open to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, but this also means that they lose water by evaporation. This water loss through the leaves is what pulls water up into the canopy from the roots like sucking it through a straw, a process called transpiration. Cold air is drier than warm air, which means it pulls more water from the leaves, and as the air gets cold and the days get short, the water loss increases and productive photosynthesis decreases. I wonder if this huge beech's massive root system lets it keep up with the increased pace of water loss later into the season.
Most of the benches beside the lake are fairly worn and warped, since they sit there all year through rain and snow, but it makes them look like they belong. The water level in the lake is quite low... nornally it would be right up to the wooden rail on the ground in front of the bench.
A field full of wildflowers, mostly goldenrods, gone to seed and waiting for their seeds to fully mature so they can be scattered by the wind. Goldenrod seeds don't have very big tufts to catch the wind, and perhaps that's why it's usually found growing in extremely dense numbers, taking over entire fields... many of the seeds land very close to home.
Some other flowers, on the other hand, produce seeds than can drift a long distance. That might be why ironweed (which I think this is) usually turns up as one or a few plants, fairly common in any particular location but usually one plant here and one there, not all clustered together like goldenrods.
This is a bush full of nothing but bad news. These seeds get dispersed one way... by sticking themselves to animals that brush past the plant and hopefully falling off in a good location. These particular ones aren't as good at attaching to human clothing as some, but they're excellent at attaching themselves to your dog or your wool socks. matheius will probably want to make underwear out of them too.
While he's at it, he could make himself a hat out of this paper wasps' nest, although after the near-freezing nights we've been having, it is most likely abandoned for the winter. If you are sitting on one of the wooden benches and stay very still and very quiet, you can actually hear a wasp that lands near you scraping away at the wood with its jaws, ready to chew it into paper and plaster it onto the nest. These nests are permanently abandoned and left to crumble in northern climates like this... all the wasps in the nest die except for the season's new queens, which hibernate under bark or in other protected locations and start a new nest from scratch in the spring. Unlike hornets and yellowjackets, which sometimes build paper nests but also nest in the ground, paper wasps are not aggressive unless their nest is disturbed, and they are vital for control of pest insects, particularly larvae that would otherwise decimate many plants, including food crops. They may not like visitors but, as Robert Frost said, good fences make good neighbors.
.
.
.