mossy niche
Here the many thin layers of white outer bark have peeled away, leaving a pocket celebrated by moss. Somehow, the dark layer of wood beneath the white is startling when it is exposed:
Ash with guest
This huge ash by the side of the road has adopted a young cedar, willingly or unwillingly. The cedar has taken root about eight feet off the ground. This kind of growth, apparently, is called an "e...
American Elm
A few elms grow adjacent to Big Falls… Their bark is corky, complex, and always pale and patchy in color. The adventitious buds, off to the sides of this large trunk, suggest that this elm may not...
Black walnut
Walnuts and hickories are closely related, and I'm not yet sure I can reliably tell the bark apart. But on the east side of Laurel Brook Rd, there are black walnuts on the ground, and the bark of t...
micro-trails
What tiny creatures worked their way across the landscape of this birch's skin?
braided bark
This beautifully braided texture graces an elder tulip tree. Note the lone samara resting among the ridges of the bark.
Silver maple
Distinguishing silver maple (acer saccharinum, note very small difference in name from acer saccharum, sugar maple) from red maple is difficult, at least before the leaves and fruit emerge. (The le...
flooding
Here, along Laurel Brook's bank, the flooded grass is the only sign of spring... and the robins look out of place.
Mountain Laurel
Finally, I decided to document the mountain laurel here, beautifully laden today with this late heavy snow… It was hard to keep the wet flakes off the lens!
When is a green ash white?
This species, apparently, is called "green ash" in some places, and "red ash" in others. Either way, it's as coated with snow as everything else on this day.
Norway spruce
This species, native to northern Europe, has been holding its own in the wild in some parts of Connecticut. Since this tree is growing near the more open and public area of this park, however, it m...
Out like one ferocious lamb...
The mighty Coginchaug, already swelling with cusp-of-April snowmelt, swamps the picnic tables and the trunks of Norway Spruces in the northwest area of the park this morning.
hemlock buttons and knobs
Many species can develop burls or tumors, and the site of a branch is a likely place for these to occur. But these burls are remarkably self-contained, developing only around the emerging branch,...
Hemlock's unique annual cork-scars
By my count, at least 24 years’ worth of wound cork were recovered to cover the area of the initial injury. The most likely causes of the initial wound, according to Tom Wessels, would have been lo...
Black oak
I poked around among the leaf litter until I confirmed that there was indeed a typical black oak leaf to associate with this tree. Black oak is outnumbered here by red oak, but their profile from a...