Showing posts with label Acer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acer. Show all posts

Friday, November 17, 2006

The Forests of Chateau Mumu













Each of our two vacation resting places had their own unique forest character. If you think there are a lot of pictures in today's post, you can imagine how many I had to leave out!

Chateau Mumu, our first stop, was nestled in among a stand of young deciduous trees, dominated by what I believe to be either Chestnut trees, Chestnut oak trees, or possibly Chinkapin oaks – or perhaps both, or something else entirely! They stood out to me because I had not previously seen trees with these big, wonderful, toothed leaves. Further investigation will be needed for certain identification, especially since I'm still stumped by many oaks. File the tooth-leaved trees under mystery.

Other oaks, Sugar maples (Acer saccharum), Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and the odd evergreen also grew in the woods. I was particularly surprised by what appeared to be three young Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), the likes of which I have not seen in almost a year (where once they dominated my landscape in Washington). I can’t imagine what Douglas fir might be doing in the Poconos, and I didn't see any of their cones around, so I’ll leave these up as mystery evergreens, to be identified at a later date.

The forest floor at Chateau Mumu may have been even more exciting than the rest of the woods. Great piles of fallen leaves scattered amid rain-soaked mosses and Pennsylvania stones made for fun investigations by the puppies, and plenty of fodder for my camera.

As always, suggestions for identification of the mystery trees is welcomed and encouraged. Next week I’ll give you a full review of the places we stayed, and of course, many more pictures from our adventures in the surrounding forests and parks!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Norway Maple





With the leaves and flowers as guides, I was able to determine that the above former mystery tree above is in fact a Norway Maple.


There are several Norway Maples around the farm of varying ages and sizes, but I suppose I’ll always be partial to the one we’re viewing here.

I bet this tree is going to look SMASHING in the autumn! Come to think of it, I’m going to have a seriously hard time keeping up with leaf pressing now that I'm living in an environment dominated by deciduous trees as opposed to evergreens.


Back in Washington, I used to run around to different parking lots in the Seattle area to collect some of the prime autumn leaves in reds and pinks and burgundies; I have a feeling that around here all I’ll have to do is watch and wait for the wind to blow!