Rainbow Sassafras

Last Autumn timing and weather prevented me from capturing the sassafras colors for Arboreality. This year – I was determined! Several little sassafras (Sassafras albidum) trees are tucked in the shadow of the stone silo here at the farm. Their colors did not disappoint.

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!

Autumn Afternoon

The autumn is getting ahead of me. So many beautiful trees turning their leaves combined with my recent excursions have left me with a serious arboreal backlog (no pun intended). I am not want for material in our tree blogging!

For now, how about a little peek at things in my neck of the woods from this afternoon?

The top image is our Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) of the family Magnoliaceae. Also called the Tulip Poplar and the Tuliptree, this tree calls out during any season, and demands to be noticed. It grows big, fast, and beautiful.

Our second image is the sassafras, of course! Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) of the family Lauraceae, is among my favorites here on the East Coast. I love how the colors are as variable as the leaf-lobes.

I just can’t decide what I want to share next! Any requests?

Sassafras Trees and An Inconvenient Truth

Last weekend I was invited by my landlady to join her and a friend to see Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. I encourage everyone to see it. Better yet, bring along a friend.

The importance of this film does not lie with Al Gore or Davis Guggenheim or any of the other wonderful contributors; it lies in the act of disseminating this information in a clear, understandable, and meaningful way to Americans.

Apart from enjoying the film, the other really cool part of my evening was meeting my landlady’s friend. She lives in a house surrounded by trees, including a beautiful sassafras grove!

I never seem to have my camera when I really need it! However, after gazing up at the sassafras canopy for a while, I realized that there must be sassafras around the farm. Sure enough, yesterday I found some growing around the old silo.

What really tickles me about these trees is how much they remind me of the Pacific rhododendrons growing in the forests around Seabeck. They’re tall and slender, and the leaf arrangement is somewhat similar.

However, sassafras belongs to the Lauraceae family, while the Pacific rhododendron is a member of the Ericaceae family, which are both a part of the division Magnoliophyta - the flowering plants.

Plants is plants!