Treelovers

Hello treelovers
"Scientists make progress in bringing back chestnut tree":
 http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/09/scientists_make_progress_in_br.html

I've never seen an American Chestnut; I would like to or maybe my kids.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/2823005196_96c06c1188_o.jpg

although not a real tree I had to share this picture I found in the Burning Man 2008 set on Flickr.

I have written in the past about the trees in the backyard.  There are 13 of them, 10 Douglas Firs and 3 Western Red Cedars.   I have jokingly called the yard our telephone pole forest because these are huge trees with a canopy 80 to 100 feet up in the air.  

I am sad at heart to report that one of the biggest and oldest is in the final stages of armillaria, a fungal disease that lives in the soil now and there is no cure.  Sadly all the Douglas Firs have it or will develop it.  The Cedars seem to be the only trees immune to the fungus.

The tree I speak of is 10.5 feet around.  I took a string out yesterday and measured it.  I estimate the tree to be at least 200 years old.  We had another one in the front succumb to armillaria shortly after we moved here.  I counted 150 rings on that stump - the tree in the back is bigger.

The beautiful old tree is sapping-out, literally losing it's life blood.



I scribbled this as I considered the life of this beauty.


cross posted to my own journal

Pacific Grove, CA. June 2008.
Eucalyptus and Cypress



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Hello treelovers.

Dogwood!



anyone else?

My family just returned from a few days at the Grayland State Park on the Washington Coast.  The park is located on a spit of land facing the Pacific Ocean.  This has been a hard winter for that part of the state.  They have have storms with 100 mph winds and flooding rains.  The woods surrounding our camp area were barren and stark.  I hope the B/W photo captures some of that feeling, as it almost looked B/W to the eye.  The others are from interesting logs and root structures on the beach and dunes.

Hello treelovers I wasn't going to post any fall pictures, because I didn't think the colors were gouing to be very brilliant this year. Then I went out in the yard on Friday and this is some of what I saw.( Read more...Collapse )

Hello treelovers. It's mid October, usually the days of peak fall color in Northern Ohio, and most of the trees are still green; though many have faded to a shade of olive. I think this solves the old debate about weather it is less light or the cooler temperatures that cause the leafs to change colors. It has been a warm Autumn and the result has been green trees.

Since i have no pictures of brilliant colored trees, i have made a short photo essay of trees who have had unusual histories. ( big picturesCollapse )

I was standing under this tree and it occured to me that this is what Jack must have felt like when he was standing under that giant bean stalk. I don't know what kind of tree this was because I was in the Capitol Tree Park at the State capitol in Sacramento and the tag was missing. It was so full and lusciously green, dripping with long bean pods. The pods just added to the feeling of standing under a giant stalk.






This is a fabulous place to take pictures, hundreds of trees from all over the world. It seems that some of them are not doing so well these days. Some are looking diseased and not as well taken care of as they used to be. All the more reason for me to get out there on my lunch breaks and get more pics and get them cataloged before they die out. If ever in Sacramento come on down to the capitol building and walk around the park surrounding the building, there's a lot of interesting items down there.

Hi. I love trees. It's as simple as that. I think Cypress trees are my faves, next to Oaks. Cypress weather the storm, outlasting mere mortals by decades. Oaks, resiliant, mighty, beautiful, pleasing to the eye, living long lives thru it all. Both are sturdy and withstand some of life's most difficult challenges. I feel a kinship with them. Silly, yes?

Even in death they are beautiful. Not sure what kind of pine this was. Emerald Bay Park, Lake Tahoe region. California.