mysterious mast years

mysterious mast years

did you know that the oak trees of north america produce more nuts than any other tree region worldwide, cultivated or wild? yeah, that’s right; a single giant oak tree can produce nearly ten thousand acorns in a reproductive season. however, oak trees do not bear fruit every year and some acorns require up to 18 months to mature. when an oak produces a bumper crop, the year is botanically referred to as a ‘mast’ year. like many trees, oaks have irregular cycles of high and low yields. oak masting happens every 2- 5 years. scientists are uncertain as to the exact reason why oaks and other plants mast but there is a range of theories from climate temperatures and rainfall amounts to harsh summers affecting acorn production or the availability of spring winds during pollination. the specific causes remain a mystery. i love a good mystery, don’t you?

white oak acorns

  • Old Lady Gardener says:

    Yes! Its good to have some mystery. In my area, western Maryland, Russian elms had a mast year and I’m pulling up seedlings by the 100s all over my gardens (and I don’t even have one of these trees, but the seeds are airborne).

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good intentions

good intentions

pampas grasses are striking. you can’t not notice them. but as a STILL subject they are tricky. i usually wait for a white sky and then photograph them en plein air. but that means i really only get to photograph them in winter. this week i brought a bundle of them home to play with. i was hoping to lay them out in parallel lines on my white floors in order to make them look like a kind of ancient asemic writing. i was planning to get up on a ladder to get high enough to photograph them in their entirety. turns out, they just looked like a messy pile of stems and leaves. i was hoping the repetition in the leaf branching would look more intentional, and less chaotic. anyway, in the end, i decided this detail shot abstracted the subject enough to make it more interesting than the rows of stems.

pampas grass leaves 

  • Carol Sommers says:

    It is fun to concentrate on the negative spaces

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are you a populist or and elitist?

are you a populist or and elitist?

there is a naturalist i like to follow who lives up in duluth, minnesota named larry weber. larry thinks goldenrod should be the state flower of minnesota. the current state flower is the showy lady’s slipper. the showy lady’s slipper is exquisite and very rare, and most minnesotans only get to see them when canoeing or hiking in remote areas of northern minnesota. goldenrod, on the other hand, is ubiquitous and abundant. for the month of august, huge swaths of golden yellow goldenrod flowers will line every street in the state (that hasn’t been mowed). we have over 12 varieties of goldenrod. individually the flowers are not very striking, but in abundance the effect is quite stunning. in addition, these golden yellow mounds will literally hum with a profusion of insect life. so, do you agree with larry? are you a populist or and elitist?

goldenrod flower tips (Solidago)

  • Richard Reardon says:

    Populist, for sure. Never could understand why the state flower was the snooty, rarely-seen Lady’s Slipper. That said, not sure I want a state flower that drives a portion of the population to antihistamines. When we first moved to Shoreview my wife and I were mesmerized by the abundance of Vicia villosa (Hairy Vetch). Not an orchid, but fields of it were breathtaking!

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  • Old Lady Gardener says:

    A state flower should be one that’s abundant, plentiful, and easily enjoyed by all a state’s citizens. I vote for goldenrod.
    Maryland’s state flower is the black-eyed susan. Right now our highways and byways have gold shoulders. And my own garden is full of it, too.
    Your wreath is so lovely! I always love your circular works.

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now and later

now and later

these are the same pampas grasses. the grass-head on the right is happening right now. the one on the left is what happens in a month or two as all those tiny tight seed casings burst to release their seeds to the winds. i know this because i picked the grass on the left last year, and the one on the right today–both from the same location. this is a fine example of why dailiness is so interesting to me. nature is never the same from day to day, yet always the same.

pampas-like tall grass reeds (probably phragmites)

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bottoms up!

bottoms up!

my day started calmly enough, but then got busy. so i didn’t get out foraging, but instead spent an hour in the basement waiting out another severe weather warning. i am still quite jumpy after the tree falling on the roof.  as a result, i was forced to work with what i had on hand, which included the sunflowers left over from my profile shot of them a few days ago. i am rather pleased with this image of two stacked sunflowers. it’s not often we look closely at the calyces of flowers. and sunflowers have particularly nice ones. bottoms up!

two sunflower blossoms (Helianthus annuus)

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