if you are my age, you grew up, to some extent, on the tv adaptation of little house on the prairie. and if you grew up on little house on the prairie, you spent a lot of time sniffling at the chin quivery virtue of pa ingalls, and you spent much of the rest of the time hating nellie oleson and her smug, perfect cylindrical hair curls. i found this cottonwood bark and its curly locks of nellie oleson cambium, on a walk today around pike island, at the confluence of the mississippi and minnesota rivers. i spent the morning among silver maples and cottonwoods in an unspoiled river bottom that, except for the occasional passenger jet coming in for a landing at nearby msp airport, laura ingalls herself would have recognized.

cottonwood bark cambium

pike island, saint paul, minnesota