Snapshot (Repost) - Cream to Green

Bradford Pear, Cream to Green

Southern Oak Catkins

a mountain Maple type going to seed

Red Maple, going to seed

Mountain Maple, or Beach Maple going to seed


Snapshot Week 10: 3/8-3/14 - Cream to Green (Repost 2009)

Note: It appears we are about a week behind last year in the bloom cycle, so this should give a sense of what we will see this week (3/22/2010  with the Brads just now gowing green.)

The great revolution this week was only visible to the highly observant. A vast spreading but as yet largely unrealized green is sneaking into every blade and branch. The overall impact when looking at the woods is still one of brush and bone, but there are signs that these too are ready to rage.

This week was cool (COLD) and wet, hence many things stayed kind of like they were last week. The brads are still holding bloom though waxing green. I expect them to go fully limon during the week of March 15.

The maple too are in revolution, as the Silver-tip, the Red, and various Mountain Maple types are in full seed force. (Only the Sugar Maples appear to hold back, not even given to flower.)

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Many of the Oaks, including the Southern Red and various water oaks are putting out catkins (a brown-green floral worm). Still, I have to see any catkin action on the massive Pin Oaks or various White oaks, many of which hold fall brown.

Other action: Saturday, March 14th marked the first day of the Wye Mountain Daffodil fest.

Lots of Henbit and lawn flower activity.

The overall effect was one of wet, green under surge.

Oops, almost forgot. HUGE week for the Red Bud, Peach, and Plum. Will post a Redbud page later this week.

Other things still seen:

Clatonia - everywhere

forsythia/japonica blooms (mixed with green)

roange berries (harder to see as the world greens)

Oak Family

For fall folliage fans, late November and December belong to the Oaks. (Bradford Pears also wear their colors late, but tend to shed them quicker.) So, after softer woods are bare, CentalArkansas is given to the copper/coffee/cardboard tans of Oaks... many of which hold their dried out leaves deep into winter.

There are literally hundreds of Oak varieties in the World, and many dozens to be found in Arkansas. At a quick glance, many of these - by leaf, or form - appear to be so different from one another that we wonder how they could all be "oak" -- while other oaks under differnet names, appear so much alike, that it difficult to determine if they should be regarded as independent species or as subspecies in the same family. The nomenclature of ID is made all the more difficult because many related species hybidize with one another, or show substantial variation under the same label. I have even found very differnt leaf types -- on the very same tree! Beyond that, the internet and other sources don't always agree on what a given Oak species is. Look up Black Oak or Red Oak and you will find incongruent samples.

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Given the great differences in Oaks, ranging from towering monoliths to sandy beach thickets, one might wonder what is it about an Oak, that makes it an Oak. Simple. Acorns.

Oaks produce acorns. If it makes an acorn... its an oak.

One web site I visited grouped Oak into two major families - The Black Oak, and the White Oak families. This can be confusing as both Black Oak, and White Oak are used to identify at the species level, and not all oaks fit into either group, however as a family name the Black Oak family represents those oaks that have sharp angular lobes, while the White Oak family generally consists of those oaks with rounded lobes.

Black Oak family (In Arkansas)

Black oak, Red oak, Southern Red Oak, Scarlet Oak, Pin Oak.

White Oak family:

White oak, Post oak, Black Jack Oak, Water Oak. Willow Oak. Chestnut Oak.

Black Oak

With a leaf that looks ever like a Pin Oak (or Red Oak) on steroids, Black Oak is dominant part of our mountain woodlands. (Ever hear of the 80's rock band - Black Oak Arkansas?) Chief attribute which sets the Black Oak apart from Pin or Red Oak is size. The Black Oak leaf is both big and broad.

Southern Red Oak

Similar in style to the Red Oak and Pin Oak, but longer. This Souther Red Oak leaf measures about 8 inces, not including the stem.

This mamoth Southern Oak, on the backside of the Arkasnas State Capitol has a diamater that I guess to be over 8 feet across. It's huge.

Tossed against a curb, the falling leaves of the Souther Oak, tend to rest back side up. (since they curl toward the face, the wind blown them till they lodge face down.

Red Oak

I'm not totally sure of my Id's on these (and especially the last leaf) as the Red Oak is similar and in size and width to the Black Oak, and only slightly thicker than a Pin Oak -- and shorter than the Southern Red Oak. Beyond that, the Red of the Red Oak (and the Black of the Black Oak) is not about leaf color, but about wood color... so any guess based on Fall color is secondary.

Of interest: The last leaf looks more or less symmetrical, but a quick look at the vein structure showcases a common attribute of oak leaves, alternating vein branches.

Pin Oak

12/8/2008 I'd hoped to have a little stronger image of the Pin Oak as they are a dominant species. Only problem, right now they look like so much curled cardboard. (The tree often holds the leaves across the winter, looking rather like a dried husk.

By contrast to the black or red oak, the center 'shaft" of the Pin Oak is much thinner, and the points on the lobes more pin like.

White Oak

Place holder

White Oak (maybe)

White Oak/ Black jack oak hybrid?

White Oak/Red Oak, Black Oak, Blackjack oak hybrid?

One of the real challenges for those who identify oak varieties is this: Many varieties of oak hybridize with one another (or are simply too closely related --- and share common family attributes) A guide I have used to identify Oaks, shows the highly lobed variety found at top as a "white oak" though it differs considerably from the narrow lesser lobed variety showcased in the White Oak entry above. The third and fourth photos have attributes I identify with white oak --and other oaks. I simply lack the expertise to break these down any further.

Post Oak (White Box Oak)

Post Oak or Scrub Oak? (it would help if I could find the acorn)

I hope I have my ID's right here. The Leaf of the Post Oak sometimes looks very much like the white oak, or the smaller scrub oak.

Black Jack Oak

All the Blackjack I've encountered have been something a brushy rogue variety, though I think they grow big too. The Blackjack leaf (I I have correctly identified these) can look something like a white oak, but the shape is notably triangular, wide at the end and, with only minor lobe differentiation.

Chestnut Oak

Chestnut Oak : Quercus prinus

(of the White Oak family)

My first thought is that this Oak (leaf) will be easier to identify than others, in that it hardly looks like any of the other oaks. But now I'm not sure. The photos on the web of the Chestnut Oak generally show a somewhat broader and slighlty lobed elongated leaf. I may have to change my ID with more information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_oak

Willow Oak

Willow Oak

Water Oak

Similar to the willow oak, but with widening at the tip. Water...Think paddle.

Snapshot Week 14: April 5-11

Water Oak in living green



Dogwoods barking loudly, some going to leaf.

"Rorange" berries. I have yet to learn the name of this plant, but berries are not new, they have been in place since deep winter.

Crimson clover boldly bound along Arkansas highways.

As of April 11, I now think of Spring in Central Arkansas as about half way done. The marker?--that triad of limon-green trees, and dogwood casting shadows on hot-pink azaleas.

Truth is, this was a schizophrenic week. The very best and worst of Spring, with chilly bright skies, tornadoes, freezing nights and open-door days. The week opened under vicious wind and closed with weeping skies. With heaven in between.

Heavy winds toss this emerging Willow Oak.
Willow Oak Catkin clump.

I hadn't really taken it in before this year, but the White Oak and Pin Oak appear later in the line of Oaks going into floral catkin flourish. And flourish they have, it great bulky mass. (I've noticed too, that I can now tell White Oaks from a distance, apart from a leaf. They are marked by a certain waviness to the branches.

White Oak covered in catkin.

The last of the new green is giving way to that wonderful "calico" green.... a splotchy blend of various green hues, from sage, to limon, to army, to the dark green of the pine, which will -- as the weeks unfold, darkened into a uni-mass. (Yellow patch = buttercups)

General observations:

Dog wood in full floral flourish, some going to leaf.
Redbud pretty much mopped up, with a few stragglers.
Limp dusty wisteria vines.
The Jesamine vines, with yellow flower seem thinner.
The byways are heavy under Crimson clover.
The hard branched Pin Oak softening with green.
Yellow "ragwort" on sticks, sticking out of pasture land
Purple "Blue Phlox" sprouting on roadsides.

Butter cups continue to thicken in pastures and in wet spots.
A lot more of the carnation bush for which I do not have a name -- in snowy bloom.