Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Tree Seeds

I was walking a stretch of the Bruce Trail yesterday, along an old fencerow, when I started noticing the tree seeds.  Fencerows often have several different species of trees, so I was quickly able to find at least five different ones with visible seeds that I could photograph.  You may not have seen all these, so have a look.  These are all more signs of the seasons - but perhaps signs that I've been neglecting, we take them so for granted.

Mountain Ash berries are perhaps the brightest and most obvious.  Birds love them, and I've seen flocks of robins or cedar waxwings descend on a tree and eat every last berry.

This is one you may not be familiar with, the Hop Hornbeam, one of the trees known as ironwood.  Like the next two below, the seeds are usually so high in the tree that we can't see them.

Basswood has round seeds attached to a small linear leaf which acts as a parachute when it falls off, hopefully carrying the seed out of the shade of the parent tree to a spot where it can germinate.

You probably recognize cherries, but it's not often that black cherries are close enough to the ground so that you can get a picture.  And the wood of black cherry is perhaps the most valuable hardwood here in southern Ontario.

Finally of course there are wild apples, spread everywhere it seems in unused corners of fields and fencerows, perhaps by deer or squirrels.  If you're lucky, one of these trees may have some quite good apples for making jelly, if not for eating.

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11 comments:

  1. Great post, beautiful collection of trees. I have tried planting trees and bushes that produce berries that the birds like. It is great to have a natural food source for the birds. Have a happy week!

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  2. Beautiful pictures! I fell into them, studying their lush beauty. Thank you for sharing them with me. :-)

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  3. I have seen the Mountain Ash and the wild apple tree but not the others. Thanks for sharing your pictures. Maybe I'll see these somewhere and know what they are. Pamela

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  4. Someone here in town has a few Mountain Ash trees, so I'm familiar with that one.

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  5. We have a lot of self-seeded appletrees here. Most of these apples are rather too tart to be considered eating apples, but delicious once you cook them with sugar.

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  6. Good golly, these are just so pretty. Colors just remind me of the Autumn. Beautiful!

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  7. All of our bushes are heavily laden! It's been a great year.

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  8. Welcome to Nature Notes! This is a wonderful post and now inspires me to go out and look. Our woods are very dense now due to all the rain here in western NY, but I can look along the wooded edges. Thank you for linking in this week and I hope to see you again...Michelle

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    1. Thanks for your kind comments; I do hope to be back when the topic fits.

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  9. I've added wild apples, seeds and all, to other fruits to make jelly. Apples have high pectin content and help lower-pectin fruit to jell.
    Btw, thank you for visiting my blog a month ago. When I clicked on your name, it brought me to an older blog with the latest entry posted in 2010. All I could think of at the time was, "Well, it takes all kinds?!" I've just now found you through Barefootheart's blogroll. You've got a nice blog!
    - Dandyknife.

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    1. Thanks for visiting. I did write another blog, on Hanlon Creek, when we lived in Guelph and I was still working. No idea how it showed up for you. But thanks for visiting this one, it's current and continuing!

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