Glistening twigs

Weird question, but on my way home from work along I-275 there is a deep valley that I can look down into. Of course, at this time, all the trees are bare, and brown or gray. But the very upper twigs of a group of three or four trees standout because they look just like they are encased in ice. They positively shimmer.

Unfortunately, I can't tell much else from the trees because of distance and they are inaccessible. I can just make out the trunks and they appear to have large splotches of lichen on them. Other common trees in the area are sycamores, sugar maples, hackberries, white ash, and probably red and white oaks.

Scott

I am clueless but the setting you described sounds idyllic and almost as if it should be a showcase photograph for one of those expensive wall calendars for the month of January.

Sounds like sweetgum -- ?

Guy S.

I've always wanted to start a thread called 55 mph (88.5 km/hr) trees. It is one of the ways I learned to ID trees when I was still a sapling, on many many trips to nurseries around the eastern half of the US. Maybe now's the time.....

Sounds like a glaucous outer surface effect on the terminal twigs. I would guess Gymnocladus dioicus, Kentucky coffee tree or some tree like that, but those have pretty identifiable characteristics even at 80 mph. Young twigs of Prunus serotina have a little bit of waxy coating, if I recall. Large splotches of lichens occur on a lot of different species.

Where along I-275, Incumbent? Boone/Kenton County, or farther around in OH?

Hi Viburnum Vomit,

How'd your surgery go? Able to kick the dog yet? I would guess it is Kenton County, coming down the hill east of Turkey Foot but before KY 17 (?) down in the valley of the Licking. I have to go back to work on Saturday. I'll get the particulars for you then.

Scott

Oh my word, I should have never read the last two posts while I was drinking pop. It's spit out all over my monitor and you two are responsible.

Hi Equivocation:

Life's messy -- clean it up! At least you didn't blow it through, well no need to further elaborate. We call those milkshakes.

Hi Redundant:

Knee is clean -- had a special bath today. I should take a picture (alright, wash your minds out with soap) because I personally now know what it's like to be air-layered.

You know: the propagation directions to wound a branch of something; place moist rooting media, like sphagnum or some such, around it; wrap all that in plastic; and then tape the ends shut. Well, except for the moss, that was my knee. If DW had left me too long, there'd be little rootlets emerging and you could've had your own VV start.

No dogs around here, but have nearly nailed several cats with my crutches who were angling to take me down.

I know just the hill you are talking about; used to have a flame in college (first time 'round) who attended Thomas More College. Drove that route more times than I can count, back when the '65 sky blue with white ragtop Corvair was my babe magnet.

I think the Licking River is the boundary between Kenton and Campbell counties. Tough hill coming west with a load of trees.

It's looking like cabin fever is going to win out over quiet convalescence. Negotiations are currently heating up; I'm expecting some kind of common ground to be reached with a settlement on travel destinations before COB Friday.

What might availabilities be, oh, say, week of Feb. 13?

Ur uh, you're kidding right? Why don't you hold off on travel for at least 3 weeks. I know you're a big boy and all but if you make one mistake and so much as slip on ice out galavanting around... you will be back in under the knife. WhatdoIknow... I'm just a wife type. I hope yours slaps you down sill back into a nice chair or something for the next few weeks.

Hi Extirpation:

If I settled for dawdling around the couch every fool time some surgeon cut on me, I'd have taken root for sure.

Arthroscopy is apparently not as big a deal when simply removing torn cartilage (he says now), not like repairing torn ACLs and other fun stuff. I didn't have the one I saw on one chart, called the Triple Whammy or something like that. Ouch. This was more like a snip and trim. I'm determined to "make time" while I have it.

Ice? It's 60ºF (16ºC) out today. I suppose you're referring to the FRIGID NORTH; who'd be fool enough to travel there? Don't answer that.

The only thing the DW is going to slap me with is another great dinner. I continually have to sacrifice my sense of self-preservation, and be supportive of this marriage. It's only right.

I'll need to get out and about soon, or I'll start resembling fruit of Maclura pomifera 'Cannonball'.

Equivocation and Extirpation? I keep telling you people I have low self esteem!

We don't have any ice right now but they claim it's coming. Yup, I'm up in the frigid north but right now it's not that frigid. Unseasonabley warm weather recently.

Based on your description above, you may not have had a horrible surgery but any slice and dice is tough. It might be better to join resin and do the "White Spruce from Black Spruce in Labrador, while going over in a 747 at 1000km/hr, 11km high". I think it's safer for the next month or so but then that's just my .02¢.

Hi Viagra Valley,

Very good form complimenting your wife's cooking in the same thread in which you brought up a former girlfriend! Especially good form while you are laid up and vulnerable.

Must tell you, the laugh I had at your image of shaking your crutches at cats angling to take you down was the best I've had in months! I laughed till I had tears in my eyes. And then last night I watched a show on the Discovery Channel about lions pitted against water buffaloes on some island in Africa and the laughter came flooding back. My wife must've thought I'd completely lost it, laughing hysterically while watching seven lionesses bringing down a giant bull buffalo.

Scott

I'm a quick study! I learned to not having anything in my mouth before I open this thread to read posts!

You guys are a hoot, smiling this Saturday morning :) Above comments remind me of the "discussions" DH and I have while traveling. We're always searching the sides of the road while in the car, whether we're traveling 3 mph on one of the many gravel roads we identify with our trusty DeLorme Gazetteers for any designated state, or flying by on the highways at 80+ mph. My DH hollers "Stop, back up!" Well that's not a problem on those back roads but when you're fighting with tractor trailers on I-81 that's the last thing I'm going to try to maneuver at those speeds.

Also reminds me of my teenage son years ago mimicking me with my face plastered to the window looking for wildflowers in the ditches :) Years ago while traveling up I-95 heading to Baxter State Park in northern Maine, I found the most incredible mass of Calopogon tuberosus I've ever seen. These trips often made me dizzy and I'd return home with a headache, but how else are we supposed to spot the wonderful treasures that other people never even know exist?

On a sour note, we met a wonderful young student from UGA at the Louisville seminar this past fall, who is developing the same bad habit most of us plantoholics have. He spotted a unique plant on the banks of a major highway and pulled over - with shovel in hand to quickly grab a piece, he was promptly slapped with a whopping fine for pulling over in an "Emergency Only" lane!

Big chuckles back, rcn48.

Need to tell that student to have the Faux Flat Facade up before doing the digging! Harder to get by with as a male (chauvinism coming out, but accurate), but "car trouble" or "call of nature" sometimes saves the day.

Not a trooper in the world that would buy a botanical emergency story.

Does not a cool, rare plant alongside the road qualify as an emergency? Could it not easily be run over? Or mowed? Or flattened by a mattress that broke loose of nylon straps in the back of a pickup and flew forty feet in the air in a spectacle admired by at least fifty bored commuters before wafting down on top of innocent plants? In my book, a cool, rare plant in peril IS an emergency. The poor kid just didn't know how to talk to a cop!

Scott

Joseph Braeu (owener of Edelweiss Nursery in Duluth, MN) tells a good story about stopping along a MN freeway to get a conifer broom cutting. Sometime during his endeavor he was "greeted" by a Trooper. I don't remember what the outcome was, if he got ticketted, but the given name for that broom is now: 'State Trooper'.

Leftwood, A little out of the way for most on this thread/forum, but Edelweiss one of the truely special places to visit in upper midwest. Great dwarf conifers and unbelieveably nice people.

Here's a chuckle for you men out there who think a "cool" and "rare" plant constitues an emergency.

Another member in these forums (who shall remain unnamed) went on a road trip with me to a plant sale of all places. I am a big proponent of leaving things be because often times the only habitat left for some plants is under power lines. If there is something I see locally by the road, it isn't that hard to find out who owns the stretch of land and I just call and ask permission to dig it up... I've never been turned down yet. Nope, not my girlfriend. We're out driving around... she saw plants, claimed they had her name on them, didn't care who owned that small patch by the road, decided I needed to do a U turn, and promptly demanded that I turn around. Brake/screech and a Uey and we were back to where she spotted the ever so elusive what ever it was that she had to have all of. I keep this shovel in the back of my trunk and she knows it so I had to turn it over to her. While little Ms. "Igottahaveititsmine" is down bending over digging to get her treasures... along comes Mr. tall dark and gruesome police officer who has mirrored sun glasses on- geesh I hate those. I see him pull up behind me and immediately start sweating BBs. I quick fast grab this roll of toilet paper I use to blow my nose (kleenex is expensive so I always have a roll of TP in my car thank goodness) and jump out of the car and try my best to act surprised that somebody has pulled up behind me by exclaiming there is no way I could have been speeding because my car was stopped. He ignores my statement but wants to know what's up. I tell him we just stopped for a little pit stop. My girlfriend has her back to us and is totally oblivious to his presence because of all the hi-way noise. Next thing I know he starts walking toward the ditch so I sort of jump in front of him with my arms out and say, "she's gotta go real real bad and I was bringing her tissue". I did this as loundly as I could so she would hear me. I can see her twisting while still digging out plants and she is frozen realizing there's a LEO there. Officer friendly looks at me straight in the face and wants to know why she's got a shovel. Good question- why does she have a shovel to pee??? Oh horrors, I've got no answer for why she has a shovel down there! And then it hit me. I look him straight back in the face and tell him because we were always taught in Boy Scout Adult Leader training classes to "Leave No Trace" and she told me it was going to be a #2 so I told her to dig a hole and cover it up. He started laughing and told me to have a good day and left. Let me tell you I tossed that roll of TP at her and went back and sat in the car because I was shook.

I am not cut out for these types of escapades. I told her never ever ever again and that she had to go do her dirty work by herself if she spotted something she couldn't live without. Oh she thought the whole situation was just too funny because she said I looked absolutely mortified standing there trying to block him from coming down by where she was. Ha ha funny funny, the more upset I got the more she laughed and I felt like beaning her over the top of the head with the shovel. She got her plants. I said a prayer that night being ever so thankful I am too cheap to buy Kleenex for my car.

A most enjoyable story, Lauren. Ya know, in your emails there were so many more. I hope you're keeping an archive somewhere. Your kids will treasure them someday.

I have a similar friend. When he collects seed from a tree, for instance, he has to have them all, whether there are 5 or 500. On one of our trips together to an arboretum 100's of miles away, he was doing this. While I would call my disapproving protests vehement, he called them relentless nagging. Later I discovered that we had both secretly decided not to take trips together anymore because of our strongly opposing views. But for some reason he really repects me, and after 15 years of more gentle persuasion, he is changing his ways. And we do still travel together.

Rick

Lauren,

Your story gives new (maybe parallel?) meaning(s) to the phrase, "the call of nature."

BTW, not to bring this thread back to its original purpose or anything, but I have taken some digital photos of the "glistening twigs" today. Soon, when my wife will humor me and help me import the photos, maybe we can get this thing identified. I was wrong on the smooth trunks with lichens part of my description from before. I got a closer look and the bark is composed of very flat plates in a vertical pattern. My interest is nearing a fever pitch.

As for Rick's story. As an addicted seed collector, I used to share your friend's philosophy. If there were a lot of seeds, I collected a lot of seeds. Why? Because you never know which one will germinate! But, now I'm settling down. I'm not so demented. Why? Because I don't need every plant! I don't have room for every plant. Every extra plant I germinate, is another one I've got to care for. If I collect ten seeds, and none of them germinate, I'll live. I'll go on. And before hardly any time has passed, I will have forgotten my disappointment. Hell, given a little time, I forget most things!

Scott

Thank you, Scott.

No, Joseph did not receive a ticket, per his wife, Debbie. The plant is Pinus resinosa 'State Trooper' - a very nice red pine broom. 'State Trooper' grows about 3" per year. I have 'State Trooper' planted on the south side of my garage and it's doing great.

A small plant of 'State Trooper' sold for over $300.00 at the Conifer Society auction held in Minneapolis last June.
Mike

Okay, here goes my first attempt at posting photos. Forgive me if I accidentally post something from my blackmail file. If you enlarge the view, you'll really see what I mean by the brightness of the upper twigs. There is snow on the ground, but not on the twigs. There is a bit of a sycamore in the view, but that isn't these stems.

Scott



This message was edited Feb 7, 2006 4:53 PM

Maybe it's not possible to display more than one picture per post, so I'll have to do a few of these. There are several trees in this copse. Here is a picture showing the overall form of the tree from below.

Here's another.

And another. I hope the detail of the bark comes out okay.

And, finally, here's the last one. I'm sure you were starting to get that sick feeling you get when your uncle brings out twelve trays of slides from his Florida vacation.

Great pics. I'm facinated on how the glistening shows up on the long view and from below on the end of the branches: hence twigs. Do you all believe that this is a spring "flush" similar to the " yellowing up" of willows at about this time. Ken

I'm seeing a detail in the second to last picture (the first detail of the bark), which I didn't even notice in person, that has me ninety percent sure I've got it figured out. If I'm right, I'm a bit surprised, but I'll wait for others' input before I express it.

Scott

Ken,

Sorry, I missed your question before my last post. No, this isn't a "greening up" thing. I've been noticing this copse of trees all winter.

Scott

I mistook your description of the plated bark stacked vertically and thought it must be Celtis. Now I see from the photos it seems to be Gleditsia. Either one could give the reflective qualities in upper limbs, as could Liquidambar and some others.

Guy S.

I would expect the big old tripartite thorns to be telling the story (next to last pic), but the branching pattern in the first couple pics were characteristic too.

I guess that there were not a preponderance of them, since I don't see any thorns in the pics of the branches. Could these have been a planting, or offspring of one larger planted tree of a G. t. var. inermis selection?

I can say that I've never had a view from above of this species, only from nearby below, with intense respect.

Many of the wild trees I find here are thornless, or nearly so. Yet most of those I see in old pastures and formerly grazed thickets around the vicinity are very thorny. Seedlings I have grown from thorny locust trees can be nearly thornless, and vice-versa. Locusts also vary incrementally in density and size of thorns. So I don't subscribe to the odd notion of a valid variety inermis (probably proposed originally by someone who had not seen very many Gleditsia trees). I suspect selective browsing pressure has a lot to do with it.

Guy S.

Which former megafauna would've grazed the thornful version of Gleditsia? Relative of the toothless one favoring Maclura?

Sure wouldn't want to have been around to deal with that beast...especially if it was in a bad mood.

Mega fauna. You are going to give me nightmares. Ken

Well, whatever it was back then probably could eat it but not climb it! I'm thinking more of modern (historic) browsing patterns selecting for thorny trees in the current generation in heavily used pastures. Locust trees still have the capability to produce seedlings with varying degrees of thorniness regardless of the phenotype of the parent, but only the thorniest seedlings survive under heavy herbivorous pressure. My own woods, where grazing probably wasn't all that heavy, has a wider assortment of locust forms. Now, and for the past 30 years, the selection pressure has been reversed, because I'm nailing most of the really thorny ones and saving some of the others!

Guy S.

Mastodonts yes, but not mammoths (they were grazers) -- also ground sloths like Megatherium and probably many others.

Guy S.