Nature Post!

[rubyelf]

Enjoyed my day off today... I have no idea what randomness caused me to have a Sunday off, because I ALWAYS work Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday, but I did. I took a nice long walk this morning, until it got unreasonably hot, and then came back here, studied, took (not very successfully) my biostats quiz, studied, took a nap, studied... and now my

Comments

[melatomica]

Maybe I need to pay more attention when I am going for a hike, but you seem to have such a wider variety of plants and trees. Like we don't have anything here that produces nuts. Probably just too far North. We have a lot of evergreens, and some other trees like Maple and Cedar. Sometimes I see wild raspberries or rosehips. I think you can make tea out of the rosehips.

[rubyelf]

The vast majority of our trees are the same few kinds... you have to look hard to find unusual ones. Also, nut trees tend to be slow-growing, so if you live in an area that is transitional or disturbed forestland, you're not likely to have established nut trees there even if they are locally native. And often you won't even see the nuts because they are eaten as soon as they hit the ground.

[melatomica]

I live in a city, so what we have is just whatever parks and recreation areas that were preserved.

[rubyelf]

Most cities deliberately plant particular trees that adapt well to city life (pollution-resistant, salt-tolerant if they're near roads, desirable height and shape). They generally do not want trees that are messy or that will require excess cleanup, and nut trees are messy... walnuts stain skin and clothes, and all nuts are hard and will mess up lawn mowers, make sidewalks treacherous, and otherwise cause annoyance. Any area that's mowed they'll make sure there are no nut trees (acorns are small enough not to be a nuisance, generally) and usually no fruiting trees. A lot of domesticated flowering trees have been bred so that they get pretty flowers but never produce any fruit, and those are the ones cities usually plant. There are certain trees that do well in areas that humans have disturbed, and those will be the common ones you see.

[ragnarok_08]

Those photos really are wonderful - they should be in magazines *^^*

[rubyelf]

LOL... I would be happy if a magazine would take them!

[vjezkova]

I have just finished reading your writing about autumn and I think it was like reading a poem. I enjoyed it very much, so poetic and colourful and very beautiful.
And your lovely photos! It must have been a lovely hot day, all is buzzing with life and the area around your lake looks like a land of plenty now.
Hickory nuts are something I only read about and they really look like disfigured wallnuts. What do they taste like?:-)
This old maple tree is beautiful! And, haha, you lok like a mushroom with big eyes there!:-)

[rubyelf]

Hickory nuts are related to pecans and I've heard they taste a bit like them but tend to be more bitter. It's quite difficult to get the meat out of them and I don't think very many people eat them.

[msilverstar]

As usual, I learn from your posts. If I was really rich, I'd commission you to go places and write about them!

[rubyelf]

Someday I hope to be able to go to some place with wonderful wildlife that's completely different from my own and learn all about it...

[rubyelf]

Thank you for joining me on my day off!