Sunday, February 24, 2019

Globe Willow


Weather: Snow Friday night left six inches on some wood surfaces. It even collected on the narrow edges of the vertical board fence. During the day, the snow melted from tree branches, then it got very cold last night.

Last useful snow: 2/23. Week’s low: 7 degrees F. Week’s high: 47 degrees F in the shade.

What’s still green: Leaves on juniper and other evergreens; everything else under snow

What’s gray, gray-green, or blue green: Four-winged saltbush, winterfat leaves

What’s red or purple: Stems on sandbar willow and bing cherries, new wood on peaches and apples

What’s yellow: Stems on weeping willows

Tasks: A friend told me about a friend of his who was Italian. A few weeks ago the friend of a friend was out with a pick axe making holes in the frozen ground to plant garlic. The weather may have been inhospitable, but his internal clock that defined when one planted had been activated.

Animal sightings: Some birds gathered on the rafters of my back porch Saturday afternoon before flying off.


Weekly update: Trees have characteristic shapes that are created partly by the species DNA and partly by the environment. I mentioned in the post for 13 January 2019 that no tree in northern Michigan has branches lower than a deer can reach.

Here, my junipers extend to the ground as do my neighbors’ arborvitae. The deciduous trees shape themselves.

The globe willow is the most conspicuous. I had to have the tree trimmers cut dead wood from it so the dead stems wouldn’t threaten my eyes when I walked by them. Most of the wood came from the base on the south, west, and north sides.

I think the problem is sun scald which is caused when trees warm up during the day then get cool enough in the night to freeze the sap that was softened by the sun. One of my neighbors had two large trees killed by that action.

I noticed the area under the globe willow is always the first part of my drive to lose its snow. It may be less snow falls under its branches, and the thinner veneer is quicker to go. It also may be the tree itself warms the ground. It may be dormant, but it still is breathing. The warmer ground then melts the snow, which then heats the tree and leads to problems with the sap.

My cottonwood apparently has been doing the same thing. I asked the trimmers to remove the branches that were hitting the fence and any dead wood they could reach. They removed several layers of low branches which had turned into a copse of underbrush.

I noticed the same thing happened with the Russian olive. A few years ago it had problems with the drought and the lower branches were the first to die. I didn’t had them removed, mainly because I forgot about them. They too have created a copse, only one that’s thorny.

These natural nests of deadwood, of course, can ignite in low fires. They probably are one of the things removed by controlled burns. And, they also are probably one of the traits that distinguish New Mexico forests and their management from those in Michigan or Florida.


Notes on photographs: All pictures taken 23 February 2019.
1. Vertical board fence at 6:30 am.

2. Area near the globe willow (Salix matsudana umbraculifera) at 6:30 am when everything was covered with snow.

3. Area under the globe willow at 3 pm when then only snow that had melted was under the tree on the south side.

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