Wind pollinated trees are abundant in temperate forests. Male flowers cast pollen into the wind in random search of a mate. In early spring, it is not uncommon to see bees and other insects visiting the male flowers in search of pollen, but they are foragers, not pollinators. I regularly visit a number of trees […]
As we begin a new year working with ancient trees, we want to pay our respects to one of the most important ancient oak trees in Lexington. We were able to carefully preserve the tree during development, and today it is thriving. Here is a photographic tribute to the Old Schoolhouse Oak. I hope it […]
Lexington is home to an astonishing number of very large, very old trees. Many of these trees were here before the city was settled and represent the original vegetation of the Bluegrass. As the city grew, the native woodland pastures were cleared for development, but the finest trees were often kept in yards, parks and […]
The total eclipse of August 21 is rightfully attracting huge attention. Towns along the totality band will be flooded with people anxious to experience this rare event. Most of us, wearing our eclipse-safe glasses, will be looking upward to watch the complex but short-lived changes in the sun as the moon passes over. But you […]
Spring is the time when trees compel our attention. With buds opening, leaves growing, flowers emerging, trees seem to call out to us, even if we ignored them all winter. Trees have also been very much in the news in the last few years for three main reasons: 1) the continued loss of forests in […]
Until recently, we have been telling you that blue ash, Fraxinus quadrangulata, appears to be resistant to emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis. This is important because blue ash is the most abundant ancient tree in our woodland pastures. The emerald ash borer is devastating our white and green ash trees. See our previous story about […]
What does gender mean? We know that human gender is a broad and fluid landscape within which people choose to identify themselves. This is increasingly recognized as a healthy and welcoming way to think about who we are. Gender fluidity is true in many animal species, perhaps the majority. But what about plants?The photograph above is […]
Update: This story is originally from 2016, but the same conditions are starting to prevail. It is very likely that your young trees need water. We are having a spell of beautiful weather, at least for people. This weather may be fine for people, but it can be stressful to trees. Trees lose more water […]
We think of summer as the “growing season” and we are used to our garden plants growing all summer. For most trees, though, growth takes place mostly in the early spring. Most trees in temperate regions produce a single flush of growth – the bud opens, leaves that were formed the previous year expand to […]
To celebrate Arbor Day in Kentucky, here is a spring bouquet for you.
Everyone wants to know how old a particular tree might be. We will discuss this complicated and important subject in two stories. This month we will talk about unitary trees, and next month we will tackle the complex problem of aging clonal trees. A unitary tree is like a person – a single, integrated organism. Unitary […]
A deep green autumn is rare in Kentucky. By this time of year, our trees usually look forlorn and bedraggled. Dry summers, high temperatures, insects and diseases all take their toll. Not in 2015, though. Our frequent rainfall and cool temperatures have allowed many trees to maintain lush green leaves and to continue growing. Some […]
When I worked in Borneo, I was fascinated by the immense diversity of trees in the jungles where I worked, even though I could only identify a few species. I did not even know how many different trees I was seeing. They look so much alike, with some exceptions, that I could walk by a […]
Today, we are launching a new project “Great Trees of the Bluegrass” to locate and identify important trees in our region. We have a new Facebook Group: Great Trees of the Bluegrass for you to contribute your own observations, and we are also creating a new web-based identification and mapping tool for your use. The purpose of […]
What is your favorite tree book? We are creating a list of all the best books about trees. Whether field guide or fiction, art book or paperback, tell us what tree books are important to you. We will accumulate the list from your Facebook comments (you can post to Facebook by scrolling down on this […]
“The sap is rising” is an often heard description of early spring. If you cut into the stem or branch of certain trees – sugar maple, birch, hickory, walnut, or sycamore – on a cool spring day, you may see sap dripping from the cut end, or an icicle of sap forming. The sap is slightly […]
You may feel we are in the throes of winter, but for many trees, it is already early spring. How can that be? In the late summer, trees begin to enter a stage of deep sleep called dormancy. They don’t stop growing because it is cold, they stop growing because a combination of long nights […]
A left-behind tree is our term for woodland pasture trees that are left behind as lone individuals when farmland is urbanized. You can help us find them. Woodland pastures are part of the original presettlement vegetation of the Bluegrass. As some areas, especially in Fayette County, were urbanized, most of the trees of the woodland pastures were […]
Dead trees are fascinating because they provide us with a permanent record of their lives. The annual rings that record the tree’s experience with drought, nutrients and temperature are familiar to most of us. Somewhat less familiar, but easy to see, is the record of all the insults, accidents and stresses of life as a giant, […]
We have posted a new article at Planet Experts, Death by a Thousand Cankers, about the tragedy of a new disease of black walnut. Although not yet in Kentucky, is it present in surrounding states. The disease is new and began in the western United States, where black walnuts have been introduced as ornamentals. Since […]
Many people have expressed concern about the poor condition of trees in Lexington parks. To help concerned citizens understand the nature of the problem and see some solutions, we are holding a walking tour of trees and tree condition at Bell Place Park in Bell Court, Lexington. The tour is from 10 to 12 […]
The Friday Tree for this week is either dead easy or very difficult – let’s find out, shall we? What tree is this? Place your comments below.
Two trees grow next to each other in a woods in the Bluegrass region of Central Kentucky. Can you identify them? Are these two different species or one? Post your answers in the comments below or on Facebook, then tune in for a discussion of these pictures tomorrow. Over the next couple of weeks, […]
The Friday Tree for this week may stump some of you, but it is not really very hard. Give it a try in the comments below or on our Facebook Page. (click for a much larger picture)
Canopy shyness is the tendency of trees to reduce competition between adjacent trees by maintaining a space between branches. It is easy to see in tropical forest canopies. which tend to be flatter than temperate canopies. Looking up into a tropical forest canopy (in this case a lowland forest in Peninsular Malaysia), you can see […]