Words4It

The leaves on the American Hazelnut trees have all fallen now with the help of strong winds. I’m glad I photographed this one on a rainy night a week ago. Note how the color along the veins vanishes first and then spreads out toward the edges. All of the colors are dark and rich here, [...]

When I finally learned how to identify American Hazelnut trees in 2010, I was thrilled to find three of the short trees near the Brighton millpond. I thought they were rare. This year, I paid more attention to the species when their broad leaves began to turn red (above). They have a distinctive way of [...]

Ready for some autumn color? I’m not! Actually, the color of these leaves is from a deficiency suffered by this scraggly sassafras tree (see 2010 posts) rather than from seasonal change. By the time autumn rolls around, it will be even more colorful. Old timers (like me) will recognize the leaves of another tree behind [...]

My knowledge of plants and trees is limited. I know the most common ones and that’s about it. During spring and summer, the untended millpond shorelinesare a wall of leaves. Plant fight for sunlight by positioning leaves in every unclaimed space. If a storm (or park visitor) breaks a branch, a neighboring plant will seize [...]

I posted another shot of this unusual tree last year. You’d never guess what it bears by looking at it. These luscious looking tiny heads of lettuce become brown and papery when their contents are ripe for eating. Hazelnuts! Before discovering this short, single millpond tree near the cemetery, I thought hazelnuts had hard shells [...]

I came upon these bizarre looking clumps of green and had no idea what I found. Bet you don’t know either. After some online research, I discovered they are the formative stage of hazelnuts! American Hazelnuts (aka filberts) grow on shrubs that reach only 12 feet tall in eastern North America. I thought they grew [...]