Author: Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

A Day Of Chestnut Trees And Berries

Yes! American Chestnut Trees!

I was pleased this morning to be able to tell a dear friend that the trees he thought might be American Chestnuts, Castanea dentata, were indeed, the not often found species. Yay! This is good. I had mixed feelings though, because at the same time, I had to tell him that his trees would definitely succumb to chestnut blight. That is of course unless some crazed, chain saw wielding person comes along and cuts the trees down.

Ocean Waves

The first thing I looked for on my friend’s trees – the classic ocean wave of the leaf edge. The leaf in the photo above is one that I pressed to save, since it has the perfect example of the American Chestnut leaf edge. This morning the leaf edges were a bit hard to see since it is so late in the season, and the leaves were curled and dry, but I was encouraged by the edges I could see. Also the shape of the leaf is like a canoe – quite pointed at both ends. And an American Chestnut leaf is generally 5 to 9 inches long.

Lenticels

Another thing I took into consideration was the bark of the trees. American Chestnuts have easily visible lenticels, or breathing pores, that look like fine salt on a pretzel. These trees did have these lenticels. Chinese Chestnuts also have these lenticels, but they look like large salt grains. My friends trees had an appearance of fine salt grains.

Tootsie Rolls Anyone?

Another sign of an American Chestnut is the color of the twigs, a rich Tootsie Roll brown, along with those lenticels. Again the trees passed the test. Last but not least, I took into consideration the environment that the trees are living in – forested land with no clearing. American Chestnuts are shade tolerant trees, surviving in shade, just waiting for an opportunity to capture sunshine and shoot up to their tallest potential. Chinese Chestnuts are not shade tolerant. Good news, Buddy! I feel you’ve got several American Chestnut trees. Keep your fingers crossed, and if you are very lucky, they may grow to be sizable trees!

One Ridge North

As I was checking out Buddy’s trees, I was taking in the beauty of his property, one mountain ridge north of mine. He’s a landscape architect and his property reflects what a person in this profession would have, if he was guided by Mother Nature. He lives in the woods, surrounded by native plants. I was struck by one native in particular. One that I blogged about yesterday: Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana. The photo above is his native species. See how the berries cluster on the stem, like poufs on a French poodle?

Mine – Not A Native

While Buddy has the native, I get the booby prize, with my Purple Beautyberry, Callicarpa dichotoma, (above) which is not a native to North American, but of the Far East!

A Beauty Of A Berry

Color Me Disappointed

Nearly all the time, when I create a blog, it is the result of research. I’m learning new things, right along with you. Tonight I learned that the bushes I am pleased with – being beautiful and native, are actually not native. Well, that certainly is a surprise!

The Impostor Revealed

The telling detail which revealed the impostor to me, is the berry clusters that are held on stems away from the main stem. In the native, American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, the berries are grouped in clusters right on the main stem, looking like poufs on a French poodle. All these photographs are of my Purple Beautyberry, Callicarpa dichotoma, native to the Far East. In any event, these beautiful bushes provide the same sustenance to wildlife that the natives do.

Purply-Pink

In the spring, the Beautyberry bush is covered with diminutive, purply-pink flowers which attract many bees and butterflies. Being so small the flowers create a soft wash of pink, over the green of the shrubs.

Pollinators

Those bees and butterflies are happy to have the blossoms, and I’m happy that they get attracted to my gardens.

Apple Green Berries

As the summer marches on, the flowers fade and turn to tiny apple green berries.

And The Beauty Of The Berry

By early October, the apple green berries have turned into glowing magenta clusters of fruit.

For Emergency Only

Song birds put off eating the Beautyberries until there is nothing left to eat. Perhaps these berries are the Brussels sprouts of the bird world. Once they are faced with nothing but the Beautyberries, they will flock to the bushes and eat every single morsel.

Snow Cover

Once snow covers everything, and all the dogwood berries, spicebush berries, and sumac berries are gone, the songbirds are happy that I’ve planted Beautyberry bushes for them!

Bears In The Forest

Sighting

When I arrived back home after my hike this afternoon, I saw a moving blur of coal-black. The unmistakeable blur of a quickly moving bear, trying to avoid detection. I was approaching my front steps. He was quickly entering the woods. My two cameras that I carry with me, were at the ready, but still I was too slow.

No Photo

I wasn’t quick enough. That’s okay though. He was scared off by my presence. My yard had been visited by one of my neighbors, a Black Bear or Ursus americanus. I’ve gotten many photographs of these guys over the years. I love to get pictures of them, but have learned that they are much better off if I send them on their way by hollering at them so that they know this is my home. Better off, if I don’t daly, taking photographs, making him feel welcome in my part of the woods. Bears have the rest of the forest to romp through.

Unwelcome Mat

Bears are welcomed by trash cans, and cat or dog food left outside. Feeding the birds also tells the bears that you are a nature lover. That you have the welcome mat out. A welcome mat they think is out just for them. I’ve been surprised to find out that bears love sunflower seeds. I’ve watched as bears daintily work to pick up the tiny seeds from the ground. Now I know that I cannot feed the birds, but birds will be fine without my help and the bears will be better off. Bears get accustomed to visiting our homes, getting into the delicious trash that we leave out, eating our cat and dog food, munching on the compost we have carefully buried.

The Authorities

With the temptations that we leave out for the bears, they of course keep coming back, making a nuisance of themselves and frightening otherwise sensible people. The authorities get called in, and what is their course of action? Relocate the poor bear. This relocation seldom has a good ending. They are relocated to become a problem in another area. Don’t welcome bears with your trash, pet food, bird food or compost and we will all be a happier lot.

How Big

Adult black bears range in weight from 100 to over 600 pounds or more. Their weight depends, in large part, on what food is available to them and what time of year it is. They will weigh the most as they are preparing for winter hibernation. And bears don’t hibernate because it is getting cold. They go into their slumber state because their food supplies are dwindling. A bear in Florida will have a very short hibernation, or perhaps non at all, but then they have a food supply that stays productive throughout most of the winter.

What Color Is A Black Bear

Despite their name, a black bear can be anything from an icy white, to glacier blue to coal-black to many shades of brown. Our bears, here in the east are most often black with a brown muzzle. About a quarter of these eastern black bears have a white blaze such as the one in my photo above. Bears in the west are more likely to be some shade of brown. Some bears even change color over the course of a year, and cubs of different colors can be born in the same litter. No matter what color the fur, a black bear is still a Black Bear, Ursus americanus.

What’s On The Menu

Although black bears can run up to 35 mph over a short distance, they are not built to take on a chase to hunt down their next meal. The average black bear eats less than 10 percent meat, and that often comes from found carcasses and bugs. Here in the mountains, I often find very large rocks turned over. A sure sign that a black bear has come through looking for ants and grubs.

Yawn

When I first came to the mountains, every snowfall, I’d look for bear tracks. Surely they’d come out to enjoy the snow? No such luck though, they do hibernate and by the looks of this fellow, it seems it is about time for that to happen.

Red Maple Common Beauty

Ubiquitous

This fall, as I hike the steep and not so steep slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I see many, many Red Maples. Reading various websites and books to get information on the tree, I am not surprised to learn that this is the most common deciduous tree in eastern North America. Yes, it is everywhere. Red Maples do well, for the most part, no matter what conditions they are asked to deal with. They will live in swamps and can easily be found on dry ridges. Soil type is not something that the tree quibbles about either.

Early Bloomer

Red Maple is the earliest flower you’ll see here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Even beating out the first of the Bloodroot.

Deep, Rich Red In The Snow

They bloom so early that often you will find their wine colored flowers covered in snow.

Leafless

Before the leaves appear, the flowers of the Red Maple turn to samaras, or as I called them as a child, helicopters. The seeds that will sprout new trees. Notice, that like the flowers of this tree, the samaras are also reflecting the name of this maple, Red.

Still More Red

Soon after the samaras show up on the branches of the Red Maples, leaves start to emerge, and being true to its name the emerging leaves are red.

Not True

Of course not all the young Red Maple leaves are a true red, but are subtle shades of red.

Silvery

The bark of young Red Maple trees is a distinctive, smooth silver gray.

Charcoal

As the tree ages the bark develops cracks and becomes a darker, charcoal gray.

Autumn

As the seasons roll on, Red Maples are an independent sort and don’t rely on their name for the color that their leaves turn in the fall. You will find Red Maple leaves in pumpkin oranges, lemon yellows, crimson reds and every color and shade in between. This fall the Red Maples have been beautiful and have provided me with loads of joy, and much new knowledge. I hope your autumn is unfolding before you in a totally pleasing way!

Swirls Of Color, Yellow to Red, All Red Maple

Brown Leaves All Winter

A Miniature American Chestnut?

While hiking in Shenandoah National Park last weekend, I became baffled by a couple small trees that caught my eye. I was baffled because they looked very much like an American Chestnut tree, just scaled down to a child-size. The scallop of the leaf edges intrigued me, being so reminiscent of the chestnut tree that I am so familiar with.

American Beech, Fagus grandifolia, With Its Edge Of Pointed Teeth — **American Beech, *Fagus grandifolia*, With Its Edge Of Pointed Teeth**

Ocean Waves and Pointed Teeth

The American Chestnut’s leaf is characterized by an ocean wave edge. Here you can see the edge of the American Beech, with its leaf edge of sharp pointed teeth. Sometimes the American Chestnut ocean wave edge looks much the same, the waves are just not breaking.

American Chestnut, Castanea dentata, With Its Ocean Wave Edge Leaf — **American Chestnut, *Castanea dentata*, With Its Ocean Wave Edge Leaf**

Funny Thing About That

Going to my library of books on trees, I discovered that chestnut trees are in the beech family. No wonder they look similar!

Smooth Bark

The American Beech has a silvery gray bark that is smooth, which it retains even into old age.

A Tree That Does Not Drop Its Leaves

This autumn, as other trees are dropping their leaves, the American Beech will hold onto its leaves through the winter and will only drop them as the winter turns to spring. These small trees with brown leaves in the dead of winter, in the understory of the forest, have fascinated me for years. Only now do I know what they are!

Witch Hazel – Peak

Floral Display

Not much is blooming now. About the only thing left putting on a show is the last of the late summer asters, with their lovely, soft lavender, diminutive petals. Tiny petals adding a comforting accent to the brilliant fall colors.

Lemon Zest

The last floral display of the year is the one I’ve been waiting for since spring. This is the opening of the Witch Hazel flowers! The flowers are a soft yellow. Four strappy petals to each flower. Petals like lemon zest. Not demanding attention but instead quietly announcing the middle of autumn and for me a warning of, “Winter is just around the corner!” A warning that I delight in!

Seed Pod

After the Witch Hazel flower is pollinated by a moth, during the following many months the flower will become a seed pod, sueded, buff colored, waiting for the floral display of the next autumn. It is in autumn that these seed pods eject their two shiny black seeds, sending them some 10 to 20 feet away. These seeds will take another whole year to germinate.

Understory

The Witch Hazel is a small tree or shrub growing in a multi-stemmed clump, reaching for the sky, but being deep in the forest, does not find the sky and the branches arch again toward the ground, creating a wide cluster of stems. The tree at best reaches about 12 to 15 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide.

Green Of Summer

The leaves of the Witch Hazel have wavy edges with the upper side having a dark emerald color and the under side having a lighter green color.

What Is In A Name

I have seen several thoughts on how the Witch Hazel got its name. One has to do with the leaf gall one often sees on the leaves of the tree. These galls are caused by the Witch Hazel Leaf Gall Aphid and do indeed look a bit like a witch’s hat! Another story links the timing of the flowering of the tree with Halloween. And still another story is of a historical nature. The branches of the Witch Hazel have been used by Native Americans and in turn by European settlers as divining rods to help them find underground sources for water. The word “wych” is an Anglo-Saxon word for “bend” which is what the branch was said to do when water was detected.

And Now

If the Witch Hazel flowers are indeed saying, “Winter is just around the corner!” I say, “Bring it on!!”

The Museum Of Autumnal Color

The Flatlands

Over the weekend I was down in the flatlands. The truely flat lands of Maryland and Delaware, way out on the coast. The flatlands where there is not much going on tree-wise, autumn-wise. Just occasional farm stands filled with lovely orange pumpkins and garden mums. That’s autumn for the flatlands. While away, I missed the screaming-school-bus yellow of the Hickories, and the reds, and golds and lime greens of autumn in the mountains.

Raring To Go

This morning I was chomping at the bit, all set to get my fill of autumn in the mountains again. But wait! There’s a seldom spotted critter at the bird bath. A critter that reminds me of the New Mexico state bird, the Road Runner. A Brown Thrasher,Toxostoma rufum, was splish, splashing in my bird bath. Stop everything! I’ve got to get a picture of him! Fortunately he was slow enough, that I could put the camera onto the lens that is mounted on the tripod. I got him splishing and splashing, but not so much in focus. When he came out to preen and dry, I was able to get him, almost crisp and sharp. Mission accomplished. Now on to gathering up that camera and another one for the trek.

Blue Skies

I was lucky today. The brilliant blue skies, perfectly accented the rusty browns of the White Oaks as I climbed higher and higher, up the mountain.

Backdrop

The azure skies provided the perfect background for the scarlet of the Red Maples. A background that made the reds just pop! And see that wisp of a cloud? That is all there was up there in the glorious blue – just a wisp.

A Family Favorite

There’s one tree up here that I think I can safely say is a family favorite. It’s the Black Gum, which has red leaves that really beat the band. The leaves have a slight gloss to them that just adds to the appeal.

A Slow One

One of the slower trees to change into their autumn garb, the Sugar Maple is one that I love to watch for. A winner up in Vermont. I am lucky to have some here in the Blue Ridge Mountains as well.

My Happiness Tree

The one tree that provides me with more happiness than any, here on my mountain, is the American Chestnut. Their leaf, so beautiful with its ocean wave edge, turning yellow-green, then yellow, then on to a warm soft brown. I see these trees and know that I am home, where there is so much color, everywhere, I look I feel as if I am walking through a museum of autumnal color!

Found Chestnuts!

Hiking Again

After two weeks with only one hike, I was finally out hitting the trail! Yesterday the sun was out in a beautiful, brilliant way, cheering all the mountains and me! Today, mostly clouds blued the atmosphere but not my mood. Hiking two days in a row. So much like things should be!

American Chestnut Trees

I’ve been aware of American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees being up here on my mountain for some time now. There was even a very large tree up here just two years ago, but that has since died, as they all do, of an orange colored fungus known commonly as “chestnut blight.”

Another Big One

There is another large one, that is still struggling to survive that we in the American Chestnut Foundation, have been using in our cross-back breeding program. This tree is known as The Rosebrook Tree, and despite the onslaught of periodic cicadas this summer, we were able to get a few seeds from this “mother tree” to use in that program.

Discovery

Yesterday and today — both days — I found American Chestnut trees that I didn’t know were growing up here! Okay, to be truthful, these are small sprouts, which might be called American Chestnut bushes. But still, I am delighted!

Revealed

I don’t know if it is because the leaves of the chestnut trees are changing into their autumn garb – a coloring that allows me to pick them out more easily than when they wear the same green-blue color of summer that so many leaves like to wear all summer long. Or perhaps it is because the walls of leaves are falling from the trees, allowing me to look deep into the forest. A real treat for me, because I now feel I am actually hiking in the mountains — I can see from one ridge to the next. I can see the blue of the Blue Ridge Mountains!

And Another Big One?

If I keep at it, I’m hoping I’ll discover another big American Chestnut tree up here. Not extremely likely. But I will keep trying!

Mystery At The Pumpkin Patch

Sincerity Calls

This is the second year in a row that the sincerity of a pumpkin patch in the Shenandoah Valley has drawn me to its brilliant orange-yellow fruit of the gourd family.

Childhood All Over Again

What fun to be greeted by piles and loads of pumpkins and other gourds, of every size, shape and color that you might want to imagine. And to roam the fields just knowing that some of these round or not so round squash will be begging to be brought home with me!

A Bonus

Not only are there pumpkins growing in those fields but unlabeled wild things. Unlabeled, unknown plants call to me. Call to me even more than the pumpkins that want to come home with me. The must be identified, or I will lose sleep. I will worry. I will fret.

Illuminated Globes

The first thing that caught my eye – the frosted-glass like globes, illuminated by the sun. Beautiful! I think more beautiful than the soft-snowy white flower with deep wine colored center, highlighted with school bus yellow stamens. Intriguing.

My Library

When I come home with my giant sized pumpkin, I have more of a treasure. I have photographs of my mystery plant. Out come all my wild flower books and BINGO! I find it. My plant is Hibiscus trionum, commonly called, Flower-of-the-hour. It has been introduced to North America as an ornamental and has escaped to become a weed of cropland. So, I don’t get the prize! I discovered a weed! But still a fun mystery and I love mysteries!

Berries – For The Birds

Open Season For Dogwood Berries

Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, is perhaps at its high point in popularity at this time of year. As I watch out my kitchen window this rainy afternoon, in just a matter of perhaps five minutes, I see three tufted titmice, a pair of cardinals and a sprightly squirrel all gobbling down their mid-day meal.

Colorful Times

As the leaves of the Dogwood are turning from many shades of rich green to burgundy, crimson, purplish red, and rusty red orange, its berries have already turned to a Christmas cheery red, inviting birds and all critters of the woods to come, feast.

No Reminder Needed

This is an invitation, to come feast, that creatures of the woods do not need repeated! As far as favorites go, I believe that Dogwood berries are near the top of their list.

Leaf Peepers

While we humans are enjoying the brilliant display of autumn leaves, before they fall to the forest floor, Dogwood berries are quickly being devoured. So quickly that I hardly have time to get photographs of berries covered with an early snow. If I am extremely lucky, a snow will fall before the hungry critters are done with their “shopping trip” to the Dogwood Eatery.

Red And White

Only if I am extremely lucky will a get a shot of crimson red against cloud-soft white.

Sometimes

You can see though, that on rare occasions it does happen.

Who

Some of the critters that I must stay one step ahead of for my early snow shots are cardinal, junco, tufted titmouse, robin, bluebird, bobwhite, wild turkey, tree swallow, crow, woodpeckers, grackle, starling, red fox, chipmunk, squirrel, beaver, skunk, white-footed mouse, and deer. What an amazing list! It’s no wonder the berries disappear so quickly!

What?

And here we have Mr. Squirrel saying, “It wasn’t me eating all those berries!”