Category: Oxygen

Witch Hazel in Spring

American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), my hero.

“The American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one of those plants that would like to have everyone’s undivided attention. You know the type: a bit of a rebel, marches to the beat of its own drum. This native shrub’s unwillingness to heed convention has made it popular among gardeners for hundreds of years.” Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Leaves emerging. Branches still decorated not with flowers, but what remains of the flowers that occurred at an unheard of time for blooming, October, November, some even into December. These are the calyxes of those strappy yellow blooms.

Folded up as vintage hand fans, growing daily, expanding.

Unfolding day by day. Adding rich green to the landscape.

Like other tree leaves as they open, the leaves begin working on their purpose, photosynthesis. Using carbon dioxide, sunlight and water they create sugars for the tree. Those sugars give the Witch Hazel energy to grow. Photosynthesis also creates oxygen which we animals need in order to breathe. Such a monumental task for these green leaves no bigger than six inches.

Autumn Color Change

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)

During the summer months the trees around us are covered with green leaves. The green color in those leaves is thanks to a green pigment, chlorophyll, that the leaves use to capture the sun’s energy. That energy is used to change water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen, in a process called photosynthesis. Glucose is used by plants for energy and to create other materials such as cellulose, and starch. But how do we end up with the warm colors of autumn? The reds, yellows and oranges?

Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

The principal pigments that produce color within a leaf are: chlorophyll (green); xanthophylls (yellow); carotenoids (orange); and anthocyanins (reds and purples). 

Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa)

During the summer there is an abundance of chlorophyll as the leaves work to provide energy for the tree, this gives the leaves their green color. As summer winds down trees will pick up signals that the seasons are changing. Those signals? Days that are becoming shorter and cooling temperatures. In response photosynthesis slows and the amount of chlorophyll drops drastically, leaving the other pigments within the leaf more plentiful, changing the colors. Yellows, oranges, reds and sometimes even purples. And we have AUTUMN.