Wild Wind!

This White Oak leaf (Quercus alba) modeled for me yesterday as I was roaming, enjoying the last of the autumn colors. Last evening a front came through. Wind roared and howled with incredible speed as it blew through the mountain trails.

One little branch. Not much to hold onto. But maybe it’s still there hanging from that branch despite the high winds.

White Oak trees, at least young trees, keep their leaves through the winter, dropping them in spring. More mature White Oak trees often will drop their upper leaves but hold onto the lower leaves until winter turns to spring. This is called marcescence.

Nature is amazing in its complicated world.

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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.

2 thoughts on “Wild Wind!”

  1. marcescens, is that like me hanging onto my child’s certificate from the Bertha Carr’s Academy of Dancing for 2nd and 3rd graders.

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