Squawroot (Conopholis americana) is a plant in the Broomrape family that produces no chlorophyll and has no leaves. Instead it’s parasitic on the roots of trees, especially oaks.
The only time I notice squawroot is when it blooms in the spring.
I found these flowers on Monday in Schenley Park.
p.s. The green leaves on the left are an invasive plant unrelated to squawroot. Anyone know its name? (See the comments for the plant’s identity. It is not invasive.)
(photo by Kate St. John)
23 March 2012
Welcome to Day 11 of June-in-March. The heat feels nice, huh? What could go wrong? As it turns out many things could go wrong.
Yesterday I found red oaks starting to bloom in Schenley Park a month ahead of schedule (photo above). This should be happy but something is missing. The rose-breasted grosbeaks aren’t here to eat them.
Long ago I learned from Chuck Tague that rose-breasted grosbeaks move north as the oaks bloom, perfectly timing their arrival to coincide with their favorite migration food — oak flowers.
But right now the grosbeaks are in Central and South America, waiting to fly across the Gulf of Mexico to arrive in Pennsylvania in late April or early May. They don’t know our oaks are blooming. The flowers will be gone.
What will the rose-breasted grosbeaks do when they get here?
Uh oh!
(photo of oak flowers by Kate St. John. Photo of rose-breasted grosbeak by Chuck Tague)
21 March 2012:
One day does not a summer make but a week of June-like weather is mighty convincing.
Though I’m thrilled to be wearing summer clothes in mid-March it makes me very worried. Our temperatures have been 20 to 30 degrees above normal. In Minnesota the morning low in International Falls tied the previous record high on Monday!
The heat is unprecedented and the landscape is responding. Last Sunday I found cutleaf toothwort (pictured above) blooming four weeks ahead of schedule and yellow buckeye trees leafing out in Schenley Park (below). The weather is three months early. The plants are one month ahead.
Insects are responding as well. Stink bugs are everywhere and I swear I heard a cricket last night.
Most birds can’t keep up. Those already here are moving north a bit early but the bulk of the migrants are in Central and South America and have no idea our weather is so far ahead of schedule. When they get here they may find their peak insect food resources have passed.
Meanwhile peregrines lay their eggs so that hatching will coincide with the push of northward migrants. Dorothy’s first egg is right on time though the heat is not. It was sad to see her panting at the nest yesterday, trying to keep her egg cool so it won’t develop out of synch.
With a warm winter here and a very cold winter in Europe, we’re on the roller coaster of climate change. Arguing about it is pointless now. Ready or not, we’re already experiencing the new normal.
(Cutleaf toothwort photo by Dianne Machesney. Yellow buckeye leaves by Kate St. John. Dorothy panting at her nest on 20 March 2012 from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Spring came fast last week, as shown by the pictures I took at Schenley Park on Wednesday and Friday, March 14 and 16.
Spring morning with dew, Wednesday March 14.
Coltsfoot starting to bloom (Wednesday).
Magnolia bud opening (Wednesday).
Female flowers on red maple (Wednesday).
And by Friday….
Spicebush flowers are open.
…and Wednesday’s magnolia bud is now a flower.
(photos by Kate St. John)
For some of the red maples in Schenley Park, winter is over. They’re already blooming.
Red maples (Acer rubrum) are one of the earliest trees to flower in the spring, producing red female flowers and yellowish male flowers. The male flowers are actually red but appear yellow from a distance because the yellow stamens extend beyond the red petals.
Shown above are the female flowers. Look closely and you can see the tiny wings of the fruit that will form from each flower.
Weeks ago I photographed the winter buds which, like all maples, are opposite on the stem. The red buds are globular, the bud scales are rounded. Here’s a close-up of what the buds looked like when they were closed.
Nearly everything about the red maple is red — the buds, twigs, flowers, fruit (before it dries), leaf stems and fall leaves. Red maples are so beautiful in autumn that they are often planted in cities and parks.
Red maple bark is not as easy to identify. It’s smooth on young trees and rough on old ones with vertical cracks that peel up a bit. Here’s a look at the bark that proves it’s easier to identify this tree by its buds.
Today and tomorrow we’ll have temperatures in the 60s and more of the red maples will bloom. Use binoculars to see the flowers.
Soon the Winter Tree series will end because the trees will have leaves.
(Bud and bark photos by Kate St. John. Red maple flowers’ photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the flowers’ photo to see the original)
No matter how you look at it, this tree has confusing names. My Winter Tree Finder calls it ironwood (it doesn’t even list the hophornbeam name!), but as I learned last weekend ironwood is an alternate name for at least two other trees.
Ironwood’s official name is eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). It’s a common tree in the birch family, most easily recognized by its bark which has long, square-edged strips that peel upward.
Hophornbeam wood is very heavy, hard and strong, so durable that when metal was scarce this wood was used to make wheel rims and sleigh runners. “Horn beam” means hard wood. “Hop” refers to the tree’s fruit which resembles hops (think beer). Here’s what the fruit looks like:
A closely related tree, the blue beech (Carpinus caroliniana), also carries the hornbeam and ironwood names. Blue beech’s official name is American hornbeam without the “hop.” Its bark looks very different: smooth, blue-gray and muscular. This earned it the nickname “musclewood.” Click here to see blue beech bark.
Since hophornbeam is in the birch family, its twigs look very “birch-y” and often carry catkins. From experience with the Winter Tree Finder, I can tell you it takes a long time to key out this twig. I recommend identifying the tree by its bark.
Ironwood and ironwood, hophornbeam and hornbeam. I’ll keep them straight by calling this one hophornbeam (or ironwood) and the other one “blue beech” instead of its confusingly similar hornbeam name.
(Bark and twig photos by Kate St. John. Hop-like fruit photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the hops photo to see its original.)
Sixteen of us gathered at Schenley Park yesterday for a walk among the trees.
As we left the Visitors Center we were treated to far away(!) views of Pitt’s peregrines, Dorothy and E2, sunning on the south face of the Cathedral of Learning. The weather cooperated and the sun came out.
Here we are in the woods just before we began the mind-numbing task of keying out twigs using the Winter Tree Finder. By the third twig we had had it! We gave up on twigs and switched to bark. Thanks to Debbie Bryant for bringing the Bark book.
Right off the bat I learned something new. When I identified a tree as “ironwood” George Bercik said ironwood was a different tree. We consulted our field guides and discovered that “ironwood” is the common name for two trees. I call the eastern hophornbeam “ironwood.” George calls the American hornbeam “ironwood” (which I learned as “blue beech”). Both names are correct but confusing. That’s the problem with common names…
On our route we found black cherry’s “burnt potato chip” bark, dark red oaks, pale beech trees, and hackberry’s “pie crust” bark. Birds were few but we saw an adult red-tailed hawk hunting in the woods and some gulls flying overhead.
Around 2:30pm the wind picked up so we returned to the Schenley Park Visitor Center for hot chocolate. What a cozy end to our bark walk. Thanks to everyone for coming.
p.s. Spring must be coming soon. The daffodils are up at the Visitors Center.
(photos by Kate St. John)
The Winter Tree Walk is “on” as planned, 1:00pm to 3:00pm tomorrow, February 18. Click here for directions and details.
Expect overcast skies and temperatures 43-45 degrees with some wind and a slight chance of rain. It will feel like 38-40 degrees.
Dress warmly. Wear boots. Most of our route is sidewalk or crushed gravel but be prepared for one 60-foot muddy stretch. (Route is shown above in red. See map key below.) Feel free to bring a hiking stick. I’m bringing mine for walking and for pointing out trees.
Bring quarters for parking! Parking rates are $0.25 for 7.5 minutes = $2.00/hour. For 2 hours you’ll need at least 16 quarters. More is better. Note: The white laminated “No Parking” signs attached to the meters ask you not to park from 5:00am – 9:00am because of CMU buggy practice. Our outing is 4 hours after the “no parking” time, so don’t worry.
Post a comment if you have a question (comments send me email) or call me at 412-622-6558. I’ll be checking for comments & messages until 1:00pm on Saturday.
See you tomorrow.
(screenshot of Schenley Park from Gmap Pedometer. Pink circle is Schenley Park Cafe & Visitor Center. Red is our route. Green line is location of free parking with dots indicating walking route to the Visitor Center.)
15 February 2012
From a distance this massive white tree looks like a ghost in the valley.
It’s an American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), also called buttonwood or American planetree. In Pittsburgh we call it a sycamore but in other countries this name can be confusing because it refers to other trees. In Europe the “sycamore” is a maple.
American sycamores are native to eastern North America from Maine to Texas, from Ontario to Florida. You’ll find them along creeks and rivers, in bottom land but not in swamps. They like to be near water, but not in it, because they’ll die if their roots are submerged continuously during the growing season.
Sycamores are easily identified by their bark which flakes off in big chunks to reveal the pale new bark beneath. They do this because their bark cannot expand as the tree grows. Look up the tree trunk and you’ll see the characteristic ghostly white color.
In rural settings you can safely identify the flaky bark as a sycamore but in town we’ve planted London planetrees, a hybrid of the American sycamore and Oriental plane tree. The new bark on London planetrees is greenish-beige where the sycamore is white.
The seed balls of both species stay on the tree through the winter, breaking up in early spring. Each seed has a bit of fluff attached to help it disperse by wind or water.
One way to tell the difference between American sycamores and London planetrees is to look at the seed ball stems. On sycamores there is generally one seed ball per stem. On London planetrees two or three hang from the same stem.
Sycamore twigs zigzag from bud to bud. The buds form underneath the petioles (leaf stems) during the growing season and don’t appear until the leaves fall off. Each bud is encased in a single scale and surrounded by the leaf scar.
Sycamores (and London planetrees) are both noted for their very large trunks which often become hollow with age. Champion trees have been measured at 167 feet tall with trunks 13 feet in diameter. The oldest trees are the largest. They can live for several hundred years.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Reminder: Meet me at Schenley Park Cafe & Visitors’ Center at 1:00pm this Saturday for a Winter Tree Walk to practice your winter tree identification skills. So far the weather looks good (above freezing with no precipitation!). Click here for more information.
p.s. The tree pictured at top was cut down in July 2023.
Today’s tree is easy to identify all year simply by looking at its bark.
Black cherry (Prunus serotina) is a medium to large tree, 50 to 100 feet tall. Mature trees have dark colored bark that looks like burnt potato chips. The shadowy photo above accentuates the chips.
In bright light the trunk looks paler but the chips are still there, as you can see by this photo taken in full sun.
Young trees have smooth shiny bark with pale horizontal lines or lenticels. Even the twigs have lenticels that appear as spots in the picture below. The buds are alternate, small and scaled. This twig looks like it wants to open its buds, proof that it’s been a weird warm winter.
Black cherries are a favorite of birds in late summer because the trees produce an abundance of small red to purple cherries, 1/3″ in diameter. Foresters like the tree for it’s cherry-colored wood which fetches a good price.
Keep your eyes open for black cherry trees and you’ll be surprised how many you find.
(photos by Kate St. John)