History, Natural History & the Arts
Every spring, after the last of winter’s snow has completely melted and as I start the wonderful, dirty work of turning the soil of my vegetable beds, I find myself gazing often to the just-greening-up ground beneath the old apple tree behind the garden.
It’s a rather unruly tree, sprouted at some point from the fallen-over trunk of its ancestor apple tree. And beneath its sprawling branches, every year, blooms a patch of bloodroot. [Read more…] about Signs of Spring: Bloodroot Blooms
Have you spotted curly corkscrews emerging from the forest floor this spring?
Look closely as the woods begins to “wake up” this season, and you’re likely to see some fiddleheads. Fiddleheads are the frizzy furls of a young fern that will unroll into a fresh frond.
Most species of ferns go through this brief stage, which gets its name for its resemblance to the coiled end of a string instrument. [Read more…] about Fiddleheads: Signs of Spring
The Northern Forest Region lies between the oak forests of the Eastern United States and the boreal forests of Eastern Canada. It is, collectively, one of the largest and most continuous temperate forests left in the world and, like much of the biosphere, it is at risk.
Grasses of the Northern Forest (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Jerry Jenkins and Brett Engstrom is an essential companion for those interested in stewardship and conservation of the region. [Read more…] about Grasses of the Northern Forest
On a winter day, I drove down to a nearby wetland bisected by a town road and walked carefully onto the ice. I was looking for cattail heads to dissect so I could meet the caterpillars who overwinter inside the seed fluff. Many of the cattails I found that day had blown over during the previous week’s windstorm, but there were enough still standing for me to collect two from each side of the road. [Read more…] about Cozy Cattails: A Caterpillar Haven
Now that the V-word has joined the list of things we mustn’t say in polite company, I hesitate to bring up the topic. No, I mean the other V-word – vaccine. Even if vaccines give you a headache, there’s a new one on the horizon which you may well like.
I realize this claim smacks of a Green Eggs and Ham-style discourse. Not to worry; I won’t stalk you with promises that you’ll like getting jabbed with a mouse, in a house, in a box, with a fox, here or there, in car, or anywhere. Now that I think on it, Green Eggs and Ham was a creepy kid’s book. [Read more…] about A Poison Ivy Vaccine May Be Available Soon
Scientist-like persons hired by the fossil fuel industry have long maintained we should celebrate an ever-increasing level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This gas, a key building block in the photosynthetic process, can enable plants to grow faster and get larger. It’s been called the “CO2 fertilization effect.”
Many crop yields are projected to increase. And bigger woody plants, the reasoning goes, can amass more carbon, thus helping to slow the rate of CO2 increase in a handy negative-feedback loop. [Read more…] about Climate Science: Does Rising CO2 Benefit Plants?
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The new book Mosses of the Northern Forest: A Photographic Guide (Cornell University Press, 2021) by Jerry Jenkins is an essential companion for those interested in stewardship and conservation of the Northern Forest Region. [Read more…] about A Guide to Mosses of the Northern Forest
The deep purple caught my eye, an unexpected color amid the autumn-hued palette of gold, red, and orange. I stooped to look more closely, thinking perhaps someone had dropped some manmade thing on this grassy, well-traveled path along a hardwood stand. But, no, it was a flower, its summery-colored petals closed up tightly, like a new tulip bud in springtime. [Read more…] about Gentian Wildflowers Add Purply-blue to Autumn’s Palette
Hikers climbing the Northeast’s highest peaks will traverse several different vegetative zones along the way. On the summits, they’ll likely encounter plants so hardy that many also grow in the Arctic, thousands of miles to the north. [Read more…] about Northeast Mountain Ecology: A Primer
To quote the French dramatist Jean Giradoux, “The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.” Flowering plants fill our summer fields and gardens, bring bright spots of color to our woods, and – since their arrival on the scene some 130 million years ago – have evolved along with animal life to become an essential part of the food web. [Read more…] about Flower Color: A Science Primer