Red Maple Samaras

I have posted on Red Maples a few times before, particularly on their spring flowers and fall coloration. This post adds another piece of their life cycle. These are the seed pods of a Red Maple tree. Like other maples, Red Maples have winged seed pods, also known as samaras or maple keys, which aid in dispersal. I photographed the samaras on this tree at Griggstown Grasslands on Saturday.

Autumn Olive in Bloom

As I walked the trails at Griggstown Grasslands on Saturday, I became aware of a lot of bees buzzing around one particular shrub. When I looked more closely at what was drawing their attention, I noticed it was an Autumn Olive in full bloom. The small white flowers had a strong fragrance, almost overwhelming at close range. The Honey Bees visiting the shrub made a constant hum of activity, more so than around nearby blooming trees of other species.

Autumn Olive can be recognized by its long, thin leaves that are dark green on one side and silvery on the other. In the fall, these shrubs bear red berries that are very attractive to wildlife and edible for humans as well. The leaf and berry coloration help distinguish it from the very similar Russian Olive, as explained here.

That attractiveness to wildlife is one of the factors that makes this species so invasive since it is easier for a plant to reproduce if it has insects eager to pollinate it and birds ready to spread its seeds. Another factor is that it is able to fix nitrogen with its roots. This allows it to spread readily in poor soils where other plants struggle to survive. Aside from that, they are also drought resistant and difficult to kill by cutting or fire. Autumn Olive may be an example of an introduction succeeding too well. These shrubs were planted widely in Appalachia to revegetate former strip mines and other disturbed areas because of their tolerance for poor soils. Since then the shrub has spread rapidly and become a seemingly permanent fixture of the landscape.

Redbud

Eastern Redbud is a small tree native to the eastern United States. In spring, its branches are covered with tiny pink and purple flowers.

Crows in a Tree

Before yesterday's snowstorm, a large group of crows – both American and Fish Crows, with the latter in greater numbers – were cavorting in one of the fields in Donaldson Park. Eventually they all flew up into the trees, perched there for a few minutes, and then departed.

Moon over a Locust Tree

The moon was full last night. At this time of year a full moon is sometimes referred to as a "Snow Moon," though this year snow has not been plentiful so far. A few days ago I photographed a nearly-full moon rising over one of the black locust trees on my local birding patch. For more on black locusts and how to identify them, see this recent post in Outside My Window.

Trees in the Snow

Oddly enough, yesterday was the first snowfall here since the winter started a month ago. These trees stood together in Donaldson Park. The Greater White-fronted Goose was nowhere to be found.

Bare Branches

Two sets of bare branches stand against a late afternoon sky. The first is a London plane tree. I am not sure about the second, but chances are that it is a honey locust.

Locust Trees in Black and White

The locust trees that I like so much are mostly bare, aside from a few stray seed pods. Even in winter, though, their crooked branches make the trees visually interesting, both in small details like above and in wider views like the ones below.

November Berries

Fruit-bearing trees and shrubs help many bird species make it through our cold northern winters. Here are a few plants that are still bearing berries near the end of November. All of these photos were taken in the past few days. Above is a very familiar tree, American Holly.

This is a Winterberry shrub, which loses all of its leaves in the fall but retains its berries through much of the winter. The shape of this individual plant suggested that it was a cultivar, though I do not know which, if any, it would be. I have never observed birds eating Winterberry fruits, but something must eat them as their fruit disappears gradually over the course of the winter.

Above are some rose hips from a Multiflora Rose shrub. Birds will eat these, sometimes in preference to berries from native shrubs. Multiflora rose is very invasive and may take over old fields if it is not kept in check.

Indian Coralberry is a native fruit-bearing shrub.

Most of the crabapples have been eaten already, mostly by European Starlings and American Robins, but a few are still lingering on the branches. Some of the remaining ones are starting to shrivel.

Not all fruit-bearing shrubs and trees still have their fruit. This Arrowwood Viburnum has been stripped bare of berries, leaving only empty fruit clusters behind.

Sweetgum in Autumn

This Sweetgum tree stayed green and turned fairly late this fall. When the tree has its leaves, it is easily recognizable by its five-pointed leaves, which are green in summer and turn yellow or red in autumn. In winter its bare branches form a conical shape.

In autumn, Sweetgum trees produce distinctive spiky seed balls. Right now, the seed balls are still mostly green. Over the next month or so, they will turn brown and fall. After they open, they will look something like the seed balls in this photo.

Azaleas in Autumn

Azaleas are better known for their colorful flowers in the spring, but in the fall they produce some lovely colors, too. Here are two separate azalea shrubs, one with yellow leaves and the other with red leaves.

For good measure, below is a rhododendron bud, with yellow azalea leaves in the background.

Chipped Bark

While I was at Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, I cam across a tree that had obvious damage to its trunk. A large section of bark was stripped away, and the wood underneath was chipped in a square-edged pattern. I was curious what would cause this pattern. The damage was too high to be the work of beavers. It is about the right height for deer, but would deer chew the wood underneath as well? Could a person have done this? The same pattern was not evident on nearby trees, so whatever did the damage was attracted to this particular tree.

Red Maple in Autumn

Red Maple is a common and widespread native hardwood tree. It grows across the eastern U.S. from southern Florida north to Newfoundland and from the Atlantic coast west past the Mississippi River. Red Maples are easily recognizable for their leaves with three main lobes and red leafstalks.

In autumn, the leaves turn red, sometimes very dark red, though some leaves may be orange or yellow.

Most of the Red Maples I see regularly are young trees, so they are still fairly short, like the one above.

However, Red Maples can grow to be 60 to 90 feet tall when they are mature, like this one, which I photographed against the sky.

Fall Colors at Lord Stirling Park

Even though a lot of trees have passed their peak foliage, some trees such as oaks still bear plenty of colorful leaves. A lot of colorful trees were on display at Lord Stirling Park on Saturday. Here are a few of the trees I saw. The one above is a sycamore along a boardwalk near the nature center. I forgot to check if this was a true sycamore or a London Plane. In direct sunlight, its leaves looked golden yellow.

This oak tree's looked more like orange brown.

Up close, this Red Oak's leaves looked bright red, especially when they were lit from behind in the morning sunlight.

Honey Locust

This is an old and magnificent honey locust tree that I see every day. Honey locusts have compound leaves with tiny leaflets that turn golden yellow in the fall. Up close, the leaflets are not that impressive, but from a distance the tree looks like a mass of gold. There was another old and magnificent tree, an elm, that stood next to this honey locust, but it was removed this summer due to disease. That made me wonder how much longer I would be able to enjoy this marvelous tree.

Flowering Dogwood in Autumn

In autumn, the leaves of flowering dogwoods turn red, ranging from a bright red to a dark purplish red. These two photos were taken on separate days. The one above is from Thursday when it was raining. The one below is from yesterday, when it sunny.

Fallen Leaves

Autumn foliage is not at its peak quite yet in central New Jersey, but already quite a lot of leaves are blanketing the ground. Here are some photographs of fallen leaves that I took this week.

Red Maple Leaves

Two Red Maple leaves, lying on the sidewalk.

Virginia Creeper

Virginia Creeper is a native vine that grows distinctive five-leaf bunches. In the spring and summer, the leaves are green, but right now, the leaves have turned a rich, dark red. In fall, the vine produces dark berries, which become food for migrating birds.

Honeylocusts in Autumn

I may have mentioned before that honey locust are one of my favorite trees. My affection for them stems partly from familiarity. As I was growing up, I could see a magnificent honeylocust tree out my bedroom window every day. Honey locusts are also common on my local patch in several groves. These honey locust groves provide some of the best birding, as it is relatively easy to spot birds among the small leaflets. In winter, the bare branches take a variety of gnarled forms, making them photogenic in even the bleakest of winter weather.

In autumn, the compound leaves turn a golden yellow before they fall. They are one of the first trees to turn, so that they are often bare by the time other trees are at their autumn peak.

Honey locusts are in the legume family (Fabaceae). In the fall, they produce curved seed pods, which hang from their branches. The distinctive pods are about 6-8 inches long and contain numerous seeds. I remember playing with these pods as a kid, but I am not sure whether I ever connected them with these marvelous trees.