HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 07, 1962 - The Midwinter LandscapeGrey squirrel and pine cones
Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven
Focus on
This Fall, you will remem-
ber, we had the pleasure of
having Mrs Meinke's fine ar-
ticle on Fall foliage. This
week she brings us the next
part in this miracle of Nature
the seed and winter survi-
val. Her unique style and
information can always be
counted on. It is the purpose
of this column to bring a var-
iety of writers in as many
fields of Natural History as
possible.
THE MIDWINTER LANDSCAPE By
Martha Meinke Viewing
the bare midwinter landscape,
we wonder how it can be
ever become green and flow- ering
again. How fortunate that, long
before the ice age, nature had .
perfected ingenious devices for
developing, perpetuating and spreading
plant life, even under adverse
conditions and through drastic
changes in climate. It
all began with that wonder- ful
invention, the seed, in which plant
cells, together with concen- trated
food, can be sealed against the
weather in a tiny capsale to develope
under the right condi- tions
into a new plant. From
this beginning we get our
colorful diversity of grasses, flowers,
bushes and trees so ad- apted
to the seasonal changes of this
temperate zone that winter is
but a short annual pause in their
growth. Pines,
firs, spruce and hem- locks
are handsome hinglights in the
winter scene. Their seeds are formed
by pollen blown by the wind
into the open cones. Birds and
small animals find them good
food. In
forests where men harvest the
seeds to insure perpetuation of
the evergreens, woodsmen re- port
that ninety to ninety -five percent
are eaten by squirrels and
rodents. The group of naked seed
planted, gyranosperms, to which
the conifers belong, have been
only partially successful in holding
their own. In
the march of plant life on our
continent, conifers are ac- tually
on their way out. If man didn'
t take steps to encourage their
growth, they .would gradu- ally
disappear. The
enclosing of seed in an ovary
was a great step forward. Encased
in fruit, nuts, capsules and
pods, they are dispersed in many
ways by wind, birds and animals.
They can defy time and temperature.
In
many cases, freezing im- proves
germination. Encased seed plants,
angiosperms, have through
the ages acquired such adaptability
and versatility that there
are species for every loca- tion
f -om the tundra of the ex- treme :
north to the rain forests of
the tropics. Hardwood forests and
wildflowers characterize the temperate
zone. Now
in January as we walk the
cold or snow covered ground, P
knnw that beneath our feet
iew
le
sees quicken
to n first
life
and g touch
of
spring. Locked
in the earth. also are the
roots of the ildflowers,
grasses
and weeds that outwit winter
by getting rid of every- thing
above ground. When the ground
thaws, the roots will send up
new soft stems with flow-
ing
sap and quick g rowing leaves Thegrowthcycleoftheseher - baceoas
plants has a tease speed- ed
up that they heightandcompletetheir flower- ing
between the end of one win- ter
and the beginning of the next. Our
hardwood trees withstand the
charges of the seasons by dropping
their leaves each au- tumn
and growing an entire new batch
each spring. Leafless, trees reveal
the fine lines of their ba- sic
structure. The
winter buds that we now see
on their branches were form- ed
last summer while the tree's food
production was 'in full swing. They
contain the inature
b- e ginnings
of twig elong ations, we',
and leaves, which had been CO.
pletely formed and wrapped in
a weatherproof covering by the
time the sap flow to last sum- mer'
s leaves had to be cut Off in preparation
for the winter. the
It
is interesting to study varying
size, shape, texture and coloring
of winter buds. Sassafras buds
are green, the buds of the black
oak, downy and usually five -
sided. The buds of the 'beecch treearethinandsharp-pointed arrowheads
of spring" Tho-
Well
may the tender buds at- tract
us at this season ", he writ- es
in his journal on January 12, 18555, "
for they are the spring rolled
up. The summer 'is all paekfd.
in them." As
soon as the buds unfold, the water
now being stored in the tree
trunk will rise in the column within
and. course through the branches
to the,new leaves to put into
motion another cycle of food production
and growth. Insects,
birds and animals all have
their own ways of getting through
the winter. But that is another -
many other, stories. We
can be sure that when the trees
are green again there will be
birds in their branches. Blos- soming
flowers will again attract bees
and butterflies. All the com- plex
parts of nature work in to- gether
as the year passes from season
to season. OBSERVATIONS:
Judd
Bennett reports: East
Marion, Dec 30 Dickcissel
Pine
grosbeak L
R Ernest reports: Mecox,
Dec 3 Red
throated loon Snow
goose Water
Mill, Dec 31 3)
Wilson's Snipe , Hook
Pond, EH, Dec 32 European
widgeon Dennis
Puleston reports: Brookhaven,
Jan 1 -2 2)
Bald eagles Dec
26 to date 3)
Long eared owls Jan
1- American bittern