Local Trees And Shrubs On The Other Side Of The Window

Thank God for the plants, the saving grace for us senior citizens!

When you get too old to follow and identify that bird outside your window that flashes by, you can train your binoculars on the tree or shrub that the bird just flew past. The bird moved, the tree didn’t.

Spring is the best season for studying trees and shrubs, especially those that drop their leaves in fall and regale themselves after winter passes with a whole new leafy outfit.

One can learn a lot by sitting at home and looking out the window.

The massive oaks in my yard have just finished dropping their dried-up male flowers and are sporting a fresh set of leaves. There are two species, scarlet and black.

The indentations between the pointy lobes in the scarlet oak are very deep, not so in the black oak. The two are both native species.

There is a dogwood outside my front door. It was planted at least 10 years ago; this is the first year it has blossomed. Its white flowers are a delight to all who stop by.

About 20 years ago, dogwoods were in trouble: They had become diseased, and the Korean dogwood, the Kyosa dogwood, began to replace them.

However, our native dogwoods couldn’t be doing better. Drive Noyac or Deerfield roads and you will see more dogwoods than you can shake a stick at. And, while you are at it, check out the glossy evergreen mountain laurels. They’ll bloom any day now.

Every year in June, it seems, at least in all of the 2000s, the white-flowered tree looming above the dogwood drops its spent flowers and creates a mess on our small patio. It’s a white mulberry from Asia. How it got there it is mystery.

A little to the north of the mulberry is another foreign tree species, and a very recent addition. It’s an ash, very fast-growing, 30 feet high, yet not old enough to flower.

Our most common tree is the native black cherry. A large one, 25 feet tall, started to bloom on May 20. Another U.S. native that appeared four years ago is the northern catalpa, with leaves reaching 8 inches in diameter, with seed pods that are longer. How it got here is another mystery.

Then there is the native mockernut hickory next to the catalpa. Four years ago, it appeared as a tiny pioneer; now it’s more than 15 feet tall.

It seems that every other year a new tree species arrives.

The black walnut that has outgrown its pot and is now 20 feet tall was a tree sent from a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation nursery up near Albany. It came about 15 years ago and is the only survivor out of a lot of 10.

There is also a sweet cherry volunteer in the back of the house that only God knows how it got here.

There are a bunch of winged sumacs that came to stay about 15 years ago. They never get more than 8 feet tall — a mystery. The motley red cedars that grow here and there, none more than 20 feet tall, have been here forever, it seems. Are they biding their time?

The yew that arches over the steps up from the driveway is about 15 feet tall and hasn’t put on more than a few inches since we first moved in 45 years ago.

The 10 or so white pines here and there also came from the state. They are more than 25 years old, and a few reach up to 50 feet or more, beginning to challenge those three oaks for elevation honors. Several transplanted pitch pines didn’t make it.

The three mature gray squirrels that circle the house without ever touching the ground don’t seem to differentiate between the natives and the aliens. To them, a tree is a tree is a tree!

For some reason the several trees-of-heaven that are doing fine down the block where Long Beach Road starts have never made it to our woodland. They creep along by underground stems, not by seed dispersal. And why hasn’t the Siberian shrub now fully leaved in back started to bloom yet? It always lags behind!

I sit and watch the trees day in day out. They leave, they flower, they fruit, some drop their leaves come fall.

Not a bad way to spend your old age, not a bad way to spend your remaining days — not a bad way at all.