December 15 - The Pear Tree - Pyrus communis

The Pear Tree in Winter

The Pear Tree in Winter

The Pear Tree in Winter

Rebecca

December 14 - The Live Oak Tree - Quercus virginiana

The Live Oak Tree

These Live Oaks live at Boone Hall near Charleston, South Carolina.  There is a network of interconnectedness between the moss and tree.  http://boonehallplantation.com/

The Live Oak Tree

The Live Oak Tree

Rebecca

The Live Oak Tree

December 10 - The Slash Pine - Pinus elliottii

The Slash Pine.  Photo by Robert Priddy.

Rebecca

November 23 - The Cottonwood Tree - Populus deltoides

The Cottonwood Tree

This tree is on its 4th post, and I still have not found it! I am asking anyone out there to let me know if they would lead me to a Cottonwood tree. If you are far away from me, well you go to your cottonwood for me and visit a while with the tree? Will you photograph the tree for me and send it to me for the blog?

Some ID tips to help one find this tree this time of year:

The twigs are hairless and yellow, stout, brittle, and enlarged at nodes.
The buds lay flat against the twigs. The terminal bud is pointed 3/4 - 1 inch long.
The bark is gray, smooth to lightly fissured, becoming thicker and deeply furrowed with age.
This is the incredible tree with the white fluffy seeds that fly in May signifying the beginning of summer.

So, let me know if you have a cottonwood tree for me to visit!

Rebecca











Peace,

Rebecca

Festival of the Trees December 2010

The tall Oak with branches covered in Spanish Moss lives in Beaufort , South Carolina.

I love feeling the sun and wind on my face. I stood under this tree and felt the sun and wind on my face...and what else was that I was feeling? An eeriness...I could not put my fingers on it.... was it a ghostly specter? I do know that there is a ghostly air in Beaufort....

from Beaufort...

Rebecca
www.ayearwiththetrees.blogspot.com

November 16 - Mango

The Mango Fruit

Rebecca

November 13 - Mimosa - Albizia julibrissin

The Mimosa Tree

Photo By Kurt Stüber  

www.creativecommons.org/licenses, via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albiza_julibrissin0.jpg

From Tremont ....

Hi everyone.

I am in the Smokey Moutain National Park, at Tremont, www.gsmit.org this weekend.  The class I am taking is called Mammals of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  There are the most incredible mammals in the park. 65 different species.  I will be doing a report on the Beaver this morning.  The tail is so amazing!!!  This photo shows a tree that a beaver chewed down to sharpen his teeth and to probably make a damn.  These mammals are called nature's engineers.  They can create new ecosystems single handedly.  Stream to pond to meadow, nature's engineers at work.

I will be updating my trees as soon as I get back to Asheville!!

Peace from the Smokey Mtn. National Park,

Rebecca

"Beavers are making a comeback in Cades Cove.
Once a common site in Cades Cove, beaver were all but eliminated from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The fashion of beaver hats at the beginning of the twentieth century once threatened many populations of beaver in the United States, including those in the Great Smoky Mountains. Fortunately, beavers are making a recovery in Cades Cove as they are migrating from an area of North Carolina where they were reintroduced into that ecosystem."

http://www.cadescove.net/wildlife_cades_cove.html

November 1 - The Apple Tree - Malus domestica

The Apple Tree

The Apple Tree

The Apple Tree

This Apple tree lives in West Virginia at the Pipestem State Park at the bottom of the gorge.  www.pipestemresort.com

If you ever find yourself with some time to go on an adventure, go to Pipestem State Park. I believe you will love this place. You can hike to the bottom of the gorge, which is 3.5 miles; or you can take the tram to the bottom of the gorge. At the bottom of the gorge, there is a small inn and restaurant. The beauty this fall was breathtaking. It is our very own Southern Appalachian Grand Canyon.

Pipestem State Park

Quote:

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Martin Luther

Rebecca,

Weeping Willow - Salix babylonica

The Weeping Willow Tree

The Weeping Willow Tree

This incredible Weeping Willow tree lives at Camp Rockmont, where I am attending the SE Women's Herbal Conference. I had a class with Suki Roth today. She talked of the powerful medicine in the Weeping Willow.  We talked about how Weeping Willow vinegar can be prepared from the new spring leaves. 

Rebecca

Pear Tree - Pyrus communis

The Pear Tree

The Pear Tree

This amazing tree that lives beside my house gave us many pears this year.  They were delicious!  We enjoyed them in smoothies and in salads and on their own.  They were green and light brown with some spots, and were mostly pear shaped.  They tasted crisp, sweet and juicy; as of today, they are all off the tree now.  We waited for each pear to fall on its own and then we picked them off the ground.  There are two left in my kitchen. 

I have been taking a class this week about Ecologist Aldo Leopold.  This evening the class went out into the woods to do a lesson in the Aldo Leopold style.  We sat and listened to the night.  We started out and read his essay, Choral Copse, and then just sat in silence and took in the night.  We all talked about what we heard tonight.  The sounds are so very different at night in September then the sounds of summer.  Tonight, the sounds of insects filled the air.  We also heard owls and crows and acorns falling on the ground.  Take a moment yourself and go outside and listen.  Really listen.  What do you hear? 

Rebecca

Quaking Aspen - Populus tremuloides

Populus tremuloides - Quaking Aspen

The Quaking Aspen Tree

The Quaking Aspen Tree

This Quaking Aspen tree lives at the Botanical Gardens Of Asheville. 

Rebecca

The Coconut Palm - Cocos nucifera

Coconut Palm



The Coconut Palm Tree.  Photo by Robert Priddy

This amazing Coconut Palm tree lives in Curacao.

Rebecca

Crape Myrtle - Lagerstroemia

The Crape Myrtle

The Crape Myrtle in the Summer

Rebecca

Slash Pine - Pinus elliottii

 Slash Pine

Photography by Robert Priddy.  

What a beautiful tree the Slash Pine is.  You can find this tree on the coast in South Carolina and Georga.  You can also find this tree in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. This tree has large flattened scaly plates. 7-10 inch needles, 2 to 3 in a bundle. The tree can grow up to 100 feet tall.

Slash Pine - Photography by Robert Priddy. 

The Pine Rocklands.  Photo by Robert Priddy

The Slash Pine is the tall and haunting Pine of the Pine Rocklands of South Florida. South Florida’s pine rockland habitat is said to be one of the most endangered habitats in the world. A Pine rockland has an open canopy of slash pine.
Peace,

Rebecca

The Apple tree and a poem

Apple Tree

“There is a pleasure in

the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the

lonely shore,

There is society, where

none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and

music in its roar:

I love not man the less,

but Nature more.”

-Lord Byron

Rebecca