Tree of the Week

Green Ash, Frazinus pennsylvancia Marsh.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves once-pinnately compound, opposite, 10 to 12 inches long; leaflets 5 to 9 in number (usually 7), oblong-lanceolate or less commonly elliptic, 2 to 6 inches long, tapering at the base and extending along the upper side of their 1/16- to 3/16-inch-long stalks; margins conspicuously toothed; upper surface dark green and often glossy; lower surface light green, glabrous or nearly so (hairy in the form called red ash). Winter twigs moderate in diameter, gray, glabrous (finely hairy in the form called red ash); leaf scars small, half-round to nearly round, bundle scars numerous and very close together, forming a fine curved line. Buds globose to subglobose, brown, with 1 or 2 pairs of visible scales, the terminal 1/8 to 1/4 inch long. Flowers very small, dioecious, apetalous, appearing with or before leaves; staminate in short, compact panicles, pistillate in open panicles. Fruit a narrow, paddle-shaped samara 1 to 2 inches long that often persists in winter; wing extending along upper half of seed cavity. Bark ashy gray or gray-brown, furrowed, with narrow, interconnecting ridges enclosing diamond-shaped spaces.

SIMILAR TREES: White ash has relatively broad leaflets with entire or obscurely tooth margins and stalks about 1/4 inch long; the wing of its samara does not extend along the sides of the seed cavity. Black ash has 9 to 11 unstalked leaflets and its fruits have indistinct, flattened seed cavities.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native and planted throughout the state.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa (Third Edition), by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Gardening in October

Wednesday, October 11

Today the weather's so warm I shed my sweatshirt by noon and put on a short-sleeved shirt. Crisp nights, warm days, sunny skies, gentle breezes, turning leaves. The golden time, and the harvest continues as if it were high summer rather than midfall. Monday, more yellow pattypans. Enough on hand for Kate to stuff a couple that night with couscous, corn, onions, and peppers, and freeze a few for the winter. Also more Big Beef slicers, enough for me to make a tomato sauce for the pattypans to bake in, with basil, parsley, garlic, and chili powder. A Mexican sort of concoction that Kate invented during a family reunion back in August -- so rich and tasty now with the whole wheat couscous, we both agreed it's ready for a recipe contest. More slicers on the back porch, and more turning ripe on the vines. And more zucchini to go with the batch already in the crisper, enough for two or three dinners.

Carl H. Klaus, My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season

Habitat of the Month

Pacific Rainforest
Common Raven

The Pacific rainforest is properly named—it is one of the rainiest places in the United States. Majestic fir, cedar, hemlock, and spruce trees grow in the rainforest. These evergreen trees keep their green needles all year long and make cones for seeds. Not much sunshine gets through the thick forest top, but thousands of plants and animals that like moist shade and mild weather flourish here.

Within the sound of ocean waves, the common raven lives in the lush green rainforest. You can easily observe these large birds with their strong powerful legs and wedge-shaped tails. Both male and female ravens have glossy black bodies and shaggy throat feathers. They are omnivorous, which means they eat both plants and animals.

Ravens are social birds that use many different calls to communicate with each other.

They build deep, bowl-shaped nests high in the tall evergreens. The nests are lined with animal fur to keep their eggs and chicks warm.

Once, rainforests covered wide areas of the Pacific Northwest, but much of the original rainforest has been cut down and logged. Little is left outside protected parks. You can explore the habitat that havens call home all year round when you visit these rainforest parks.

Where Do Birds Live? by Claudia McGehee

Tree of the Week

Boxelder, Acer negundo L.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves once-pinnately compound, opposite; leaflets 3 to 9 in number (usually 3 or 5), ovate, sometimes shallowly lobed, 2 to 4 inches long, the margins entire or coarsely and shallowly toothed. Winter twigs moderate in diameter, green or purple, usually coated with a white waxy substance; leaf scars V-shaped with 3 bundle scars, opposing leaf scars joined at their ends and thus encircling the twigs, the junction prolonged upward into a short point on each side of the twig. Buds ovoid, densely white-hairy, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long with 2 or 4 visible scales. Flowers very small, greenish, dioecious, apetalous, appearing just before the leaves  in spring; staminate long-stalked in umbellike clusters; pistillate in racemes. Fruit a pair of samaras joined at the base; wings 1 to 2 inches long, drooping; samaras ripening in autumn, often remaining on the tree through winter. Bark gray or brown, furrowed with scaly ridges.

SIMILAR TREES: Ashes, the only other common trees with opposite, pinnately compound leaves, have 7 to 11 leaflets and single, paddle-shaped samaras. Easily distinguished from other maples and ashes in winter by its greenish or purple twigs, white-hairy buds, and upward-poiting leaf scar junctions.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native throughout the state, occasionally cultivated.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa (Third Edition), by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Gardening in October

Tuesday, October 3

On a crisp, clear morning like this, I sometimes wish I could stay home forever. Just sitting on the back steps, taking it all in. The grass spangled with yellow walnut leaves. The yard framed with golden walnut trees .A shaft of sunlight angling through the open branches, suffusing the air and a piece of the big vegetable bed with its luminous beam. Yellow and green, yellow and green. With a few spots of pale brown among the pin oak leaves, and several specks of purple and pink among the pear leaves, and a few hints of orange amid the maple. So striking a leafscape, a landscape, I was momentarily transfixed by it.

Carl H. Klaus, My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season

Butterfly of the Week

Silver-spotted Skipper

Epargyreus clarus (Cramer [1775])
Status: Common breeding resident
Flight: Multiple brooded, flying throughout the growing season. It is most often encountered from late May to mid July.
Distinguishing features: The Silver-spotted Skipper's large size, dark brown color, medial gold band on the upper and lower fore wing, and large silver band on the lower hind wing make it easy to identify. Wingspan: 4.5-5.5 cm.
Distribution and habitat: Map 5. Found throughout the state in a wide variety of wooded habitats. It was first reported in Iowa from Denison in Crawford County in 1869.
Natural history: The Silver-spotted Skipper is an extremely strong flyer. It is very pugnacious and will even dart at small birds. While Paul Opler and George Krizek (1984) report that its larvae consume a large variety of common woodland legumes, no favored host plants have been recorded in Iowa. It is likely that it eats a large variety of common woodland legumes, such as black locust, honey locust, hog peanut, and tick-trefoil.
Questions: Is the pugnacious behavior of perching adults toward flying intruders part of the courtship pattern pr a form of territoriality? What is the selective advantage of the large silvery-white spot on the vertical hind wing?

The Butterflies of Iowa, by Dennis W. Schlicht, John C. Downey, and Jeffrey C. Nekola

September Gardening Tip

Saturday, September 23

I could tell the freeze was coming for sure, when Pip and I were out walking at midnight, the sky clear, the stars bright, my breath condensing in front of me as he pulled his way around the block, energized by the cold and his purblind will.

Come morning, I jumped out of bed, expecting to find the lawn completely rimed with frost, a thick white coating on it, but instead found just a trace on scattered portions of the back yard. And a close-up check of the unprotected plants revealed they hadn't been nipped by it, not even the okra, native of Africa.

Carl H. Klaus, My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season