The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge.
We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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Late Summer 2020
Pacific Northwest
There’s a variety of trees in my backyard. One direction I enjoy looking is toward the north where three of our most common local conifers grow side by side. In the title picture, they are, left to right, Shore Pine, Douglas Fir and Grand Fir.
While they are all conifer evergreen trees, their cones are radically different.
Grand fir, being a true fir, has its cones way up on the highest branches, and they sit pointing upward. These cones never fall to the ground. The scales fall away from the core individually and disappear into the duff below. The only time I ever see its intact cones is when a whole branch comes down. Zoom photo of the top of this tree:
Update Sept 9: After a major daylong windstorm, the fir cones in the tree mostly disappeared, replaced with bare sticks: the core of the cone that scales had been attached to. But more visibly, the ground was littered with scales. Now I can get a closeup view of them. True fir species can be differentiated by the shape of the scales, as described and illustrated in this article: The Elusive Fir Cone Mystery. Here’s a picture of some of the scales:
Douglas fir is not a true fir. It bears many more cones than Grand fir, from the top to the bottom of the tree. Doug fir cones hang downward, with “mouse tails” at the ends of its scales. These cones fall in vast numbers every year.
Shore pine has its cones near the bottom of the tree. They are hard and prickly, and persist on the branches pretty much indefinitely, long after the scales open. Big windstorms will knock its somewhat brittle branches down.
Shore pine’s scientific name describes its appearance: Pinus contorta. Interestingly, this species has a taller, straighter version that grows east of the Cascades, called Lodgepole pine.
Windstorms will throw trees in winter in this area. These three have been growing together for the past 40-50 years I estimate, in shallow dry hardpan over bedrock. They are in the path of both north and south winds, which can gust up to 50mph, but haven’t fallen yet (knock on wood 😁). Perhaps their roots have intertwined and are stabilizing each other.
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Sunny and BLUE SKY today, first time in many days (I drafted this bucket before the smoke event). Calm wind again today. Temp in 50s currently.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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