Nature’s Promises

As we begin a new year we often make resolutions or promises for the coming year.  Nature makes promises as well and the evidence is all around us. When you are out on a walk all you need to do is look up at the branches of the trees surrounding you.

Nature makes a promise each year in the buds it produces along and at the tips of twigs located on the branches of trees. The buds can be quite varied in their shape, size and color depending on the type of tree they are growing on.  The buds all have one thing in common, though, and that is protection from cold winter temperatures and drying winds.  Each bud is surrounded by tightly packed weatherproof scales that protect the coming year’s leaves and prevent them from opening until spring temperatures begin to warm.

No need to wait until spring, though, to identify a tree by its’ leaves.  Buds not only protect in winter they also aid in tree identification.  Buds on a magnolia tree are large, pointed, plump and fuzzy covered with soft silver hairs (in photo above).  Hawthorn tree buds are short, blunt, reddish brown and knobby.  Oak trees have fat, pinkish-red brown buds that are blunt at the top and grow in small clusters near the ends of the branches.  Buds on beech trees are long, slender, and pointed at both ends.  There are color photo guides of winter tree buds readily available online.

Lasdon has many tree-lined paths and woodland trails. Why not learn to identify a few trees by their buds as you wait for nature to fulfill its promise of new, spring leaves.