An Incident on the Lake

Since discovering my patch of Bayberry, I've become quite fond of those little ones. I check in each week, monitoring their evergreen status and picking a few more berries. Upon Sunday's visit, the hillside just didn't look right. As a surreal cloudiness gave way, I realized that the whole area had undergone a heavy trimming. Plants were ripped into nothingness. At least one of my treasured Bayberries was gone, only a shredded stump remaining.

Since then, I keep flashing back to the scene. I try to rationalize the actions of those keeping the land clear. It is town property, and posted. The land is in use to support a water filtration plant. I used to clear roadsides years ago as part of my groundskeeper duties.

Ah well, I've calmed down some now after revisiting the scene. I noticed young growth sprouting from earlier cut stumps. Also, little startups surround the remaining bushes as the roots have the ability to push up new growth.

Here are the survivors.



I brought home a few cuttings, trimmed the stems nicely at an angle with a razor blade and dipped them in rooting gel, and then set them into rockwool cubes. While awaiting results, I'll be researching seed propagation.



Tomorrow's post will be a break from my planned green series. This afternoon a raptor posed so patiently as I tried to make do with my macro lens.

Bits and Pieces

Today's is a bunch of little things I've run across lately. First up is Winged Sumac--it has some of the most intense colors of the fall foilage.

Oriental Bittersweet is so heavy with fruit.

This Southern Bayberry is supposed to be evergreen and it's holding so far. Some other species do drop their leaves. This is one of the bushes I want to take cuttings from.

And lastly, here's Buttonbush, first ID'd in the winter when it looked like these. There's a real nice pleasure in coming around full cycle with my local species.

Southern Bayberry

Sometimes I struggle with an ID. Conflicting properties... My own wish for it to be what it "should be"... Southern Bayberry, aka Wax-myrtle, Myrica cerifera, is most often found only as far north as New Jersey, although there are reports from Rhode Island and Southern Massachuestts.

Golden resin dots on leaf undersides are common to all Myrica species.

Resin dots on the leaf's topside are specific to M. cerifera. I found this piece of information consistent across my library. I needed to be sure because it became the crux of my ID. I really wanted this species to be M. pennsylvanica, one truly local to my area.

A couple of snips from Wikipedia:

"Myrica cerifera finds use in gardening and horticulture. It has been commonly purported to grow in American hardiness zones of 11 to 7b. However, this is an old, conservative estimate; in recent years, plants have performed well along the east coast as far north as zone 6b in northern Rhode Island. M. pensylvanica substitutes for M. cerifera in areas colder than zone 6."

"Southern Bayberry's fruits are a traditional source of the wax for those old-fashioned Christmas decorations called bayberry candles. The wax was extracted by boiling the berries, and skimming off the floating hydrocarbons. The fats were then boiled again and then strained. After that the liquid was usable in candle making, whether through dipping or molding."

"Myrica cerifera." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 29 Sep 2009, 21:46 UTC. 7 Oct 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Myrica_cerifera&oldid=316968037>.