THE OHIO BUCKEYE, AND THE FANCIES OF FOOLS

OHIO BUCKEYE...

...RIPENING BUCKEYES...

...PALMATELY COMPOUND LEAF

Friday,  8:00 AM.  59 degrees F, wind variable, light.  It has been raining and it was a damp walk with Buddy this morning.  The humidity is 95% and the barometer is more or less steady at 29.72".  We had a heavy rainstorm yesterday afternoon, and today looks like another washout.  I would like to get back out into the woods,  but won't add getting stuck to my misadventures.

   Yesterday's rain didn't deter dozens of birds from siting in the mountain ash tree and dining on its berries, which must be at their culinary peak.  A whole flock of cedar waxwings hung on during the height of the rainstorm, and were joined by robins, flickers and even a little female hummingbird, who I fear may have missed the migration.  I felt a pang of genuine sorrow for the little creature, as it must be a terrible fate to be abandoned by one's flock.

   The Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra, in the horsechestnut family, the Hippocastanaceae, makes a surprisingly nice ornamental street tree.  It bears attractive yellowish flowers in late spring(see the 6/15/13 blog for photos) and has interesting palmately compound, five-leaflet leaves.  The iconic buckeye fruits, famous as good luck charms and missiles for little boys, can be considered either a nuisance or a bonus, depending upon one's world view of such things.  In any case, this one, located on Manypenny Ave. between 4th and 5th streets,  is an interesting addition to the street tree inventory. 

   One of our most colorful late spring blooming street trees is the hybrid Fort McNair buckeye, with red flowers.  It bears no fruit.  I wrote about it when it was in flower last spring, use the blog search engine to read about it. The Ohio buckeye seems to be a somewhat more dependable tree and more vigorous than the hybrid.

   The recent flooding in Colorado has been disastrous.  Unfortunately it is mostly predictable, and therefore avoidable.  Building homes and even entire communities on the banks of mountain rivers or in their floodplains is simply irresponsible.  In the front range of the Rockies or in California or wherever, these flood prone canyons are also firetraps.  This poses the age-old question; is it better to perish by flood or by fire?  How about neither, by being sensible and not building in dangerous places?  

   Humans like to live "on the edge," it is clear; I have seen multi-million dollar residences hanging on the edge of the cliffs of the San Andrea's Fault, and others built on stilts out into the surging tides of the Atlantic Ocean.  I'm all for freedom of choice, but I am not for paying for the fancies of fools.