DOGWOOD BERRIES, AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREES, AND PLEADING THE FIFTH

FRUITS OF RED OSIER DOGWOOD

AMERICAN CHESTNUT...

...AMERICAN CHESTNUT LEAF

Friday, 9:00 AM.  43 degrees F, wind calm. The sky is overcast, with dark storm clouds on the southern horizon.  We had a trace of rain again last night and things are wet.  The humidity is 86% and the barometer is still trending down, at 29.48".  This is getting to be like Ohio, where we hardly saw the   sun all winter.
   The white berries of red osier, or red-twig dogwood, Cornus stolonifera, are quite prominent now, but will soon be gone.  They are quite pretty but very bitter tasting.  Some medicinal uses were made of the bark by Native Americans, and the berries were sometimes used in making pemican. But I'm not eatin' 'em.
   The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, on the corner of 10th and Wilson Ave. has turned a wonderful soft, yellow-green.  The long, narrow, sharply toothed yellow leaves have a very distinctive green midrib a present.
   I have written extensively about both plants in prior blogs and I refer you to them for more information.
   Another federal employee pleaded the Fifth Amendment before congress yesterday, denying to answer almost every questioned he was asked.  I wonder when one of these sordid characters will plead the Fifth when asked to state their name.