JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL...SURPRISE!

 WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?...

...A MOUNTAIN ASH TREE, GROWING OUT OF THE STUMP OF A HUGE DEAD LOMBARDY POPLAR TREE

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  55 degrees F at the ferry dock, 49 on the back porch.  The wind is variable and calm, the humidity 82%.  The barometer is taking a nosedive from its high of 30.14".  It should be another nice but unseasonably cool day.

   In nature, when you think you've seen it all, you're usually in for a new surprise!  Washburn used to claim the state-record Lombardy poplar tree (Populus nigra var. Italica).  That tree is now a huge stump, perhaps fifteen feet high, that evidently was too big in diameter for someone's chain saw.  A few years ago a mountain ash seed took root in a pocket of earth in the crotch of the major branches of the deceased tree, and it has continued to grow there, sending its developing roots into the decaying tree trunk.  That sapling is now a tree old enough to bear fruit, itself perhaps fifteen feet tall.  

   I have seen seedling trees growing on a fallen log, but never anything like this.  The mountain ash (Sorbus sp.) seems perfectly healthy and stable at present.  It will be interesting to see how many years this odd partnership can be sustained (assuming someone doesn't take the whole strange assembly down).