TWO MORE HOLDOUTS

HYBRID AMERICAN` ELM

RED OAK

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  37 degrees F at the ferry dock, 34 on the back porch.  Wind WNW, mostly calm with light gusts.  The sky is again cloudy, the humidity 83%.  The barometer is beginning to rise, now at 29.78".  Highs today will be in the high 30's, and the wind will pick up. The rising barometer predicts clearing skies during the week, with much colder temperatures.  It looks like our early winter weather is settling in for the duration.
   Hurrah!  Daylight saving time is over!  We hate all this tampering with nature's rhythms!
   Most red oaks have either now lost their leaves or they are hanging dead and ugly on the tree, but this oak on Hwy 13 at the south entrance to town is glorious.
   Native elm trees, the young ones which have not yet succumbed to Dutch elm disease, have lost their yellow-bronze leaves, but this hybrid elm looks like it is mid-summer.  The still-green leaves betray it's hybrid parentage with another elm species from a warmer climate.
   Trees that retain their green leaves late into the fall may well be hardy, but usually developed genetically in a warmer ecosystem.  Most species that evolved in a cold climate have learned their lesson, and go dormant early.