SPRUCE BUDS AND FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL

COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE BUD SCALE...

...NEW NEEDLE GROWTH IS VERY FRAGILE

FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL IN BLOOM

Thursday,  8:00 AM.  57 degrees at the ferry dock, much cooler up here on the bluff where we catch more of the gusty NE wind off the lake.  The sky is covered with a high overcast.  The humidity is 53% and the barometer has started to decline, now at 30.14".  We will probably get some rain later in the day or this evening.
   The new needle growth of spruce trees is protected by a bud scale that loosens and eventually is shed as the young needles mature.  Just before, and for some time after, the shedding of the bud scales the new growth is very tender and can easily be broken off the branch it is attached to.  Spruce (pictured is Colorado blue spruce, Picea pungens , or P. glauca pungens) should be transplanted before the buds of the new needle growth enlarges and the bud sheath falls away.  They should not be moved or handled unnecessarily while the new needle growth is fragile, as the tree can be disfigured, and the mortality  rate of transplanted trees is higher as well.
   The false solomon's seal is blooming, the plants often forming a beautiful understory mat in and on the edges of our mixed conifer/deciduous woodlands.  This plant is a far northern species of Canada, New England and the upper Midwest.  Its prominent flowers are followed by yellow-orange spotted  berries about the size of a blueberry,  that eventually ripen to a mottled red.  The berries are said to have a pleasant acid taste, although I have never tried them (I will do so when they ripen and report back) they are not poisonous,  the bears eat them, and the plants have had a variety of folk medicine and Native American uses in the past, particularly for female problems.