OLD MAN WINTER, AND THE SPINDLE TREE

A EUROPEAN SPINDLE TREE IN BAYFIELD'S FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK

RED BERRIES EMERGING FROM THEIR PINK COVERINGS

Friday,  32 degrees F, wind NNE, moderate to blustery.  The sky is mostly cloudy, and Old Man Winter knocked on our door last night and left his calling card; a dusting of snow on rooftops and lawns.  The humidity is 69% and the barometer is rising, now at 30.54".
   Every fall a small, otherwise nondescript tree, about the size of a flowering crab apple tree, becomes a pinkish-red focal point in Bayfield's Fountain Garden Park. Adorned with unusual berries about the size of a pea, which emerge from a pink covering, it is a beautiful sight, providing a splash of color even after most of the park's colored leaves have fallen.
  The European spindle tree, Euonymus europeaus,in the family Celastraceae, has long been planted as an ornamental in North America and sometimes escapes from cultivation and is reported to be invasive in some regions, but I personally have not encountered it in the wild.  In Europe and western Asia it is a woods-edge tree, usually growing on poor, rocky or calcareous soils.  The common name refers to its extremely hard wood, that was used in the past to make the spindles on spinning wheels.  It is an uncommonly pretty sight when in fruit, but it should be noted that the berries are poisonous, although they are so bitter as to be unlikely to be eaten.   In European herbal medicine an extract of the root is used as a liver stimulant.
   The common burning bush, Euonymus alata, with its prominent, blood-red fall leaf color, is an Asian relative of the spindle tree. The winged wahoo, Eunonymus americanus, which is native to eastern North America, is also in the same genus.
   European spindle tree is one of those single-emphasis plants that one may wish to have as a focal point or oddity, but it has little else to offer than its fall splash of color.

WILLOW TREES AND ASPIRIN

CRACK WILLOWS ALONG SOUTH NINTH STREET IN BAYFIELD

Thursday, 9:00 AM,  39 degrees F, wind SW, calm to light,  The sky is overcast and the humidity is 84%.  The barometer is rising rapidly, now at 30.08".  Tomorrow should be a nicer day.
   Rain, strong winds and more rain have stripped many of the trees of their leaves, but willow leaves have mostly hung on, and many trees remain quite colorful.  The willows, in the willow family, the Salicaceae, are a confusing lot, botanically.  The trees pictured in their fall coloration are likely crack willows, S. fragilis, although that species can be easily confused with black willow, S. nigra.  These are large, weak-wooded trees with large trunks and branches that bend and break off and sprout again, forming large "islands" of willow trees.
   The willows historically have had many uses; the young branches for weaving baskets and fences, and the leaves and inner bark yield salicilates, the basic ingredient in aspirin (which was originally developed from willow bark), and willows have long been important in American Indian, Asian,  European and other folk medicine treatments for arthritic complaints, headache, and fever.
   People allergic to aspirin should not use willow bark extracts. Children under the age of sixteen should not use willow extract nor aspirin, due to the possibility of contracting Reyes syndrome, a rare but dangerous complication of a high fever that is exacerbated by salicilates.
   Willow wood burns well when dry, but yields little heat.

LIVING IN JURASSIC PARK

YOUNG GINKGO TREE IN BAYFIELD'S FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK

THREE TO FIVE LEAVES IN A CLUSTER

BI-LOBED LEAF

Wednesday, 38 degrees F, wind S, light with light gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy, the humidity 86% after .2" of rain falling last night.  The barometer is rising, now at 30.04", and it should dry out and eventually be a nice day.
   The Ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is one of the most unusual of all trees, in that it is truly a "living fossil," a tree living today being little changed from those found as fossils in geologic formations dating back over 200 million years, during the Jurassic Period of the dinosaurs.  It is placed in the Class Gymnospermae, the class to which conifers, in the Order Coniferae, belong, and probably predates them.  This tree is, evolutionarily, only a step above the ferns.  It is the only species in its own genus, and the only genus in its own order, the Order Ginkgoales.
   And yet there it is, growing in the park down the street, and in parks and on streets in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and many other cities around the world.  How did this all come to pass?  I will refer you to a recent book by Peter Crane,  Harvard University botanist; also to the Kew Gardens web site.  But to summarize, this tree has been grown in China for thousands of years, and from thence to Japan.  It was introduced to Europe in the early to mid 1700's and from there to North America.  There are no known wild populations of this tree, it only survives in cultivation, and Ginkgo is its ancient Chinese name.
   The Ginkgo is a very tough tree, host to no, or at least very few, insects or diseases, and withstands city conditions extremely well.  It can grow to 80' or more, but is very slow growing, one of its drawbacks to horticultural use.  The other drawback is that the female (the species has separate male and female trees) bears seeds that are surrounded by a pulp (not technically a fruit) that smells terrible when it is ripe.  The seeds are, however, edible and greatly sought after in the Orient. The tree in our park is, and most other Ginkgo trees one might encounter will be, a male tree, produced asexually by graft or cutting, and will not produce seed.  Thus no smell, but neither any edible seeds.
   Ginkgo has a host of herbal uses, in the Orient and the West as well.  In Western herbalism, extracts of  the leaves are used to treat Alzheimer's,  dementia, memory loss and other conditions related to restricted blood flow to the brain.
   There are a number of cultivars of the male Ginkgo, most relating to the shape of the tree.  One fastigiate variety, 'Sentinel', is very narrow and spire-like, and has a spectacular yellow-gold fall color.  Ginkgo trees are hard to come by because they grow so slowly, so if you are fortunate enough to come across one at a nursery, buy it and find a place for it.  You will be living in Jurassic Park, minus Tyrannosaurus Rex.

VIRGINIA CREEPER AND POLITICIANS

VIRGINIA CREEPER,...COMPOUND LEAF WITH  FIVE LEAFLETS...

...A VINE THAT CLIMBS BY TENDRILS

...DRAPED OVER A WHITE PINE

...COVERING SUMAC BUSHES

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  45 degrees F, wind WSW, calm with occasional gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy and dark, with some high overcast. The humidity is 87% and the barometer has bottomed out and remains steady, at 29.60".
   Virginia creeper, also known as wood bine,  has been an especially noticeable stalwart this year, covering trees and shrubs with its graceful drapery. It can be weedy, so keep it out of the garden. It is among the first plants to turn color in the fall and has dominated the landscape in many places.  It climbs by modified branchlets called tendrils, as do grapes, and is in the grape family, the Vitaceae.

    There are at least two species of Virginia creeper hereabouts, Parthenocissus quinquifolia and P. inserta. They add interest to tree trunks, rocks and other plants as they climb about, the former by little suction discs on the tendrils, the latter by twining tendrils alone. They are closely related to the cultivated Boston ivy, which is a horticultural derivation of a third species, P. vitaceae.  As far as my abilities will take me, I believe the prevalent species in the Bayfield area and the one pictured is P. quinquifolia, but the reference books themselves seem rather confused about the three (or maybe only two) species, so I don't feel too badly about it.  I am going to keep working on it, but I am inclined to consider the plant pictured being a hybrid (how's that for spin;  I should run for office).

  Virginia creeper has rather insignificant flowers but bears clusters of attractive, blue-black fruit.  Native Americans had a number of medicinal and ceremonial uses for  the fruit and other parts of the plant and there is some reference to using the berries  for food, but I also see references to the berries being poisonous, so take your pick.  

   Folks sometimes mistake Virginia creeper for poison ivy, since they are both vines, and both turn crimson in the autumn, but the former has five leaflets, and the latter three.  Too bad we don't have such a straightforward process for identifying politicians.

    

WINTERGREEN

BRONZED TAMARACK NEEDLES  BRIGHTEN A GRAY MORNING 

AROMATIC, EVERGREEN, WINTERGREEN LEAVES

FRAGRANT, TASTY BERRIES

Monday, 8:30 AM.  46 degrees F, wind variable,  light.  The sky is partly cloudy, and the morning is gray and subdued. The humidity is 79%, the barometer is down to 29.63" and will probably be steady throughout the day, as a low pressure system moves slowly in from the west, bringing with it a strong probability of rain.
   Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, in the heath family (Ericaceae) is an aromatic, evergreen sub-shrub native to mid-eastern Canada, the Lake States, New England, and south  at elevation in the Appalachian Mountains.
   The genus is named for the Eighteenth-Century Canadian royal physician and naturalist Jean-Francis Gaultier, and as the species name implies, creeps flat along the ground.  It is a familiar woodland plant of Northern Wisconsin.  It is also called teaberry, and the leaves and berries were used by Indians and settlers alike as a tonic and tea.  The crushed laves, which have aspirin-like qualities, have long been used by both cultures as an anti-arthrytic liniment.  I often chew the leaves and eat the pleasant-tasting berries, but ingested  in large amounts they may be poisonous. The plants are also food for deer and grouse.

THE WILD WEST WIND

THE PRETTY LEAVES ARE GONE, BUT OUR  FULL LAKE VIEW IS BACK...

...AS IS THE VIEW FROM THE GOLF COURSE ROAD

HIGHLAND VALLEY FARM BLUEBERRY BUSHES  

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  45 degrees F at the ferry dock, 40 on the back porch.  Wind WNW, mostly calm, with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity is up, at 86%.  The barometer is beginning to trend down, now at 29.98," as weather moves in which will likely give us some rain tomorrow.
   Yesterday morning's high winds pretty much spelled the end of the "leaf peeping" season, stripping most of the leaves from maple, birch and poplar trees.  But the wind gave as much as it took away, revealing broader views of the lake from the back porch and other vistas, and providing a subdued backdrop for the stunning color of the blueberry bushes at Highland Valley Farm.
   It is indeed an ill wind that blows nobody some good.

Ode to the West Wind

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
(First Stanza)

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

RED OSIER DOGWOOD AND AMERICAN LINDEN

RED OSIER DOGWOOD SHRUBS HAVE GREAT FALL COLOR 

AMERICAN LINDEN CAN  MAKE A FINE STREET TREE

Saturday,  9:00 AM.  56 degrees F, wind WSW a steady blow with very strong gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity low, at 58%.  The barometer is rising, now at 29.84".  It is a beautiful fall day, but not one to be on the lake or in the woods.
   Red osier dogwood, AKA red-twigged dogwood, Cornus stolonifera, in the dogwood family, is a common and familiar shrub of roadside ditches, wet areas and woods edges, native to much of North America.  It is a plant that has visual interest in every season, with clusters of white flowers followed by white to lead-colored berries. The deep red color of its young twigs provides great contrast with winter snow, and its fall leaf color is beautiful,  and particularly so this year.  It is a fine plant for naturalizing but spreads by root suckers, so it can be quite aggressive and must be used carefully in the smaller landscape.  The young twig growth is the most colorful, so it should be pruned back every year to enhance that esthetic characteristic.
   Many native trees are often overlooked as street trees and should be used more.  American linden, also known as basswood, Tilia americana, in the linden family, makes a good street tree if planted in the right location and kept properly pruned.  Native to the mixed deciduous forests of much of eastern North America, it has a fine fall color that is a bit later to develop than maples.  It has a very regular, pyramidal shape when young but becomes a tall, wide-spreading tree in maturity.  It has some minor drawbacks; its very fragrant flowers develop hard little winged nutlets, which can be annoying, and the lower branches have a tendency to droop, requiring pruning for street and sidewalk clearance when the tree is young.  But overall it is a fine shade tree that has relatively few insect and disease problems.

AUTUMN
Julie L. O'Connor,Published: Mar 2013

Autumn

There's a crispness in the air that greets the morning sun, a feeling of anticipation, a new day has begun.
Harvest days are ending, winter is drawing near, yet in between is surely the most special time of year.
They call it Indian Summer, and it seems to fit the bill, for it's as if the Lord took a feathered brush and painted all the hills.

Now as I sit contented, atop of one of these, a book in hand to pass the time, the sound of a gentle breeze,
I can almost imagine an Indian child upon this mountaintop, looking down at the land of her forefathers, lost within her thoughts
For in every persons lifetime some heartache may occur, but on these hills in quiet solitude, God helps us to endure.

So I say that the eyes are a window, beauty is found within the soul, and upon the hills of Autumn, that are strewn with red and gold

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/autumn-indian-summer#ixzz3HG5EkuCi
Family Friend Poems 

NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO IDENTIFY THE INVASIVE COMMON BUCKTHORN

COMMON BUCKTHORN: OPPOSITE, GLOSSY GREEN LEAVES AND THORN-LIKE TERMINAL BRANCHES...

CLUSTERS OF BACK, CHERRY-LIKE BERRIES...

...CONTAINING TWO-OR THREE STONEY SEEDS TAHT ARE FLAT ON ONE SIDE

MULBERRY LEAVES, STILL GREEN...

...ALSO COMMON LILAC

Friday, 9:00 AM.  50 degrees F, up from 42 earlier.  Dawn was soft and foggy.  Wind SSW, with light gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy, the humidity is 92% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.89".

   If a tree or  shrub is still green in the far north, it is probably an alien invasive species, or a species from Europe or much further south in North America (however, many woody plants from northern Asia  have colored fall leaves).
   This is a good time to locate and identify the very invasive common buck thorn, Rhamnus cathartica, a large, vigorous shrub, sometimes treelike, that has mostly opposite leaves and branches and glossy, dark green leaves. The bark on older trunks is glossy and dotted with lenticels, and thus looks much like that of cherry or young birch. At this time of the year buckthorn bears bunches of shiny black berries the size of wild cherries.  Each berry contains two or three small, nut-like seeds that are flat on one side.  The species name refers to the bitter tasting berries causing nausea and worse if ingested.  So, now is a good time to eliminate this invasive pest by cutting it down or pulling it up, but strip the berries from the branches and put them in the garbage or they will simply spread wherever the plant is disposed of.   The same will happen if the wood is run through a chipper without properly disposing of the berries and the chips subsequently used as mulch. Cut stumps are best treated with an herbicide to kill the roots.
   Common Lilacs stand out now in the landscape because they are still green, as do mulberry trees, the white mulberry Morus alba, being of Asian origin,  and Morus rubra being native further south in North America.  It should be noted that  green leaves late in the fall does not necessarily mean  a woody plant is unhardy.
 

THE TRUE CHINESE ELM

TRUE CHINESE, OR LACEBARK ELM (NOTE MULTI-COLORED, FLAKNG BARK)

SMALL, HANDSOME LEAMES

SUNSET IN THE ORCHARD COUNTRY
( APPLE TREES IN THE FOREGROUND, RED OAKS IN THE BACKGROUND)

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  48 degrees F, wind SW, calm with stronger gusts.  The sky is overcast with considerable fog, and it is raining.  The humidity is 93% and we have gotten about .10" of rain since early morning.  The barometer is still trending down, now at 29.99" of mercury.
   We often eat a fast-food lunch in one of several fine lakefront parks when we are in Ashland, and I enjoy looking at their city trees.
   Ashland has a quite diverse street and park tree inventory, and I have come across some unusual trees, particularly for this far north.  Several days ago I spotted this true Chinese elm, also known as lacebark elm, Ulmus parvifolia, which should not be (but often is) confused with the Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila.  The former is a rather handsome small to medium sized tree with small, dark green leaves, a nice fall color and highly decorative exfoliating bark.  The later is a weedy, weak, fast-growing but drought resistant tree much subject to wind and winter damage.  Both are non-native, Asian species and subject to infection by Dutch elm disease, although the lacebark is highly resistant.
   U. parvifolia is hardy to zone five and can make a nice smaller park and street tree.  It is worth considering, particularly where urban tree diversity is under stress from insect and disease problems.  As I have stated before, urban conditions are extremely hostile to trees, and relying only on native species drastically reduces the species diversity necessary to maintain a healthy and beautiful street and park tree inventory.

TAMARACKS, AND WINDOWS IN TREES

TAMARACK IN THE BACK YARD NOW TURNING GOLDEN YELLOW

YELLOW LEAVES OF RIVER BIRCH AND BRONZE LEAVES OF RED OAK AS VIEWED THROUGH A "WINDOW" IN A BIG WHITE PINE 

Wednesday,  9:00 AM.  42 degrees F at the ferry dock.  It was 34 degrees on the back porch at dawn, and we saw frost on the grass in low spots, and frost on roofs, this morning.  Wind SW, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 86%.  The barometer stands at 30.30" and is starting to trend downward.  Rain is predicted for tonight and into tomorrow morning.
   The tamaracks, Larix laricina,  in the yard began to turn three days ago, and their needles  are now almost golden yellow.  They will slowly turn to bronze and then fall. The native tamarack is a tree of the very far north and the upper Midwest in North America. Their preferred habitats are swamps and bogs but they grow in nature on much drier sites as well.  The wood is very strong and was commonly used for ship and barn timbers. These are magnificent trees but almost too large for our yard.  We will keep them as long as we can.  Tamaracks bear cones, and the new red-purple cones look exactly like tiny roses; I look for them every spring, but this year saw none.  Perhaps too rough a winter, although they should not have been affected by cold alone.
  Our back porch has a nice view of the lake and Madeline Island that tends to become somewhat obscured by tall trees.  I used to become annoyed by this until I came to the realization that trees not only grow up, they also die, and blow  down, and this has happened enough in the fifteen years we have lived here that I no longer worry much about it. Several years ago we pruned large branches of a big white pine to reclaim some lake view through a "window."  It worked for a while but trees beyond the pine tree continued to grow.  Now we have a spectacular fall view of colored leaves that I wouldn't trade for more water.

RED OAK LEAVES ARE BRONZE THIS FALL

BRONZE RED OAK LEAVES...

..DITTO...

...DITTO...

Tuesday, 9:00 AM.  50 degrees F, wind N with strong gusts.  the sky is overcast, the humidity is 81% and the barometer is steady, at 29.92".  It is not a cold morning but the east wind has the breath of winter about it.
   This has been a beautiful fall, but with some unusual colors; viz., most of the red oak, Quercus rubra, leaves have turned bronze or brown, rather than the usual red or deep purple.  I could theorize that the long, wet, relatively warm fall, still without a frost, is the reason; but if so, why are so many other tree and shrub species their usual fall color?  Some of the sapling oaks do have red leaves, but virtually none of the large oak trees do.  Maybe some of the trees will fool me and yet turn from bronze to red, but I really doubt that.

HAZELNUT AND CHESTNUT FALL COLOR

FALL COLOR OF BEAKED HAZELNUT 

FALL COLOR OF AMERICAN CHESTNUT

Monday, 8:45 AM.  50 degrees F, wind N, calm with occasional gusts.  The sky is cloudy and overcast.  The humidity is 81% and the barometer is on the rise, currently at 29.92".  Yesterday morning was rather dismal but it was sunny by afternoon, and I suspect the same will occur today.
   Millions of leaves may be on the ground, but there is still plenty of beautiful and even unusual tree and shrub fall color to be seen in and around Bayfield.
   We have two native hazelnut species in Wisconsin and the Bayfield region, both quite similar except for their  fruits.  Pictured above is the beaked hazelnut, Corylus cornuta.  The other is the American hazelnut, Corylus americana. Both are very valuable to wildlife, and in Canada and Europe are raised commercially for human consumption. There are ongoing attempts to produce hazelnuts commercially in the United States.  Both species have great potential as wildlife and natural landscaping plants.
   As I have written before, the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, virtually extinct in most of its natural range in North America, is present here and there in Bayfield.  It has a very nice fall leaf color, which along with the arrangement of the leaves on the branches, makes them stand out visually  in the landscape.
   I have written quite extensively about both these plants.  Use the blog search engine to read more about them.  I think we have weeks of interesting fall color left.  The tamarack are a just beginning to turn hereabouts and will soon be like burnished gold.

FALLEN SUNSHINE

LEAVES ARE FALLEN SUNSHINE...

... AS PRETTY ON THE GROUND AS ON THE TREE

A SOFT FALL EVENING

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  41 degrees F at the ferry dock, 33 on the back porch at dawn.  Wind SW, mostly calm with a few light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy.  The humidity is 82% and the barometer is headed down, currently at 29.93".  It appears we have a strong low pushing in from the SW, but it evidently carries little moisture.
   Leaves are falling fast now, and  one's mood becomes more reflective as the riot of fall colors becomes increasingly subdued.

November Night

BY ADELAIDE CRAPSEY

Listen. .

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

WASHINGTON THORN FALL COLOR AND FRUIT

WAWHINGTON HAWTHORN

SMALL, APPLE-LIKE FRUIT, CALLED "HAWS"

Saturday, 8:45 AM.  39 degrees F, wind N, mostly calm with light gusts. The sky is cloudy, the humidity 87% after a trace or more of rain last night.  The barometer has been steady but is beginning to trend down, now at 30.25".  It looks like it will be a cool, cloudy, damp, unsettled day.
   With the season's colored leaves falling even as I write, some mention should be made of those trees that hang onto their  leaves 'till the last. Cxrataegus phanopyrum,  'the Washington thorn, is such a plant.  At this point the hawthorns still have their leaves, and many also have an abundance of red, very decorative apple-like fruits. The hawthorns typically bear clusters of small white flowers in the spring, that have a very distinctive aroma. The hawthorn "haws" are not really edible, being very mealy and mostly tasteless.  They are valuable wildlife food, however, and the dense branching and thorns provide great cover for small birds.  Hawthorn berries have long been used in herbal medicine as a heart tonic.  I have used hawthorn berries for many years.
   Most hawthorns are dangerously thorny, and the Washington thorn also has numerous but relatively  small thorns.

EVOLUTION AND FALL LEAF COLOR

THE WOODS ON SOUTH NINTH STREET

SUGAR MAPLES ON TENTH AND WILSON AVENUE

LAKE BLUFF OVERLOOKING THE ONION RIVER

MADELINE ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE BACK PORCH

Friday, 8:30 AM.  46 degrees F, wind NE, calm with occasional gusts.  The sky is overcast and there is fog over the Islands.  We got a quarter of an inch of rain early this morning and everything is still wet.  A lot of leaves came down last night, and any serious wind or heavy rain will bring down most of the rest.
   Whether in the woods, in the front yard or on the city streets, the fall leaf colors are still the best right now that I have seen in years, perhaps ever.  But each year has its own fall color personality.  Sometimes reds dominate, sometimes, as this year, golds and yellows.  Some years a particular tree will have one color shade or other characteristic, sometimes something else.  There are so many variables of temperature, moisture, day length and sunlight that the final outcome is impossible to predict.
   And yet the main actors in the show, the trees, don't seem to care at all.  They are as healthy with one shade of leaf color as another, or with none but brown.  Its fall beauty is of no discernible advantage to the tree, except perhaps for causing a person to plant a favorite.  So what evolutionary purpose does all this visual variation serve?  Perhaps I have found the answer, in my own doggerel:

THE EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE OF COLORED LEAVES
                                                       by
                                                  Art Ode

Trained in the methods of science

I always try to deduce

What purpose nature advances

In all that she doth produce

But for each methodology

And all my biology

I see no good in fall colors

Save the pleasure they give unto others

RED MAPLE, PAPER BIRCH AND COLORADO SPRUCE IN THE FRONT YARD

MOUNTAIN MAPLE LEAVES LIGHT UP THE AUTUMN WOODS LIKE A LANTERN ON A FOGGY MORNING

FOGGY MORNING

MOUNTAIN MAPLE LEAF...

...SHINNING LIKE A LANTERN IN THE AUTUMN WOODS...

...BUT IT WAS A SUNNY MORNING YESTERDAY

Thursday, 7:30 am.  42 degrees at the ferry dock, 38 on the back porch.  A heavy fog has crept up the bluff from the lake.  The humidity is 96% and the barometer is heading down, now at 29.86".
   The mountain maple, Acer spicatum, is a shrubby to small tree native to cool woods of eastern Canada and the northern Midwest.  It has a three-lobed leaf somewhat similar to that of a red maple.  It's species name refers to the showy,  upright spikes of small yellow flowers which it bears in the spring, which are followed by typical maple winged nutlets that are red or yellow in color.  But its main appeal is its pumpkin-orange fall leaves, which light up the autumn woods like a lantern.
   I don't see many mountain maples in our Bayfield area woods, but it is reportedly a large portion of the woods understory in Upper Peninsula Michigan.  I don't see it offered by nurseries, which is a shame, as it would be a fine plant for naturalizing.  

AN INKY CAP MUSHROOM AND A GLASS OF WINE

INKY CAP, AKA SHAGGY MANE, MUSHROOM

INKY LIQUID CONTAINING THE MUSHROOM'S SPORES

TRY GETTING THE INK OFF YOUR FINGERS

Wednesday,  9:00 AM.  51 degrees F at the ferry dock, 47 on the back porch.  Wind NE, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is crystal clear, the waning moon still faintly visible in the west.  The humidity is 77%, and the barometer is rising, now at 30.04".  It is a wonderful fall day, crisp, clear and blessed with nature's glorious colors.
   For as wet as it has been this fall, there have not been many mushrooms along the Bafield roadsides.  A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a large and quite beautiful Amanita but there have been few of them or other mushrooms.  I have seen a few inky cap, also called shaggy mane, mushrooms.  I am no mushroom expert, but I think I can safely identify the one pictured as Coprinus comatus, a gill mushroom.
   Both common names are quite descriptive of the mushroom, the "inky cap" being I think the most telling, for as the mushroom ages enough for the cap to expand and expose the gills underneath it self-destructructs, becoming a black, inky mass of spores. It is said to "deliquesce," a word I have loved since Chemistry 1a,  but can never manage to get into a sentence about anything.
  This mushroom is reportedly edible and delicious, but one would have to cook and eat it shortly after picking it, as it deteriorates very fast.  Also, it is one of the mushrooms that can interact quite unpleasantly with alcohol, and I am not about to give up my glass or two of wine with dinner to enjoy it.  In China this mushroom is raised commercially.  Maybe it goes better with tea.
   In any case, it is a beautiful and rather mysterious living thing.  One could write a poem about it with its own ink.  Shelly wrote a poem, purportedly about this mushroom, but I didn't understand it well enough or like it enough to present it here.
    I suppose I could eat an inky cap, have a glass of wine, and read the poem again and see if I got anything more out of it.