January 07, 1962 - The Midwinter Landscape
Grey squirrel and pine cones
Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven
Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh
This Fall, you will remem-
ber, we had the pleasure of
having Mrs Meinke's fine ar-
ticle on Fall foliage. This
week she brings us the next
part in this miracle of Nature
the seed and winter survi-
val. Her unique style and
information can always be
counted on. It is the purpose
of this column to bring a var-
iety of writers in as many
fields of Natural History as
possible.
THE MIDWINTER LANDSCAPE
By Martha Meinke
Viewing the bare midwinter
landscape, we wonder how it can
be ever become green and flow-
' ering again. How fortunate that,
long before the ice age, nature
had .perfected ingenious devices
for developing, perpetuating and
spreading plant life, even under
adverse conditions and through
drastic changes in climate.
It all began with that wonder-
ful invention, the seed, in which
plant cells, together with concen-
trated food, can be sealed against
the weather in a tiny capsale to
develope under the right condi-
tions into a new plant.
From this beginning we get
our colorful diversity of grasses,
flowers, bushes and trees so ad-
apted to the seasonal changes of
this temperate zone that winter
is but a short annual pause in
their growth.
Pines, firs, spruce and hem-
locks are handsome hinglights in
the winter scene. Their seeds are
formed by pollen blown by the
wind into the open cones. Birds
and small animals find them
good food.
In forests where men harvest
the seeds to insure perpetuation
of the evergreens, woodsmen re-
port that ninety to ninety -five
percent are eaten by squirrels
and rodents. The group of naked
seed planted, gyranosperms, to
which the conifers belong, have
been only partially successful in
holding their own.
In the march of plant life on
our continent, conifers are ac-
tually on their way out. If man
didn't take steps to encourage
their growth, they .would gradu-
ally disappear.
The enclosing of seed in an
ovary was a great step forward.
Encased in fruit, nuts, capsules
and pods, they are dispersed in
many ways by wind, birds and
animals. They can defy time and
temperature.
In many cases, freezing im-
proves germination. Encased seed
plants, angiosperms, have
through the ages acquired such
adaptability and versatility that
there are species for every loca-
tion f -om the tundra of the ex-
treme :north to the rain forests
of the tropics. Hardwood forests
and wildflowers characterize the
temperate zone.
Now in January as we walk
the cold or snow covered ground,
P knnw that beneath our feet
iew
le sees quicken to n first life and g touch
of spring.
Locked in the earth. also are
the roots of the ildflowers,
grasses and weeds that outwit
winter by getting rid of every-
thing above ground. When the
ground thaws, the roots will send
up new soft stems with
flow-
ing sap and quick g rowing leaves
The growth cycle of these her -
baceoas plants has a tease speed-
ed up that they
height and complete their flower-
ing between the end of one win-
ter and the beginning of the next.
Our hardwood trees withstand
the charges of the seasons by
dropping their leaves each au-
tumn and growing an entire new
batch each spring. Leafless, trees
reveal the fine lines of their ba-
sic structure.
The winter buds that we now
see on their branches were form-
ed last summer while the tree's
food production was 'in full swing.
They contain the inature b-
e
ginnings of twig elong ations,
we', and leaves, which had been
CO. pletely formed and wrapped
in a weatherproof covering by
the time the sap flow to last sum-
mer's leaves had to be cut Off in
preparation for the winter. the
It is interesting to study
varying size, shape, texture and
coloring of winter buds. Sassafras
buds are green, the buds of the
black oak, downy and usually
five - sided. The buds of the 'beecch
tree are thin and sharp-pointed
- "arrowheads of spring" Tho-
"Well may the tender buds at-
tract us at this season ", he writ-
es in his journal on January 12,
18555, "for they are the spring
rolled up. The summer 'is all
paekfd.in them."
As soon as the buds unfold, the
water now being stored in the
tree trunk will rise in the column
within and. course through the
branches to the,new leaves to put
into motion another cycle of food
production and growth.
Insects, birds and animals all
have their own ways of getting
through the winter. But that is
another - many other, stories.
We can be sure that when the
trees are green again there will
be birds in their branches. Blos-
soming flowers will again attract
bees and butterflies. All the com-
plex parts of nature work in to-
gether as the year passes from
season to season.
OBSERVATIONS:
Judd Bennett reports:
East Marion, Dec 30
Dickcissel
Pine grosbeak
L R Ernest reports:
Mecox, Dec 3
Red throated loon
Snow goose
Water Mill, Dec 31
(3) Wilson's Snipe ,
Hook Pond, EH, Dec 32
European widgeon
Dennis Puleston reports:
Brookhaven, Jan 1 -2
(2) Bald eagles
Dec 26 to date
(3) Long eared owls
Jan 1- American bittern