Very nice! And you took some great pictures. Thanks. --- On Thu, 8/20/09, Elisa Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Elisa Campbell <[email protected]> Subject: [ENTS] gorgeous sugar maples To: [email protected] Cc: "Campbell, Elisa " <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 8:02 AM Gorgeous Sugar Maples In Amherst, MA, there is an isolated hill with the somewhat misleading name of Mt Pollux. After the previous owner gave up the orchards there a few decades ago, the town purchased the top as a conservation area because of the wonderful, almost 360 degree views from it. The top is crowned by two lovely sugar maples. While from a distance they appear similar, up close it’s clear that one is much older than the other. I’ve become interested in the different branch structure of the two; it seems to me that middle-aged sugar maples have lots of branches about the same size, then, as they get older, lose many of them and end up with a few massive ones. Often they are hollow (I’ve seen light through the trunks of some of them, and it seems the tree is nothing but bark holding up a tree that is still alive and standing). Does anyone know anything more about the branching patterns of sugar maples? Here are some pictures of them I’ve collected over the years. #1 - looking up the hill at the 2 maples in early fall (2Maples2e-h.jpg) #2 - looking from the younger towards the older (TwoMaples1e.jpg) #3 - older maple’s trunk (Maple-Aug-evening1e.jpg) #4 - older maple’s branches (Maple1e-h.jpg ) #5 - older maple’s branches (Maple1e-v.jpg) #6 - older maple’s main branch (Maple-old3-e.jpg) #7 - younger maple (Maple2-north1-e-v.jpg) #8 - younger maple’s branches (Maple2-branches-e-v.jpg) #9 - younger maple’s branches (Maple2-branches1-e-h.jpg) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
