Arbor Day

I hope you're enjoying your Arbor Day, readers! I have to say that someone at Earth Day should have thought about the timing when they established their observance...these two events are so close together as to limit their effectiveness. Arbor Day was here first. Who am I to complain, though? It makes my 'job' as a nature blogger pretty easy. I hope these photos, some from the National Arboretum and others from around the region, can capture the essence of tree.

This magnolia bloom was found in one of my favorite parts of the Arboretum.

Another magnolia was home to this slick little creature. This, of course, only scratches the surface of trees as habitat.

Of course, the Arboretum is home to much more than just trees. Look at the pollination on THAT!

If these photos hardly do justice to the "arbor" part of National Arboretum, neither does the Welcome Center.

I'll get started now on just identifying some common local trees beyond just "oak" and "maple." This is a white ash, Fraxinus americana. This isn't the best picture to ID from, but the distinctive bark is the key.

 

This is a black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia. It is easy to distinguish from its relative, the honey locust, because the honey is possessed of long, sharp spines.

Ah, the American sycamore. I showed a close-up of the bark in yesterday's post. That look in combination with this large and unique leaf make this an easy tree to ID, even for beginners.

And of course, nothing beats the sassafras for easy identification, provided it is leaved. This is actually three species of tree in the genus Sassafras, although Sassafras albidum (variously called white sassafras, red sassafras, and silky sassafras) is the only one native here.

Well, that's all for today...if you haven't yet, get out there and appreciate those trees!

Species Feature #1, Eastern Cottontail (Happy Easter)!

I won't beat anyone over the head with Jesus (apparently we don't do that in the suburbs), but you will take this bunny and like it! This eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) seems content in on his mat of white clover (Trifolium repens) , but also seems to have forgotten his basket of eggs.

Before I get started, I want to wish everyone a happy belated Earth Day! For some reason I was thoroughly convinced that Easter and Earth Day were the same day this year, and I missed it. I don't feel so bad, though, because Laurel has done some work for the Earth Day Network in the past, and she was under the same false impression.

Sylvilagus floridanus Quick Facts

Common Name: Eastern cottontail

Taxonomic Breakdown (Five Kingdom Model)

• Kingdom - Animalia
• Phylum - Chordata
• Class - Mammalia
• Order - Lagomorpha
• Family - Leporidae
• Genus - Sylvilagus
• Species - floridanus

Conservation Status: Least Concern
Name of Young: Kits

Range: Northern South America to Canada, Primarily East of the Mississippi in the US

There's not a whole lot else to say about this species. If you live in this area, you are certainly familiar with it at least in passing. It eats mostly grasses, but will invade fruit and vegetable gardens for tastier treats, and subsists on twigs and bark during the winter months. The phrase "breeding like rabbits" is not without cause, but there are plenty of predators (and enough traffic) to keep the population under control. One fact that was new to me as I researched for this post was that juveniles have a distinctive and adorable white blaze on their foreheads. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty subspecies, with only about five found in the US. If you want more, your safest bet is probably a Google search of the binomial name.