For example, I didn't provide some of the quick ID points for the Eastern Hemlock I mentioned. The needles come off the twig bilaterally, like the wings of an airplane, rather than completely around the twig as you might see in a spruce. Each needle has two white lines on the underside, and if you look closely you will see a tiny stem on each (which will help distinguish it from a fir). And there you have it!
Another part of the day that was very interesting to me was the number of American beech trees we saw. Beeches in this area have a couple of problems that are taking them down. One is an insect, beech scale, which leaves white residue. I didn't see any evidence of this, but I did see signs of beech bark disease, a black fungus.
See how the usually smooth bark is marred?
Still, most of the trees I saw on the mountain were pretty healthy, which is refreshing. We even saw some beeches that were very large, I was almost fooled on the ID because I just didn't expect a beech to be that big. Did I mention I love beeches? It wrenches my heart to see them sickly, so this stand (mostly) made me smile.
When we saw more wind-downed trees, we discussed how the hollows left in the ground stay for a long, long time, with a bump on one side where the root mass used to be. Later we saw a hollow without the tree (it had probably been cleared, but still) and we got to discuss "what happened here?"
I can really see the effect I've been having on the little lady. When her mom asked her what she knew about a tree, she went over to sniff it. Quoth Mom: "Nature lady might be able to make IDs by smelling things, you've got to work your way up to that!" I appreciate her method though, gathering all the data she can to make an informed statement :)
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