What is a tree?

Though easily recognizable by their general impression, size, and shape (GISS), have you ever thought about what it IS to be a tree? Trees can be described by their physical characteristics, categorized by their taxonomic place in the Kingdom of plants, and understood by their function and value in natural and human communities.

Physical Characteristics: Mature trees have a single woody stem, are taller than 15 feet, and have a trunk greater than 3 inches in diameter. Together, these three features set trees apart from shrubs (multiple woody stems, between 3-15 feet high, each trunk less than 3 inches) and other plants (wildflowers, ferns and fern allies, grass-like plants, and mosses). Young trees that spring up in dense groves might be confused with shrubs, and some trees barely exceed the height requirement even at maturity. Together though, these three criteria will almost always help distinguish trees from shrubs.

Taxonomy: Trees, like other living organisms, can be categorized and given a unique scientific name. At the top of the taxonomic hierarchy are four Kingdoms: plants, animals, fungi, and protists. Plants get divided into Divisions with trees falling into either Coniferophyta (cone-bearing) or Magnoliophyta (flower-bearing) groups. The groups continue to be divided into Class, Order, Family, and finally the Genus and Species.

The Genus and Species are the scientific (technical, botanical, Latin) name. For example, the common names sugar maple, rock maple, or hard maple are all the same tree with one unique scientific name: Acer saccharum. You'll notice that the scientific name is italicized - it can also be underlined (Acer saccharum) to alert the reader to its binomial nomenclature (two names). Acer is a genus in the Division of Magnoliophyta.

Magnoliophyta are deciduous, and the seeds develop inside an ovary to produce some type of fruit rather than a cone. There are 16 families of Magnoliophyta in Maine: Sapindacea (maple and horsechestnut), Oleacee (ash), Cornaceae (dogwood), Adoxaceae (viburnum), Betulaceae (birch, hornbean, hophornbeam, and alder), Salicaceae (willow and aspen), Hamamelidaceae (witch-hazel), Ulmaceae (elm), Malvaceae (tilia), Fagaceae (oak, beech, and chestnut), Juglandaceae (hickory and walnut), Platanaceae (sycamore), Lauraceae (sassafras), Rosaceae (cherry, hawthorn, shadbush, and mountain-ash), Fabacee (locust and honeylocust), and Ericaceae (laurel and rhododendron).

Coniferophyta are evergreens with seeds developing on the scales of cones - "naked" seeds since they don't have a fleshy exterior. In Maine, Coniferophyta are represented in two Families: Pinaceae (pine, fir, hemlock, spruce, and larch) and Cuppressaceae (white cedar, redcedar, and juniper).

Functions and Values: In a landscape, trees provide vertical structure and habitat for wildlife. Contributions to wildlife habitat include shelter and food, and large tracts of forest provide the large range needed for bigger animals. Trees filter light to influence ground cover and intercept rain to minimize erosion. Their extensive root structure holds soil in place, further minimizing erosion. For humans trees provide building material, pulp for paper, sap that boils down to maple syrup, turpentine from pine trees, and the astringent witch-hazel - to name just a few important products.

What is a tree to you?

Historical Creative Non-fiction: filling in the blanks

     Stories stay with folks. Whether they are oral traditions or written pieces ranging from a few words to full novels, facts are better remembered when put into the context of people, places, and events. Such it is with genealogical information. A list of names and dates is of little interest without a story about who they were and tales of their travels, near or far.
     But what do you do when there are only a few facts to piece a person together? Born, married, censused, parented, died. It's easy enough to weave in details like what was happening in the state's economy, whether there were wars or relative peace, or if health epidemics were prevalent. It's harder to know day-to-day details, and that's where I'm struggling to find the stories that bring life to past generations.
     I'm considering historical creative non-fiction as a genre. A historically sound and factual, non-fiction platform can give structure to the time period, family structure, and social concerns. Filling in the gaps, making assumptions based on the facts, that's where it gets creative.
     For someone like myself who feels compelled to provide evidence of every opinion or thought, it is a leap of faith to say, even to myself, "I think it could have happened this way, and there is no evidence to the contrary."
     So here goes everything. I'm drafting stories, sketches, about my ancestors as a way to compile the factual information I've found during my research as well as to round out their lives in a way that makes them more personally accessible - real people who lived full lives doing interesting things.

Family Tree, Branching across the Country

The husband's family celebrates Thanksgiving in Virginia, and this year we decided to join them. I have an ancestral branch of the family that moved from Maine to Virginia in the 1850s so I also planned to do some research and visit some cemeteries. The research proved unproductive but I did learn quite a bit about the Civil War through some online articles and listening to the Washington Post's podcast Presidential. I also gained an appreciation of how far from home this family uprooted. However, even more productive than the research was the search for cemeteries and gravestones. 

The first cemetery, the Pohick Episcopal Church Cemetery in Lorton, VA was easy to access. Having seen a photo of the gravestone on Find-A-Grave, my eyes were honed in on a particular shape and a light color. It also helped to see a large family marker with the name "MORGAN" which is the married name of my great-great-great grandmother Flora Louise Chase. In addition to her stone, I also found several stones marking her children's final resting places.

The second stop was at the St. James Cemetery in Falls Church, VA. This was also easy to access, and again I had a Find-A-Grave photo to work with. Relatively small, it was easy enough for us to survey the entire cemetery but we came up empty. Looking again at the reference photo, I noticed that the stone was surrounded by oak leaves so we focused our search to the areas beneath the oaks. I remembered a stone that had been lifted by oak roots. Brushing dry leaves aside, I found Marion Genevieve Richard's stone bearing her married name "BROWN". Marion is my great-great grandmother.

Our third stop of the day was at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC. I had done my research at home and had a good idea which section of the cemetery I wanted - thank goodness, because this would have otherwise been impossible. We walked right to this distinctive double-marker stone. Before the Civil War, Thomas and Elvira Winship Chase lived in Farmington with their children where Thomas practiced law. After a few years in Chesterfield VA, they moved to Washington DC where they spent their remaining years.

It was quite a thrill to find all three cemeteries and an even greater sense of satisfaction to locate the gravestones. Though I've downloaded the Find-A-Grave photos, I now feel as though I've brought these distant relatives "home".

Thomas and Elvira Chase

Sometime in the 1850's Thomas Chase, a lawyer practicing in Farmington Maine, moved his family (wife Elvira and eight children) to be a farmer in Manchester in Chesterfield County Virginia. While in Virginia his daughter Flora fell in love with and married a Confederate soldier named Harney Napoleon Richard. Harney returned to his home state of Florida not knowing that Flora was pregnant. In 1866 Flora gave birth to a daughter Marion in Chesterfield and, believing that Harney had died since he never returned, remarried and had several more children. By 1880 Thomas and Elvira had settled in Washington DC. Flora, her new husband, their children, and Marion lived next door.

Flora and Harney's daughter was my great-great grandmother. I have many unanswered questions about this family: what pressed Thomas to leave Farmington; what drew him to Chesterfield; did Harney ever consider returning to Flora; did Flora ever try to reach Harney in Florida; what happened between 1866 and 1880; was Thomas content with his break from practicing law? 

After a morning at the Chesterfield Historical Society, three attempts to find local libraries with genealogy records, and an afternoon at the Library of Virginia in Richmond I am no closer to answering any of my questions - for today anyway. I'll continue to search online for clues, and some day I'll return to Chesterfield, hopefully armed with a few more details and direction. In the meantime, I met some lovely people, strengthened my resolve to discover more about my ancestors, and spent some much needed down-time with my husband's Chesterfield family who, like Thomas and Elvira, relocated from Maine. 

Habits and Peculiarities

I love library book sales. Richard and I have developed the peculiar habit of seeking them out and spending hours poring over row upon row, table after table, of books. In addition to the sheer pleasure of being present to so many great works, this has proven to be a great way to add to my personal library of trees and natural history.

I love the sense of community that brings book lovers together, politely sidling past one another, waiting patiently to peruse THAT stack. I love the care taken to sort selections into categories, to handle each and every book so mindfully, and then place it where it is most likely to be found by its new reader. I love the watchful attendants who work the room straightening the field guides, tightening up the row of historical novels, tidying up the stories about animals. I love the check-out Friends of the Library who quickly tally the total while offering an extra bag to even out my load. I love that I can roam the room for hours, select anything that catches my fancy, and keep looking for just one more volume on my chosen interests. I love the inner satisfaction that I've supported a worthy cause - the Library - and I've supported another worthy cause - reading hard copy! And I love that, at the end of the day, I can curl up in the recliner and get lost in another good book.

Among the many titles I picked up this morning is "Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them: A Popular Study of Their Habits and Their Peculiarities" by Harriet Keeler. As if the first part of this title wouldn't grab my attention, how could I pass by the subtitle? Now to find more shelf space...

Sugar Maple

Sugar Maple (Acer sacharrum) is one of seven species of the Acer genus that grow in Maine's forests. Six of these "typical" maples (A. saccharum, A. saccharinum, A. rubrum, A. platinoides, A. pensylvanicum, and A. spicatum) have opposite arrangement of their simple leaves and buds. Other trees with opposite features include the ashes, red-osier and flowering dogwoods, the viburnums, and horse-chestnuts. The other thing that these six maples have in common is their palmate venation - the leaf veins originate from a central point at the base of the leaf and fan out, sort of like your fingers fanning out from the palm of your hand. The other vein arrangement is pinnate, like a feather where the veins branch outward all along the central mid-vein. Finally, the maple fruit is a double-winged indehiscent samara. In addition to the six typical maples is Boxelder (A. negundo) which has compound leaves which are oppositely arranged - it also bears the double-winged samara.

So, how do you tell a Sugar Maple from the other simple-leaved maples? From late spring through autumn, you can distinguish it by its leaf margins. Maple leaves are lobed which means there are distinct indentations that don't go all the way to the mid-veins. The leaf depicted here has three large lobes with two smaller lobes at its base. The other simple-leaved maples will have 3-5 lobes with  palmate venation, but the  notches and margins will differ. At the base of each lobe where it meets the next one, the part that reaches toward the center of the leaf is a sinus. The sinus is distinctly "U" shaped on Sugar Maple (A. saccharum) and Norway Maple (A. platanoides). The sinus is notched like a "V" on the leaves of Mountain Maple (A. spicatum) and Red Maple (A. rubrum). Striped Maple (A. pensylvanicum) is fairly "V" notched, and Silver Maple (A. sacharrinum) is very deeply and "U" notched. You can distinguish Sugar Maple from Norway Maple leaves by breaking the leaf stem from the twig and looking for a milky white sap on Norway Maple. 

In winter you can look at bark and buds. Sugar Maple bark is different from Norway Maple - the former has broad ridges whereas the latter has narrowly spaced ridges and furrows. Bark is a little tricky because young, middle-aged, and mature trees have different textures. Striped Maple bark is vertically striped and the tree doesn't get very tall. To me, Sugar Maple's broad ridges don't seem to curl as much as with mature Red Maple or Striped Maple. I don't have much experience looking at the bark of Mountain Maple. The oppositely arranged buds also yield clues. Sugar Maple buds are dark brown and very pointed though not excessively long. Red Maple and Silver Maple buds are rounded and red. Mountain Maple buds are pointed, short-stalked, and green to red in color. Striped maple buds are distinctly stalked. Norway Maple scales are large. 

On being a naturalist: time, tools, and territory

Being a naturalist, regardless of your approach or perspective, requires a certain amount of time, the right tools, and staking out your territory. Well, that's what I think everyone needs. The list can be longer, more complex, or centered on just one aspect like journals, birds, or wildflowers. For me it still comes down to time, tools, and territory if a I hope to gain a deep understanding of the natural world.

Time: There's never quite enough of it, and it slips by all too quickly. Honing my naturalist skills is balanced by work (which provides funds for naturalist books and tools), getting to the gym (slow walking doesn't burn off the calories), and social activities (grandkids' sports, music, and dance get priority, family gatherings a close second, and of course, time with the hubster). A really good day might be stopping to gather leaves on my way to soccer, going to a library book sale with the hubster for more naturalist books, or walking in the woods with family or friends. More often than not, it's taking the time to stop when I see a tree of interest on my way somewhere else. Occasionally it's an intentional outing or study group with naturalist peers. Long-term planning for each month, quarter, or the coming year is another way to maintain my goal of becoming a really good naturalist. 

Tools: A hand lens, binoculars, a pencil, and my journal are really the most important tools that I need to be a good naturalist. I'm able to look closely under magnification, see detail from a distance, and record my observations, thoughts, and questions. I'm fortunate to also have a LOT of field guides, books, and access to the internet to help me figure out what I'm seeing and to better understand natural processes. A sturdy field bag is another good tool - big enough but not too big, lots of pockets, comfortable over my shoulder. Someday I hope to have a dissecting microscope, but I've managed pretty well without one thus far.

Territory; I've nearly outgrown the corner of our house where I store my collections, pore over specimens, and prepare teaching materials. We manage to mostly keep up with chores in our common areas (kitchen, living room) and leave each other's office space alone. I have to admit that leaves, twigs, laminating materials, and books regularly escape my assigned space and I'll need to make some other arrangements soon - renting a studio perhaps. Outside I regularly tromp around the trails behind our house or the trails at the Arboretum across the street from where I work. There, I see seasonal changes unfold, and almost always find something brand new to pique my curiosity and broaden my understanding. 

Time, tools, and territory. Good for anyone who is serious about studying and gaining expertise in a particular area whether it's a naturalist, musician, artist, chef.... anyone.