Welcome to Plant Exchange where we share about plants of the Northern Plains and people who grow them. Please join us for a winter walk.
A fine thing about winter is how much easier it is to pay attention outdoors. Distractions of colors are few. In fact, outdoors now is more about hues of neutral.
Parts of nature we haven’t noticed show up as winter interest. Tree bark for example. This Northern Catalpa’s furrows and lichens add texture.
This ‘Thunder Child’ Flowering Crab has shaggy bark.
Smooth light bark with gray accents of the Dakota Pinnacle Birch is another find on a winter walk. It is a North Dakota developed birch for the Northern Plains.
These three trees are found along Yankton Arboretum Trail behind Yankton High School. More about them can be found in this short article:
http://www.yankton.net/river_city/article_157c6ada-e9ca-11e6-8658-ef4d40a0bd8b.html
When you begin to notice, diversity is more than tree bark. It’s everywhere. Here we see the variation of the same snowfall on three Black Hills Spruce trees. Some branches of the spruce hold snow like shovels.
The same snow on another Black Hills Spruce outlines hands or turkey feet on the evergreen needles.
On another spruce, individual needles stitch the snow blanket. So much to see on a winter walk.
Thanks for visiting Plant Exchange today. If you explore further, you will find many topics about gardeners of wide range of interests and experience levels share plant stories. We hope you will make our Plant Exchange post one of your weekly visits. Thanks for your “Likes” and visits by loyal “Followers.” See you next week!
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