Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Northern lights over Dixie

Faint but definite appearances of the aurora borealis here Sunday and Monday nights; last night was a tougher call because of passing bands of middle and high clouds catching light from below. Adding in the displays last autumn, that's about 5 or 6 nights of visible aurora from here in about a year. Hell I don't recall seeing them THAT often in Wyoming!

Monday, November 01, 2004

Counting trees

I've been taking advantage of the warm interlude that is falling after the tick season and before leaf fall is complete to census and map the trees on our property here. I've gotten all of the lowland (mostly open) and about a third of the forested upland done, tallying all trees with a DBH (diameter at breast height) > 10 cm. Tallied 1070 trees so far. Here's a brief summary. If it's not formatted in a nice table it's because someone has compressed all the spaces...

Species N maxDBH(cm) Basal Area (m2)
Acer rubrum 35 65 24.2 Red maple
Acer saccharinum 6 64 11.0 Silver maple
Acer saccharum 3 51 3.6 Sugar maple
Ailanthus altissima 1 26 0.5 Tree of Heaven (nasty weed)
Albizia julibrisin 7 11 0.5 Mimosa (another nasty weed)
Alnus serrulata 9 18 0.03 Smooth alder
Carya "ovalis" 17 42 9.7 "Sweet" pignut hickory
Carya glabra 33 41 11.6 Pignut hickory
Carya tomentosa 14 40 7.1 Mockernut hickory
Carya sp. 73 33 19.8 Unidentified hickories
Celtis sp. 14 69 8.9 Hackberries
Cornus florida 39 36 6.5 Flowering dogwood
Diospyros virginiana 16 29 0.6 Persimmon
Juglans nigra 14 56 6.4 Black walnut
Juniperus virginiana 40 64 20.0 E. redcedar
Liquidambar styraciflua 23 37 1.0 Sweetgum
Liriodendron tulipifera 37 62 34.0 Tuliptree
Malus pumila 1 58 2.5 Domestic apple
Morus rubra 1 16 0.2 Red mulberry
Nyssa sylvatica 108 37 22.1 Blackgum
Ostrya virginiana 3 33 1.6 Hornbeam
Oxydendron arboreum 40 29 8.0 Sourwood
Pinus taeda 1 11 0.1 Loblolly pine
Pinus virginiana 1 11 0.1 Black pine
Platanus occidentalis 63 60 37.5 E. sycamore
Prunus serotina 33 53 14.8 Black cherry
Quercus alba 74 120 49.3 White oak
Quercus coccinea 12 32 6.1 Scarlet oak
Quercus falcata 5 83 9.3 S. red oak
Quercus marilandica 4 25 1.4 Blackjack oak
Quercus prinus 55 61 42.9 Chestnut oak
Quercus rubus 12 32 6.9 N. red oak
Quercus stellata 120 43 47.0 Post oak
Quercus velutina 11 37 6.9 Black oak
Rhamnus caroliniana 1 11 0.1 Carolina buckthorn
Rhus copalina 2 12 0.2 Winged sumac
Rhus glabra 1 12 0.1 Smooth sumac
Rhus sp. 2 14 0.3 Unidentified sumac
Salix nigra 3 10 0.2 Black willow
Sambucus canadensis 1 10 0.1 Am. elder
Sassafras albidum 10 33 3.4 Sassafras
Ulmus alata 11 46 2.8 Winged elm
Ulmus americana + rubra 19 68 13.3 Am. and slippery elms

Carya "ovalis" isn't considered a separate species from C. glabra by most people anymore, but it is a fairly distinct form. Conversely, the hackberries are considered to be two species, but the ones here seem to grade continuously between the two. And the two elms, well, I've just not sorted them out yet.

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