January 2017 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gail]

Chamaebatia foliolosa, Bear Clover, looking good with the snow.

Very pretty - do bears actually eat it?

[Robert]

Very pretty - do bears actually eat it?

Hi Gail,

As far as I know bears do not eat Bear Clover. Another common name for this plant is "Mountain Misery". This species has very aromatic foliage, especially during warm - hot weather. Some find the fragrance / odor objectionable. When I was very young I would get sick to my stomach from its odor - but only when in an automobile. Funny thing happened, when cars were required to reduce pollutants I never got sick any more! Was it the car exhaust or the plant that made me sick? 



A few more photographs from the other day.

The South Fork of the American River near Riverton, California. The river is running high, cold, and clear! 



Snow on distant mountains as seen from "Apple Hill" near Camino, California. I was hoping for a view of the Crystal Range, however trees were blocking the view. There is close to 4 meters and perhaps more at the highest elevations in the Sierra Nevada right now. A good view can be very pretty. It is a holiday in the U.S.A. - crowds everywhere - very difficult to find "room" to take a good photograph of the mountains. 

Trond,

Nice pictures with the snow, or what we locally call "corn snow". Both of our gardens are "sleepy" - Sacramento and Placerville. No signs of flowers on the Witchhazels yet.

I am pleased to finally have some "winter" weather in California. It has been clear and frosty every night for the last few days in Placerville and dense fog in the Valley i.e. Sacramento etc. 

[Cfred72]

Walk in the woods near us today. We have several tree species that make up the landscape. I do not like too much Pinus. I find these places too dark. Worse still are the woods composed of Abies. On the other hand, I like the woods composed of Fagus, Carpinus, Larix, ...

[ian mcdonald]

Hello Fred, can you turn the photos the other way up?

[Maggi Young]

No, but I can!

[Cfred72]

I do not know why it is necessary to make a torticollis to look at the photos. Here are others with cones of Larix and acenes of Carpinus.
Thank you Maggi

[Maggi Young]

It is a problem with how the pictures are saved originally from the machine, I think Fred. 

[Cfred72]

After years with an old GSM, Santa brought me a smart phone. I do not yet master well.

[Hannelore]

Walk in the woods near us today. We have several tree species that make up the landscape.

Here we had a bad storm last week and the foresters recommend not to walk in the woods because there are too many instable trees.

[Cfred72]

It is actually more cautious in the event of a storm. At home it was quiet. The most annoying were the pieces of snow that fell into our necks. It looked as if the trees were saying, "Go home ..." And they threw snowballs at us all along the promenade. 

[Hoy]

Robert,

We say the same about the coarse grained snow but usually it is old transformed snow, this is frozen hail and sleet.

Cfred,

you have more snow than I have Here, pine woods are considered open and sunny. Beech woods are dense and shady - in summer at least. Spruce and fir woods are also very dense and dark.



No storm here for some days but we still have cold weather.  Seems to change tomorrow.

Polystichum munitum in winter habit.

[Robert]

Trond,

Nice pictures of Polystichum minutum. It is not very often I see this species encrusted in ice and snow. 

Walk in the woods near us today. We have several tree species that make up the landscape. I do not like too much Pinus. I find these places too dark. Worse still are the woods composed of Abies. On the other hand, I like the woods composed of Fagus, Carpinus, Larix, ...

Fred,

I liked the pictures of the forest with snow. The trees appear to be planted in rows. Is this the case? From your description it sounds like the trees are planted in blocks - all of one type together. Is is possible to learn more?

I feel embarrassed    I do not understand French.     My wife is good at Spanish and German. This can work if English will not work.

[Hannelore]

I liked the pictures of the forest with snow. The trees appear to be planted in rows. Is this the case? From your description it sounds like the trees are planted in blocks - all of one type together. Is is possible to learn more?

Both is true. All woods in central Europe are plantations. The trees are planted in rows, formerly the same species in blocks of 3-10 acres depending on the landscape. As this method of forestry has proved to be not very good - the monocultures attract pests, the diversity of plants is waning and so on, nowadays the newly planted forests are of mixed type, conifers and deciduous trees in a harmonic composition. But this is only the habit since +-20 years, so it will take another 50 years to see the change.

Hannelore

[Cfred72]

Hello Robert.
There really is no need to be bothered to speak "only" English. Personally, I speak only French and a little Dutch. I understand a little English reading.
This is the magic of this forum. One writes thanks to an automatic translator in English.on copy-paste the message on the forum for those who do not speak English. We choose the language in which we want to read. Everything is translated into the desired language.
As for our woods ... As said Hannelore, these are a lot of mono cultures. This causes many problems for biodiversity. In fact, the plants are placed in rows of onions in order to allow better management of maintenance, cutting, etc. This also makes it possible to have trunks of trees which grow homogeneously and are therefore calibrated for The wood industry.
We return a little, however, because we have found that these forests are poor and poorly resistant to disease and bad weather. During big storms, it is not uncommon to see the trees fall like dominoes.
Now, they have a tendency, in our country, to cut wood by plots leaving some standing specimens to reseed. This allows for a dominance of the desired species. This also makes it possible, thanks to the birds in particular, to have other species that add up and produce more beautiful forests.

[Gail]

Hi Gail,

As far as I know bears do not eat Bear Clover. Another common name for this plant is "Mountain Misery". This species has very aromatic foliage, especially during warm - hot weather. Some find the fragrance / odor objectionable. When I was very young I would get sick to my stomach from its odor - but only when in an automobile. Funny thing happened, when cars were required to reduce pollutants I never got sick any more! Was it the car exhaust or the plant that made me sick? 

I was intrigued by your mountain misery and so have been googling - fascinated to find that it is a member of the Rosaceae as I had assumed from your picture it was a fern... (and like that "The Miwok tribe's name for the plant was kit-kit-dizze."