I was very excited to have the opportunity to take a winter tree identification class. I attended a great University of Maryland Extension (UME) Master Gardener Advanced Training course with UME native plant specialist Sara Tangren last week. I assumed we’d be looking at bark. The classroom at the Extension in Westminster was filled with tree twigs… not bark.
I never took the time to really notice the details of a twig. The opposite leaf pairs on the stem are opposite side to side, then front to back. I never paid attention to that simple pattern. I recognized new stem growth and last years’ growth, terminal buds, leaf scars, vein scars, lenticels, etc.
Maple twig buds and leaf scars are opposite. A trick to remember trees that have opposite leaves is “MAD Horse Buck” – Maple – Ash – Dogwood – Horse Chestnut – Buckeye!
Americans have a lot of lawn – an area over 8 times the size of New Jersey is dedicated to alien grasses and the constant mowing that they require. Much of this lawn is unused, even unwanted. This is the situation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which maintains about 100 acres of turf. Staff were interested in converting unused lawns to meadows for the cost savings and the environmental benefits: pollinator habitat, cleaner air, cleaner water. Unfortunately, no one on the staff had converted lawn to meadow before, so they teamed up with the Maryland Master Gardener program, and the Meadow Making Advanced Training class series was born!