This past Wednesday a lot of rain fell, accompanied by some gusts of wind. A couple large, dead branches were knocked loose and fell to the ground with the rain. Luckily for us, some branchlets fell, too, giving us a look at this year's growth from the tip-top of the old trees. 

White oak (Quercus alba) leaves and acorns

This bristly fruit fell from the hybrid American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata). Ouch! We aren't going to bust it open quite yet.

Water oak (Quercus nigra) acorn and leaves.

The sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) often acquires a bad wrap because of its pointy fruits. There is one large on-site native sweetgum in the arboretum collection, and, admittedly it does make a mess of the sidewalks. It has sustained damage over the years, so this past summer a volunteer sweetgum growing up in the groundsel bush (Baccharis halimifolia), away from foot traffic, was admitted into the catalogue, so that we have a back-up specimen should something happen to the old one.

This image shows the relative size of the different fruits.

The fruit pods of the strawberry bush (Euonymus americanus) are changing color and opening up.

The orange-red seeds of the strawberry bush are revealed. They should not be eaten!