It's the first of March, and the characteristic 'March winds' were blowing in the arboretum today. The air was warm and wet and the clouds were hanging over head. Perfect tree planting weather!
It's also a good time for taking inventory. Today, a count was taken of the Hercules- club population.
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| This is a low, wet location in the arboretum. Typically, this area is thick with palmetto leaves. Recently, however, the palmettos were snipped back, allowing more sunlight and air flow. Since it's easier to move around in now, and the trees have not yet leafed-out, we took the opportunity to count the individual Hercules-clubs (Aralia spinosa). As of today at 4PM, there are exactly 30 clubs. A couple might be thinned out over the summer, but then a couple more might pop up out of the ground from the existing root structures. This species is very much at home in the arboretum. |
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| Hercules-clubs are the skinny, leafless sticks, the 'devil's walking-sticks'. The clubs have light-gray bark. |
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| The clubs are leaning toward the sun, away from the dense shade created by a nearby bald cypress. |
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| These are very interesting landscape specimen, and no, they aren't pruned to look like that. Looking at these bare sticks, one wouldn't imagine that these little trees create some of the largest leaves in the arboretum. |
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| Winter is the best time to appreciate the spiny, unbranched trunks. |
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| Leaves will emerge from the top of the club in the coming weeks. |
