Thursday, February 9, 2023

Marcescence and Going Into Reruns #ThursdayTreeLove

I don't know if I'm the only one, but if I look back at my 10,000 plus photos (please don't judge me harshly) on my phone, I find I tend to take the same pictures each year, over and over.

Perhaps it's an azalea or a rose bush I like.  Or a tree. 

Or a natural phenomenon.

Yesterday, spouse and I were exercise walking on the Vestal Rail Trail and I saw this tree.  You'll note it's not an evergreen.  Instead, it's an (I think) oak, holding onto its leaves.  They never fell off in fall.

Turns out, I took a picture of this tree two years ago and blogged about it (complete with snow on the ground).

So here I am again, going into reruns.

This time, the snow has melted (yet again) but the same tree is there, two years (almost to the day) older.

This occurrence is called marcescence, and is explained here.  Interestingly, if you look (using the link above) at the 2021 photo vs. this years, you'll note that in the 2023 photo, more of the upper branches are bare.  This is normal for oaks as the tree starts to mature.

Those leaves can shelter birds, and also provide certain benefits to the tree.  For example, deer are less likely to eat buds off branches that still have last year's leaves.

Trees have a wisdom that we humans could wish for.  As for me going into reruns, sometimes reruns are more fun than starting new.  I've been blogging since 2009, and maybe I'll rerun old posts on occasion during the upcoming weeks.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

7 comments:

  1. ...I just got my first iPhone and I load my pictures onto my computer and delete them off of my phone. Am I strange?

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  2. Revisiting old friends is never boring! And thank you for the new info!

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  3. Nothing wrong with the occasional repost. And it might be the same tree, but is it the same tree? (You can never step in the same river twice.) It's older. Before and after pics aren't out of the question.

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  4. On my mastodon, it is #thicktrunktuesday event. I have been participating. Love trees!

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  5. I've been noticing the same thing. The difference is the kids get bigger, trees taller etc...not boring at all. And no snow could be good or sad. (I like snow)

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  6. I’ve been blogging for over a decade, and I’ve repeated myself more than once. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident,

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  7. I've got over 80,000 photos on my flickr account and I used to feel bad about taking more of the same thing but not any longer.

    Sometimes I stumble across old posts and have no remembrance of them whatever.

    In my old job I gave lots of legal depositions over the years and what I have learned is that memories are not dependable.

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