Pages

Saturday, June 7, 2014

They're Maple Seedlings, But You Knew That



(Rosemary Parker/MLive.com)
After the blood-root bloomed, the ferns/brakes shot up and the morels came and went.  Then we noticed the leaf-pairs everywhere.

One of us has lived here a relatively short time and doesn't know a hawk from a handsaw.  A few questions, posed to a select few who promised not to make fun of him, revealed nothing.

An initial search across the vast reaches of the internet was plagued with stupidity: 
  • "two leaves," resulted filtered by "last month"
  • "seedlings what are they michigan"
  • "what are they" seedlings michigan
  • seedlings everywhere what are they michigan two pair two leaves pair of them 
(These search terms are only a few of the ones used; the really dumb ones, devoid of proper vegetative descriptors, have been redacted.)

The "seedlings everywhere" phrase began to lead in the right direction, especially when coupled with a glance at the Google Images page.  Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia are among the states and provinces buzzing with questions about thousands of seedlings never-before seen.  Or not remembered.

They're maple seedlings, apparently quite pronounced this spring because of the many seed-pods that erupted last year.  Their seed-pods are the whirly ones that descend like little helicopters.  For many, they sat unnoticed through the fall and were protected by heavy snowfall.  The snow then gradually melted and irrigated the seeds - and, depending on where you live, something you've never seen/remembered before arrived.

There are stories about what to do with them, if they bother you.  See links at the end of this article.

Most of them come down to this:  mow 2-3 times, if you mow.  Or you can cut them down with a weed-whip*.  Or you can pull them by hand.  You can also eat them.  Several sites recommend against eating them if you use herbicide (posion) on your land.  Nuggets of meanness that dwell within us wanted to leave this last bit out, but herbicide = poison might be unknown to someone, just as the basics of maple tree propagation were heretofore unknown to this writer.
(The Elberta Alert)

*Weed-whips, sickles and other wireless, handheld devices should be used with caution, especially if you've just had them sharpened.  As with a dull razor blade, one develops the habit over time of applying more and more pressure to compensate for the dullness.  Since muscle memory is not always synced-up with your brain, a suddenly-sharp tool could result in injury, if the pre-sharpened level of pressure is applied.  





Further reading:




Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)