A small strip of forest

 I call it the "little wood". Which makes it sound bigger than it is.

From the 1920s to somewhere in the '50s, the area around Oyster Bay was a logging camp, with eventually over 100 workers' cabins, heavy equipment, and mud, mud, mud. The original forest was wiped out. In the decades since, after the loggers moved out, Scotch broom moved in and completely covered the area.

Since the site was declared a protected park, back in 1996, the broom has been removed (mostly; I saw a few new shoots last week.) The area now consists of the bay with its breakwater, shore birds and ducks and purple martin houses, a long beach on the "outside", gravelly and sandy, then the line of thousands of logs, the sand beyond, and the trail to the rest area. Between the bay and the rest area, there's the dike and the meadow where protected plants thrive. A great mix of habitats in a short walk!

And there's the "little wood"; just a strip of trees and shrubs that somehow survived all that history. A narrow strip, but full of life; here on every visit I find new marvels: mushrooms and lichens, mosses and slime mold, spiders and sowbugs, bees and caterpillars, a mix of native shrubs and trees, deciduous and evergreen.

Google maps image.

A mix of Douglas fir, deciduous trees and shrubs, rotting, moss-covered logs.

Random shot of the ground. Cottonwood leaves, fir needles and cones (two species), moss and Cladonia lichen, fresh evergreen twigs, old wood, grasses and new spring plants.

"Knobby" tree. I have to wait for new leaves to identify it.

Old log with moss and reindeer lichen.

At the edge of the wood, a log laughs in the sunlight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yo lo llamo el "bosquecito". Lo que lo hace parecer más grande de lo que es en realidad.

Desde la década de los 1920 hasta los '50, el area alrededor de Oyster Bay era un centro de industria maderera, donde en un tiempo existían mas de cien casitas para obreros, gran cantidad de maquinaria pesada, y lodo. Mucho lodo. El bosque original desapareció. Después de que la industria dejó el sitio, fue invadido por la planta invasora retama negra, que lo cubrió totalmente.

En el año de 1996, el sitio se declaró un parque protegido, y voluntarios eliminaron la retama. (No totalmente; vi unos brotes la semana pasada.) El area ahora consiste en la bahía con su rompeolas, sus aves costeras, patos, y las casitas para golondrinas purpúreas; una playa a lo largo del "exterior", con piedritas o arena; luego los miles de troncones, después un tramo con más arena, y el camino que lleva a la zona de descanso. Entre este y la bahía, está el dique y el prado donde crecen plantas protegidas. ¡Una buena mezcla de habitats en un paseo corto!

Y ahí está el bosquecito; apenas unos pocos árboles y arbustos que de alguna manera sobrevivieron toda esa historia. Un tramo angosto, pero lleno de vida; en cada visita descubro nuevas maravillas. Hongos y líquenes, musgos y moho mucilaginoso, arañas y cochinillas, abejas y orugas, una mezcla de arbustos y árboles indígenos, tanto de hoja caduca como perenne.

Fotos:

1. Mapa de Google.
2. En el bosque. Abeto de Douglas, árboles y arbustos caducifolios, y troncones bien podridos, cubiertos de musgo.
3. Una vista al azahar del suelo: hojas de álamo, hojas y conos de abeto (dos especies), musgo y liquen Cladonia, ramitas frescas de abeto, y madera podrida, pasto y los nuevos brotes de la primavera.
4. Este árbol no lo podré identificar hasta que salgan las hojas.
5. Un troncón viejo con musgos y liquen de los renos.
6. Al borde del bosquecito, un troncón sonrie en los rayos del sol.

I wish they'd label these things!

Can you help me identify this tree?

Half in light, half in shade, all in the window.

This is growing beside Central City mall in Surrey, where we stopped for coffee. I was only carrying my little purse camera, and I couldn't get into a position to take the whole tree "live" without getting run down by buses. So a reflection will have to do.

The leaves are arranged oddly, layered tightly around each branch down its entire length, although each branch stands alone.

A few of the top branches. 

The lowest branches, in the shade of the buildings, were just a few inches out of our reach.

Where the sunshine hits, they're yellow-green; in shade, they're blue-green.

Fat, heart-shaped leaves.

It looks familiar, as if I should recognize it, but I don't. It's not in any of our books.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: It's been identified, in the comments and on Facebook, as Katsura.

Cercidiphyllum is a genus containing two species of plants, both commonly called Katsura. They are the sole members of the monotypic family Cercidiphyllaceae. The genus is native to Japan and China.
... Katsura is grown as an ornamental tree for its delicate heart-shaped leaves and bright autumn colour, a mix of bright yellow, pink and orange-red. ... Of particular interest is the scent produced by the leaves in the autumn, resembling burnt brown sugar or cotton candy.

From Wikipedia.

Accidental flower garden

A week ago, I noticed a reddish tinge on the branches of a "weed" tree in the ditch outside our back wall. I broke off two and put them in a vase, to see what they would do. Today, they rewarded me with these miniature spring flowers:

A very merry yellow.


The whole flower clump, pink base to waving stamens, is barely 1/2 inch long.


Same flowers, different lighting.

The previous photos were taken under my halogen desk lamp; for this one, I used a small LED flashlight, which gives a very blue light. It whitens the yellow, but shows off the pink tips of the six petals.

Buds and bugs at the tip of the branch.

I don't know what tree this is; I'll have to wait for the leaves to attempt an ID.

.

Trees down the street

In the Safeway parking lot: maples changing colour, dancing in the wind.


Down the block and around the corner: more like a bouquet than a tree.


Tim Horton's parking lot: some variety of maple? The trunk peels like an arbutus.


Down a bicycle passageway or two: Big Cone pine. Laurie brought me two cones that had fallen to the ground. They are around 10 inches long, 6+ inches wide.


A bit farther afield: Tsawwassen front yard, and a droopy short tree.

More photos added. ..

... to the Flickr Blogger Bioblitz group. (And that's a tongue-twister, of sorts. Or I should have been in bed long ago. Or both.) Including a "Mystery Tree", and some unidentified seedlings.

Help needed. Do you recognize any of them?

And here is another mystery: this is a wild mustard. The flowers are brilliant yellow. (See detail, below.) To the naked eye, this mass of buds looks a dark purplish-brown, as do the stems. I took the photo in lieu of making notes. At home, the photo showed the buds as bright pink. Today I went back, found the plant, and brought a sample home. Took a pile of photos, under different light conditions. Same thing; the purplish mass always turns out a bright pink.

Why? Can anyone explain this?