Tree Year 2011: American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) #2

Photo taken on January 19, 2011.

This American Persimmon I'm observing for The Tree Year 2011 has had a very hard life in recent years:


2007:  We had a very late hard freeze.  The persimmon had already bloomed and set fruit.  All fruits were killed by the freeze.  All our trees suffered that year.  Most were blooming or had bloomed, and a few were even beginning to leaf out.  All that tender growth was killed by the low temperatures.  There were hardly any fruits, nuts or other seed forms that year.  As I remember it, only the hickories escaped damage and bore nuts because they'd not yet bloomed.


2008:  As if to compensate for not bearing fruit the previous year, this persimmon tree was loaded with persimmon fruit in 2008 -- too loaded.  Several limbs broke under the weight of ripening persimmons.


2009:  A very bad year of all of the trees on our place.  We had a severe ice storm in late January.  No tree escaped damage.  Many we stripped of branches, snapped in two or fell and were uprooted.  It's not an exaggeration to say that the woods on our property will not look the same within my lifetime.  Considering all the damage, this persimmon came through the event in fairly good shape, only losing several more branches.  Branches lost in 2008 and 2009 are the reason for this tree's very asymmetrical shape and prolific new branch growth.


2010:  Close to normal, though our summer was very hot and dry.  The persimmon bore fruit and there were no obvious signs of ill effects caused by our hot, dry weather, but I'm sure the dry conditions added to the tree's load of stress.


2011:  I will observe, photograph and see what happens.

Celebrate a tree in 2011.  It's easy:  Observe, photograph, sketch, discuss and share with other tree huggers.  Please click the logo above for participation details.

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Tree Year 2011: American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) #2

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Although our winter is far from over, we've experience a couple of those unseasonably warm days. Friday the temperature made it up to 70°F. I saw several honey bees, especially in our compost. I suppose the bees (like humans) are drawn out of their hive by this warm weather, and are searching for flowers which they will not find. I don't know if our compost contains sugars the bees can actually use, but the bees are especially attracted to the citrus peels it contains.

(Editors Note:  A reader explained these bees are out of their hive on a cleansing flight.   When the weather is cold, bees "huddle together around the queen (and the honey.)  They slowly rotate from the outside to the center so that no one gets too cold.  At the core of this cluster of bees, workers shiver their bodies and raise the temperature of the cluster as high as 95 Fahrenheit, but just outside the cluster, the unheated portion of the hive may drop below freezing."  When the weather warms the bees "make a cleansing flight to eliminate their body wastes. Honey bees never defecate inside their hive. This is one of their behavioral traits that serve to help prevent disease from spreading through the colony. "  Bees also perform a variety of routine maintenance and housekeeping tasks on the hive on warmer days.  Please check out the two sites I've linked above for more information.  Thanks for cluing me in about cleansing flights , Sue!)

The photo above shows three of the characteristics that help identify this insect as a female (worker) honey bee. One of these is a pollen basket.  Female bees (queens and workers) in family Apidae (honey bees, carpenter bees, bumblebees and several lesser known groups) have specialized structures called pollen baskets (corbicula) used for temporarily storing collected pollen so it can be transported back to the nest/colony. The pollen basket is a smooth, concave structure surrounded by long, stiff hairs located on the tibia of the bee's two rear legs. As the bee visits flowers, she accumulates pollen all over her body. She uses her legs to aggregate the pollen and transfer it to her pollen basket. It may look as if a bee simply has hairy legs, but some of those hairs (setae) are actually combs and brushes used for transferring pollen. The pollen is combed, pressed, compacted, and transferred to her pollen basket. Honey and/or nectar is used to moisten the dry pollen so it will stay in place.  In this photo, her pollen baskets are empty because there are no blooming flowers for her to visit.  A photo of a honey bee with a full pollen basket is here.

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Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

SkyWatch: A Rip in the Clouds

Nearing sunset:  A rip in the clouds let sunshine leak through.

1/28/11:  Thanks to D. B. Echo for pointing out that what I photographed is probably a sun dog.  Sun dogs are sunlight reflected off ice crystal in the upper atmosphere.  They can occur any time and anywhere, but are always 22° away from the sun and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun.  All those criteria are correct for this photo.  (Please see Wikipedia for a more complete explanation and more photos.)

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SkyWatch: A Rip in the Clouds