June started with a big storm. The tree was whipped up against the
window over and over and the boys stayed up to watch the lightning.
In the morning, we noticed that a broken branch was hanging off of the
little sycamore tree down the street and found twigs from my tree
littering the ground. I brought a couple of twigs from my tree inside to
study more closely. (I've never taken anything off of my tree - I just
couldn't bring myself to destroy even a tiny piece - so I was kind of
excited about being "allowed" to take these inside to examine.)
This twig was so interesting because all of leaves its leaves are squashed together pointing in the same direction. They weren't open like the leaves I see from my window. I wonder if this branch might have actually been hanging upside down? Whether they were pointing up or down or were crowded on one side, the leaves have clearly grown this way. Looking at the stem, I can see that instead of having the leaf stems grow in truly opposite directions, each one curves over in the one direction.
This view of the twig also provides a great look at the current growth. The new growth is the green stem at the end of the twig. Look at all that that's shot out of the twig in the last month and a half! This twig also has a tiny twiglet branching off of it with proportionally smaller growth.
The new stems on the tree seem to be similar, with larger twigs having more growth. Here's another tiny twiglet:
And some longer growth on a larger twig:
The longest growth I can see from my window is on a twig I can't reach. It looks to have grown about 4" so far this spring!
Impressive.
Well, it seems impressive until you walk by the Ailanthus. Wanna see how much it's grown this spring?
That's about a foot and a half so far! Dang.
PS - In the same four months, my boys have each grown 3/4".
This twig was so interesting because all of leaves its leaves are squashed together pointing in the same direction. They weren't open like the leaves I see from my window. I wonder if this branch might have actually been hanging upside down? Whether they were pointing up or down or were crowded on one side, the leaves have clearly grown this way. Looking at the stem, I can see that instead of having the leaf stems grow in truly opposite directions, each one curves over in the one direction.
This view of the twig also provides a great look at the current growth. The new growth is the green stem at the end of the twig. Look at all that that's shot out of the twig in the last month and a half! This twig also has a tiny twiglet branching off of it with proportionally smaller growth.
The new stems on the tree seem to be similar, with larger twigs having more growth. Here's another tiny twiglet:
And some longer growth on a larger twig:
The longest growth I can see from my window is on a twig I can't reach. It looks to have grown about 4" so far this spring!
Impressive.
Well, it seems impressive until you walk by the Ailanthus. Wanna see how much it's grown this spring?
PS - In the same four months, my boys have each grown 3/4".
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