Tree Following: March 2020

Cornus kousa in Penlee Park, Penzance

Summer seems a long time away still. The park is still quite wintry, and the ground gets waterlogged, especially where people walk their dogs.

From afar, the little dogwood looks just the same as last month. It still has a few leaves from last year clinging on:

However, when you get closer, something looks a bit different:

The old leaves are still there, but there are loads of buds with new leaves springing up and bursting forth.

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You can see the flower buds waiting for warmer weather too.

Some of the leaves have turned over, like a dog’s ears. It’s not the wind blowing them, there wasn’t much wind that day (for a change).

In the sheltered Memorial Gardens, the other Cornus kousa is also showing the same effect, so perhaps it is because the leaves are preparing to fall later in the year.

This tree is much more lush and verdant, and apparently evergreen, or semi-evergreen.

There’s a primrose flowering at its foot, almost covered in soil where the rain has splashed.

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Another tree ( a plane, I think) which I observed this month was one that had a little bird tapping at a branch. I was delighted to see a nuthatch, which flew into a hole in the trunk, and was too quick and too far away for me even to try to take a photo. I’ll be looking closely every time I go past now. Wonder if there’s a pair, and will they be nesting?

Thanks to squirrelbasket for hosting the Tree Following posts. To find out more, head over to her blog:

https://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/author/squirrelbasket/