catching up on botany in time for spring

i purchased a Golden Field Guide to North American Trees at the New Jersey Audubon Society Plainsboro Preserve yesterday. A few of us went for a little spring stroll there.

Naim amassed an impressive collection of sticks and stones...



And we also had an exciting encounter with the tiniest turtle I have ever met... and close encounters with a snake, a hawk, and some geese...all out there in the wild.




With the aid of my new book--the Golden Field guide to North American Trees I have finally been able to set to rest a question that no one has been able to give me a satisfying answer to... What are those beautiful trees that people tell me are Tulip Trees? Are they Magnolias or not? In fact they ARE! They are not native to the US. They are Japanese Magnolias. Well they seem to be doing very well in New Jersey. They had their week of splendor and now we have to wait for another year before we can enjoy them again.



In the meantime we still have time to enjoy the non-Magnolia type of tulips like these that George and Cherie planted at the Philadelphia Baha'i Center.

My newly acquired book has also enabled me to confidently identify the tree outside my window as an American sycamore.
Outside the other window I have a Ginkgo tree. Did you know there is only one species in the Ginkgo family? There were many species in prehistoric times but now only one remains. That does give this tree an added air of mystery don't you think?

I have always associated it with mystical moments around Buddhist temples in China and so have been delighted to have one so close to my bed.