A Walk in the Woods in June

Lost Art Press

With June comes summer, and the forest pretty much goes on cruise control. Everything that was happening keeps happening, and not much new happens.

American basswood (Tilia americana) is a late bloomer, literally. It blooms in the early part of June:

I had a hard time getting a photo; this is about the best I could get. (The light kept changing, and the breeze kept moving things in and out of the shadows and in and out of focus.) You can see a tongue-like bract above each cluster of flowers. These bracts are much paler than the leaves, so they stand out, even from a distance.

Here’s another June-blooming tree, this one with wild-and-crazy flowers:

It’s a chestnut, probably a Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima). While Chinese chestnuts (imported after the demise of the American chestnut due to chestnut blight) are common near houses, this one is…

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