The weather hasn’t been cooperating fully, but I’ve still
managed to spend a little time each day working on the Cedar Maintenance. This completed section is part of an eight
acre field that I hope to finish up before the end of the month.
I try to take plenty of before and after photos to document
my efforts. Unfortunately, most of the
small cedars don’t show up in a landscape photo.
The change displayed in this after photo is more a result of
the appearance of a sunny afternoon than the loss of a few visible cedars.
The density of cedar growth varies considerably across the
field. I’ve estimated that, depending on
conditions, it takes somewhere between 2 and 25 hours to clear the little
cedars from an acre of ground. It is
somewhat discouraging to suddenly find yourself in a close growing forest of
young cedars.
In some of the poorer soil areas, the cedars barely reach
out of the short growing grass.
My bushel sized tub can hold several hundred of these tiny
plants. This collection was made from an
area just over a quarter acre in size and there is still room for more in the
tub.
The prevalence of small cedars is influenced strongly by the
other plants growing in the field. This
large Red Oak can be thought of as a cedar magnet.
The oak doesn’t actually attract cedars. It’s birds that find a solitary tree to be an
excellent roost. Fruit eating birds,
with bellies full of cedar berries, will flock to the tree to spend the night. Before departing for the next days foraging,
the birds will expel with their droppings the indigestible cedar seeds. With their coats softened by the bird’s
digestive juices, the seeds are in a perfect condition for germination. Several seeds can be found in each dropping, so
it’s common to find these little groupings of three or four seedlings growing
tightly together. The result is an ever growing
population of cedars developing in the shadow of the oak.
The seeds for this group probably all fell together and
benefited by the small nutrient boost provided to the soil by the bird
dropping. Fortunately, the majority of
these seedlings will die before they are more than a couple of years old.
Enough of the seedlings do survive to create a cedar thicket
beneath the oak tree.
Besides attracting flocks of seed dropping birds, the oak
leaves provide a complication for those trying to clear out the small
cedars. The red of the leaf matches
closely the red coloration of a winter stressed cedar. Leaves propped up in the grass look much like
cedars and the red cedars are often identical to a leaf.
I’ve found that Tuliptree seedlings are becoming invasive in
many of the fields. They are most
prevalent along the base of banks formed by massive gully erosion that occurred
in the fields decades ago.
Windblown Tuliptree seeds are carried by the wind until they
fall over the bank. Only a small
percentage of the seeds end up producing trees, but that is still quite a lot
of trees growing where I prefer they were absent.
The Tuliptree seed source is clearly visible at the edge of
the woods south-west of the field.
Prevailing winds carry the seeds several hundred feet into the
field. Cutting and spraying the seedling
Tuliptrees will be an added work item on next summer’s list. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that while
working to complete one item on my list, I will find several more items to add
in its place. I would hate to run out of
things to do.
There are always neat things to be found on the small cedars. This is the mud nest of a Potter Wasp. The wasp creates a hollow ball of mud in
which are placed several caterpillars and a single wasp egg. The wasp larva feeds on the caterpillars and
then pupates within the mud casing.
The Comma butterfly mimics a dead leaf, but it clearly
didn’t belong on this cedar stem. Commas
overwinter as adults and can often be seen flying on warm winter days. I found this one on a chilly morning and it
wasn’t about to move.
I carried the cut cedar, butterfly and all, and wedged it
securely at the edge of the brush pile.
I figured that if the butterfly didn’t move for the rest of the winter,
it would be just as sheltered here as it would have been in the field.
With a background of dead leaves, the butterfly’s camouflage
worked quite well. Afternoon
temperatures topped out at about 55 degrees.
When I came by later, the butterfly had gone. Hopefully, it went someplace more secure than
the little cedars still to be cut.
You are one dedicated prairie preserver! Never thought of an oak tree as a 'cedar magnet'. We have two Tulip trees surviving here, but they're very unusual to find in Ontario, especially this far north, so we'd never consider them invasive. It's all the context.
ReplyDeleteHi Furry Gnome. Rarity does seem to make many things more welcome.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie.
ReplyDelete