27 December 04

Snowshoeing Alone

snowshoes.jpgThis morning I borrowed Martin’s new snowshoes to go for a little saunter through the woods (about half a block away) and to the lake. We had quite a bit of snow yesterday afternoon and overnight, and it was a fine powder covering a lot of ice—perfect snowshoeing conditions.

Although I used to live in New England, I lived in Cambridge, not in the country. berries.jpgI don’t know these trees now, if I ever did. I do remember the birds and their calls but there aren’t so many of those about—it’s probably below 0 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this—but the trees, if they aren’t birches, are outside my knowledge, especially the conifers. This part of Maine is mixed deciduous and conifer but if you go only a little further north it gets to be predominantly coniferous, so it’s on a border zone.

I feel like an outsider and a guest. I’m grateful to the woods for welcoming my novice attempts to get to know them this morning. Now, Dave, Beth: what on earth are these berries?

Postscript, December 30: the berries are a form of deciduous holly, ilex verticillata. They are also known as winterberry and black alder and as Beth notes, grow in close proximity to water. As Tattler notes, they are snatched by many for decorations, so I was glad to see them untouched in several places by the lakeside on my various walks.

Posted by at 04:28 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. Pica, they look like what we call (I know, it doesn’t make sense) black alder. They grow in swampy territory and the berries are usually carried on tall branches. This is a very small bush though, and I can’t say with absolute certainty that this is what they are.

    — beth    28. December 2004, 08:30    Link
  2. I don’t know; don’t look like anything i’ve seen around here. And my botanical buddy is on vacation this week, so i can’t forward the picture to her.

    — Dave    28. December 2004, 16:12    Link
  3. They might be Winterberry, which is something fairly common in Massachusetts in the winter. For whatever reason (that I havent researched), there seems to be a bumper crop of them this winter. In fact, they posted a sign at the entrance to the Parker River National Wildlife refuge asking people to leave the berries behind for the birds (vs. taking some home for holiday decorating).

    — tattler    28. December 2004, 17:49    Link

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