Green in Winter: Jack Pine

In Indiana this scrubby native tree, Pinus banksiana, is frequent on the foredunes near Lake Michigan. Away from the lake most populations are likely to be escapes from cultivation. Further north, however, Jack Pine forms extensive native stands, providing habitat for the rare Kirtland's or "Jack Pine" Warbler.

The tree is often misshapen, or at least not perfectly cone-shaped, though on the foredunes it sometimes takes on a beautifully symmetrical form when it grows in dense stands. Photographed at the Indiana Dunes State Park in Porter County on January 26, 2013.

Lake Michigan Transmogrified

This is what Lake Michigan looks like when cold air picks it up and drops it on evergreens (if you don’t live near the U.S. Great Lakes, Google “lake effect”). It’s always fun to wake up to the beauty of new snow flocking everything. Here are some of the evergreens in my yard.

Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) with the interesting results of Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker visits

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

White Spruce (Picea glauca)

Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

Arbor Vitae (Thuja occidentalis)

White Pine (Pinus strobus)

Holly (Ilex sp.)

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)

Marginal Fern (Dryopteris marginalis)

Amazingly, these trees were purchased as seedlings for about one dollar apiece from the St. Joseph County Soil and Water Conservation District in northern Indiana.

“Let a slight snow come over the earth, and the tracks of men

will show how little the woods and fields are frequented.”

Henry David Thoreau Journal, February 3, 1857.