Question for the Botanist Types Here......
Horse Plains Drifter
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We bought our 5 acre place in 1991. 2-1/2 to 3 acres is a stand of planted Douglas Fir. Over the years there has been some natural regeneration of western hemlock and western red cedar, which are also native to the pacific northwest, and which some of both are growing on the river bank at the back of our place.
There is also a native tree called a big leaf maple that grows in the PNW. There are none of these on the river bank, nor on neighboring properties, to my knowledge. Well, about 6-7 years ago I saw a big leaf maple sprouting on our place. Then a couple years later, one or two more. Then more, and more every year.
A couple months ago, I realized they they are taking over. This morning while I was out with the dog, I pulled 70 of them. My question is: Why so many years before showing? Can seeds lay dormant for 20-25 years on the ground? Don't get me wrong, I think they're cool and want them around. We just don't need 300-400 of them though.
Comments
I don't claim to be any kind of an expert in this field but I do know that a lot of trees and plants are spread by birds. They eat the fruit\nut\seed and it later passes through their digestive system and is dropped miles away from where it was eaten. Dropped and fertilized at the same time as well!
I don't know about your 'big leaf maples' but many trees 'spread' by the root system aspen being one.
Maples do not spread like aspen, where all of the aspens in a grove on a mountain side are all one plant. Maple seeds are wind blown, and with the right winds can carry for miles. That means with the right winds, a good stand of maple can send you a really nice start on your new maple grove.
Agree with the man He Dog. Seen this before.
just to note; around here (Wis.) we have a tree called the 'silver maple' realy a aspen relative that will spred by the root system
Mike, I think silver maple does not spread by roots, but does enthusiastically spread seed. It is in the soap berry family, a different family than aspen, so they are certainly not closely related. I can find no references to silver maple propagating vegetativly. They do grow fast, have weak limbs which are prone to breaking in wind or ice/snow.
Let them come up and then get rid of the ones that you don't want when they are small.
I was gonna blame the squirrels on the seeds but wind is the distributor. Okay. I'm wondering where are the trees the seeds are blowing from?
upwind...........
Maples will definitely put up suckers, and especially when the tree gets stressed.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I can certainly attest to maples (and bradford pear and redbuds) breaking really easily in icy conditions. We've had 2 out of the last 3 years of bad winters in Oklahoma. We had a real early freeze, before Halloween, so a lot of trees still had leaves when we got over an inch and a half of freezing rain. We lost sooooooo many trees, or limbs from trees. It took me every weekend from October through April to clean up just the 3 acres I mow out of my 10 acres of woods. I do not have a single maple that survived. 2 redbud out of 7 made it, and one bradford out of 4 made it, and it was just a stump. Much of my other broken trees and limbs were blackjack oak which have to be the most useless oaks. They rot from the inside out and sometimes healthy looking trees fall.
Or, they look like this (note the split down the trunk that goes well into the ground): LOL