Arbor Day, April 24th

Large oak tree with sprawling branches and green leaves seen from below.

The fuzzy needles of the dark purple-green pine tree behind my computer screen sweep up and out across the silver-framed window panels beyond the scope of my vision. Flexible branches of this tree and all healthy trees point up and out on most non-weeping varieties. As trees make pine cones, fruit, leaves, seeds, flowers, bark, needles, twigs, and sticks, the air around them improves. The buds formed in the fall now widen.

"Can we be flexible palm trees?" my friend asked her children. Can we be steady and stalwart like a tulip tree? During storms, the tulip tree, ten feet from my back door, drops lichen-heavy limbs. Spiky seedpods from his good friend, a Sweetgum, create a further hazard.

I look at the trees, and ideas form. Some people must work without the sight of a tree. I wonder whether they mind. Lichens are also fun to look at and think about. Rare in urban areas and often found on tombstones, Golden Moonglow lichen is a thin, dusty-green, fluttering lichen with a rounded edge. Lipstick Powderhorn, found on rotting wood in forests with few visitors, is even rarer in urban areas. Some have cups of light copper color and an orange base. Fungus and algae work together to form lichen. Scientists differ on whether the relationship between the two types of organisms is one in which they work for the benefit of both, or if the algae is being taken advantage of in a parasitic relationship. Mercer County Library Systems' collection covers trees, the things trees make, and the lichens that grow on them. I hope you have a tree in your line of sight, and you notice the layers of lichen that might grow on it. A selection of books on trees and lichens from the MCLS collection is listed below: