By: Irene Barna

Irene Barna — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:04:14 +0000

I like that tree too…
I walk by that Norway spruce many, many times and look at it carefully at every passing desperately hoping it “would make it”.
I, too, noticed the colonies of fungi marching in “guided” directions. I’d not seen a directional growth pattern like that before. I was perplexed, at the times, why there was such a defined pattern and am now amazed to learn that such a specific below-ground developing condition can have a surface indication of root deterioration.
Another reason I write, before break and tree removal season sets in, is to let you know of my real-time observation of the creation of the mound of cones beneath the large ground-resting branch near the sidewalk.
As I approached one noontime recently I noticed, from a bit of a distance, that a small rodent (thought it might be a red; but it was a small gray) was busily attending to a cone lying in the grass. It picked it up to carry it off revealing that a Norway spruce cone is about the same size as said rodent — no difficulty in carrying it however even having grasped it at the end. Said rodent hustled the cone to beneath the tree and when I arrived near that large branch, I saw that there is now a pile of spruce cones to which this critter was obviously adding. The cone pile is a good foot and a half to two feet in diameter and several inches high and it has not always been there!
So, when the crew arrives to tend to the tree, there could be someone using that pile of cones for winter refuge. Food source? I don’t know. Would it need to hoard to such a specific spot? I’ve read that squirrels do not necessarily find what they’ve buried.

By: Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:41:26 +0000

Thanks for reading! Guess I should have been more clear…It’s the spruce closest to McCullough in that big line, not the Holiday tree next to the Mead Chapel sidewalk. The holiday tree had some strange fungi at the base this year too, but I didn’t recognize it as a root rot type, and lost the picture of it somewhere on my hard drive. I’ll ID it when I find it, hopefully it’s not a bad one.

By: Jess Isler

Jess Isler — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:34:07 +0000

How sad! Is this the tree that would normally be decorated with lights this time of year?

Comments on: Lightning 1, Spruce 0

By: Irene Barna

By: Tim Parsons

By: Jess Isler