Tree Bark

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

Does anyone else enjoy examining tree trunks for various fungi, insects, tree frogs, ect. just to see what you can find - not looking for any particular species, just curiousity and wonder about what tiny, often camouflaged lifeforms you'll discover hidden amongst the tree bark?

 

[TBRS1]

I've seen an oak tree with hundreds of tiny (1/2 inch) mushrooms growing from the bark, up to about 2 feet above ground.

If a person is looking for tardigrades (water bears), the place e to look is in the moss at the base of a mossy tree.

I love finding salamanders hiding in rotten logs. Red backed salamanders are common here. They look like this (not my photo):



Colorful salamanders are common here, but the they are masters of concealment so one has to know where to look.

 

[Mary Terry]

I like to watch the ant trails up tree trunks. For years, I had a major problem with ants attacking the hummingbird feeders. Finally, I started hanging the feeders on the ends of 40-foot-long branches that come out of the pecan trees about 40+ feet up the trunk. The ants haven't figured out how to climb up the tree trunks and go down the branches to get to the sugar. YAY! Problem solved.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

One summer in college I had a job painting yellow tags on trees to mark the border of a natural area. As a result, I became quite intimate with tree bark. By the end of the summer I could identify tree species by the type of bark they had.

 

[TBRS1]

One summer in college I had a job painting yellow tags on trees to mark the border of a natural area. As a result, I became quite intimate with tree bark. By the end of the summer I could identify tree species by the type of bark they had.

I should not admit to this, but it's funny so I will anyway -

I thought I could do that to, which is why the first time I tapped maple trees for syrup, half the trees I tapped were oaks.

Now I mark the trees in the fall when they show color, and don't try to identify them by their bark in the winter.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

I should not admit to this, but it's funny so I will anyway -

I thought I could do that to, which is why the first time I tapped maple trees for syrup, half the trees I tapped were oaks.

Now I mark the trees in the fall when they show color, and don't try to identify them by their bark in the winter.

I hope you realized your mistake before tasting.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

I like to watch the ant trails up tree trunks. For years, I had a major problem with ants attacking the hummingbird feeders. Finally, I started hanging the feeders on the ends of 40-foot-long branches that come out of the pecan trees about 40+ feet up the trunk. The ants haven't figured out how to climb up the tree trunks and go down the branches to get to the sugar. YAY! Problem solved.

Diatomaceous Earth works great for ants too.

 

[TBRS1]

I hope you realized your mistake before tasting.

You can't milk a frog. Likewise, oaks don't give sap, so there's nothing to taste .

 

[Jumpinbare]

I should not admit to this, but it's funny so I will anyway -

I thought I could do that to, which is why the first time I tapped maple trees for syrup, half the trees I tapped were oaks.

Now I mark the trees in the fall when they show color, and don't try to identify them by their bark in thI've seen an oak tree with hundreds of tiny (1/2 inch) mushrooms growing from the bark, up to about 2 feet above ground.

Hey, I like oak syrup!

If a person is looking for tardigrades (water bears), the place to look is in the moss at the base of a mossy tree.

I thought tardigrades were microsopic.

 

[TBRS1]

Hey, I like oak syrup!


I thought tardigrades were microsopic.

Oak syrup and alcohol are scotch. You need the alcohol to act as a solvent to extract the syrup from oak barrels .

Yup, they are microscopic so you need to take moss back to your microscope and rinse them out of the moss with water. Then hunt for them on slides one drop of the rinse water at a time.