3/10 Blog Post #7
Today I went back out into my phenology spot to look at tree twigs. I could not find any Red Maples, Red Oaks, Paper Birch, or American Beech with low twigs in my spot so I had to continue on the path for a little while. I noticed a large American Beech along the side of the trail so I went to see if I could find some low hanging twigs. I found a few small trees beside it and tried to identify one by its buds. They are in the photo above.
The bark is what really gave away that it was a Beech. There were some other signs that the Beech was not a young Maple, like some people confuse them for. The terminal buds on the Beech were slim, long, and only had one bud whereas the buds on Sugar and Striped Maples have a terminal bud that are short and have three buds off it.