tree measurers, not tree huggers

here kim wells and i are measuring a large white oak on a bioreserve assessment site in lyon township, while lisa peshke took the photo. assuming kim and i can reach six feet each (our hands were touching on the other sides), the tree must be about fourteen feet in circumference. that's a big tree, but they come bigger: michigan's largest recorded white oak is more than eighteen feet in girth.

i've been on seven assessments now and each has been different. the biggest adventure was when three of us got lost, trying to avoid crossing an irregularly shaped wetland by heading for higher ground. we became disoriented and soon were off the map of the site we were to assess. we didn't have a compass but could see the sun getting dangerously low in the west. another was when the landowner had forgotten that we were coming and judging from the liquor on his breath at ten on a saturday morning apparently had been starting his weekend early. he got disoriented in his own forest, but the other volunteer pulled out his iphone and the gps saved the day. hi-tech can be useful

there are so many abandoned agricultural fields growing up in invasive plants to be seen everywhere driving around the countryside. the more i learn and the more i see, the more discouraging it is.

so, filled with the desire to keep learning, i'm taking a field biology class at the community college. i've had two previously, one on trees and one on winter field study, but this is taught by a new professor, full of enthusiasm and some different ideas. one requirement is that we choose a spot somewhere in the natural world to sit in each week for at least thirty minutes and write a field journal entry on what we observe. of course, this appeals to me very much.


if you look very closely you can see my chair at the edge of the swamp to the north of our hayfield. it will be interesting to see how this little landscape changes over the next four months. one of the most photogenic plants that i can see from my chair is the cucumber vine (Echinocystis lobata) also called the 'wild balsam apple.' it is in the gourd family.


the pod looks dangerously bristly but in fact the little prickles are quite soft. it's enough to just mimicing a scary look to keep a passing deer from taking a nibble. inside is a pulpy, slippery white lobed capsule that covers four large brown and white seeds. these are perfectly camoflaged to disappear into the damp melange of soil below when they fall. i know, because i dropped one and couldn't find it at all. this is another form of insurance that it will reproduce and not end up in the stomach of a possum or racoon.

looking on line, i found that the attractive seeds were used by the Oglala for beads. and that various native american tribes used the 'cucumber' itself and/or its roots for a number of medcinal purposes, from stomach troubles to reumatism to chills and fevers. the menominee called it the 'greatest of all medecines' and also considered it a love potion.

the cucumber vine is native and not in any way an endangered species, and i do wonder if its powers have been tested by the conventional pharmaceutical establishment.