Watercress

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) at Prophetstown State Park.  Watercress stays green throughout the winter.  Here at a creek just past the outflow of the fishing pond.  The watercress is in clear spring water flowing into the creek.  All photos taken Dec. 26, 2014.

A view of the spring, coming out of the base of a big sugar maple tree to the right side of the picture.

 

A closer view of the watercress growing in the spring water.

A view of the watercress pulled out of the water.

Link to previous post on watercress:

Link to Wikipedia page on watercress:

Another link to Nasturtium officinale:

Link to watercress as an edible plant:

Beaver activity at Celery Bog Park

 

Evidence of recent beaver activity at the edge of the wetland at Celery Bog Park. This is a hackberry tree that blew over in a windstorm a few years ago, exposing the roots. The beaver have been chewing on the roots here.

A tree chewed on and felled by beaver. This is near the site of the hackberry tree in the first picture.

This is the first beaver activity in Celery Bog Park that I've noticed in several years.

Both pictures taken Dec. 16, 2014.

Link to previous post on beaver activity:

Ash trees cut down in West Lafayette

The ash trees in the parking lot of the West Lafayette Payless Grocery store took a big hit last week.  They were all cut down!  This was not necessary.  These trees were not dead.  The emerald ash borers had been eating on them but only some of the branches had been killed.  The roots were still healthy and the trees had been sending out alternate shoots to survive the insect attack.  But they couldn’t survive the bad advice given by supposed tree experts who are out to make a fast buck chainsawing trees down.  To be extra sneaky about it they waited until winter when the leaves had fallen and the trees look completely dead. 

This ash tree in the parking lot near Payless was cut down Dec. 3, 2014 (photo above).  Photo taken Dec. 5, 2014.

This ash tree is growing along the public hiking/bicycle trail just west of the West Lafayette Payless.  It also has been affected by the emerald ash borer.  A lot of the branches have died back due to the insect feeding on the inner bark of the trunk.  It is still alive and should not be cut down.  But that could very well be in the plans.

The photo on the bottom is a closer view of the same tree along side the trail.  The green spot of paint may be a mark dooming the tree for removal.  The small branches sprouting out of the tree trunk near the ground is a survival response of the tree to the damage from the insect attack.  Photos taken Dec. 5, 2014.