Decorative Riparian Trees

     For a couple of hours on the cold, windy afternoon of February 2 of this year, I explored a quarter mile long stretch of deciduous woodland along a creek in northeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to observe nature.  I was impressed with the variety of decorative, bottomland trees in that narrow woods in winter, including sycamores, river birches, ash-leafed maples, shag-bark hickories, pin oaks and swamp white oaks.  Since those trees were all bare of foliage, a visit to that woodland was more enjoyable because I could see the trees' different beauties
     Sycamore trees have mottled light and pale-gray bark that allows them to stand out in riparian woods.  When pieces of the older, gray bark fall away, the lighter, newer bark is visible, causing the mottling on trunks and branches.  The light-colored bark of sycamore trees lining streams and creeks can be seen from a distance and indicates where those waterways are in the distant landscape.
     Sycamores also have many round seed balls that hang decoratively on long stems from the tips of twigs through much of winter.  The tiny seeds float away on the wind and some of them sprout in areas of moist soil along waterways.
     River birches have rustic and attractive, loose outer bark that profusely peels away in paper-thin strips from trunks and limbs, a reason why this species is planted on many lawns.  This tree also has appealing, drooping catkins that sway a bit in the wind during winter and early spring.
     Ash-leafed maple trees have decorative pairs of seeds on their twigs through winter.  Each seed has an embryo and food stored in the bulging part and a flat wing that spirals the seed on the wind away from parent trees in spring.  Seeds that aren't eaten by rodents and other critters might sprout into new ash-leafed maple seedlings.
     Shag-bark hickory trees have shaggy bark that looks like it will fall off trunks and branches at any time.  Each long strip of loose bark curls out from the tree at both ends, but the middle of each one is still attached to the tree, for a while.  The shaggy appearance of the bark makes shag-bark hickory trees look rustic and attractive in bottomland woods with damp soil.
     Shag-bark hickories produce many hard-shelled nuts in thick, green husks.  Squirrels chew through the husks and nut shells inside to consume the nuts' meat.  Only squirrels have jaws strong enough and teeth sharp enough to ingest hickory nut meat.  
     The lower limbs of pin oaks droop like the wire supports of an umbrella, making that kind of oak decorative in bottomlands.  And some dead and ginger-brown leaves of pin oaks cling decoratively to their twigs through winter.  Sleet rattles through those crisp leaves, adding more natural sound in the quiet of winter.
     Pin oaks also produce lots of small acorns that are food for white-tailed deer, black bears, rodents, wild turkeys, American crows, blue jays and other kinds of birds and mammals.  Squirrels and jays store pin oak acorns in the ground and tree cavities to eat during winter.
     Swamp white oaks are uncommon anywhere, including here in Lancaster County.  This is another rustic, attractive stream-side and bottomland tree.  Swamp white oaks have slightly gnarled limbs, rough bark and some dead leaves clinging to their twigs all winter.  And they produce acorns that lots of wildlife consume.   
     While admiring those floodplain trees along the stream, I saw one abandoned nest each of bald-faced hornets and Baltimore orioles.  Though each of those beautifully-built cradles was created the summer before, they were not visible until winter when deciduous foliage is off the trees.   
     Some bigger trees in those riparian woods each had a few cavities in them, caused either by woodpeckers chipping nurseries from dead wood on limbs or wind tearing branches off trees, exposing the wood underneath to insects and decay.  Carolina chickadees, house wrens and other small, cavity-nesting birds, and gray squirrels, flying squirrels and deer mice raise young in the smaller hollows.  And raccoons, barred owls, wood ducks, American kestrels and other critters live and rear offspring in larger cavities.  
     Many roots of some trees that sprouted right along the waterway were exposed to view because of the stream washing away parts of some banks over the years.  Those sheltering tangles of roots are home to raccoons, mink, nesting Louisiana waterthrushes and wintering winter wrens.  
     Riparian trees are decorative, and feed and shelter wildlife that live among them.  They make bottomland woods more enjoyable to visit, even in winter.