SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
jorginho_gw

Fantastic trip to the woods, bizar Picea Sitchensis!

jorginho
14 years ago

Well, I went to two woods today. What a day! Glorious sunshine, deep blue skies here in the Netherlands. After some frost temperature maxed out at about 10 C. No wind...great!

I want to see two forests, because they are special. One is supposed to be the only forest outside the Pacific NW that has a comparable vegetation with a lot of ferns. I must have missed something, because I was not impressed. I saw no abundance of ferns and also virtually no cover of young Picea Sitchensis. Some Pseudotsuga's.

But oke, I didn't have much time so I went to another wood nearby. Some researcher (who also mentioned the former forest) had a thorough report about this one. They made some gaps in the forest. I looked at maps and tried to locate it. After 2 hours driving I found it quite easily. What is interesting is that the report clearly stated that in one gap there was massive Picea Sitchensis rejuvenation. What can I say....I found the sight nothing short of spectacular!! Here I found a forest with a lot of ferns, littered with young Picea Sitchensis, lots of mushrooms, all sorts of moss. I was perplexed. What struck me was the look of many large Picea Sitchensis (about 25-30 m high). They were incredibly slender! The to 5-10 m of tree was in perfect shape. lots of cones but no wider than 30-50 cm or so (that is 10-20 inches). I am 100% sure it was Picea Sitchensis, looking at the bark, the cones and the seedling beneath it (very stif and sharp needles) and the spot where I found them.

In the forest very near to my home, there is one small Picea Sitchensis that resembles Picea Omorika. I know it is not, it is a seedling of 8 m height. Here also the cones, the needles and the parents are clearly not picea omorika.

But those in the forest today looked like those very small trees you find in the arctic. Is this normal? If not, what is the reason. We have snow etc, but nothing to select trees with a slender shape.

Pineresin: you have Picea Sitchensis in the forest. Anything like that seen over there. May be you have an explanation??

I have a lot of pictures, but I don't know how to upload. Picasa album eems of no use for this forum...

Thanks for the anwers!

Comments (19)

0