One Year Pond Study: Week 34 – Autumn Tree Study

Here is our pond this week:

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This week we did a quick tree study on our chosen tree: the Ash.  To call it a tree study is a stretch, but I took some photos for us to at least compare them to the other two seasons we’ve studied.

Here is the Ash tree in Spring, where you can see the buds on the tips of all the branches:

There it is, our Ash tree in all it's glory

In summer, where the obvious change is in the abundance of leaves:

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And now in Autumn, a bare tree with just the odd few leaves waiting to fall:

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Here is a close up of a branch in the spring, with its reddish/pink flower:

And a close up. The flowers have no petals, but will form into bunches of winged fruits, which are green at first and then turn brown

In the summer and the flowers have died down and produced a profusion of branched leaves:

On the right you can see last year's growth, whereas on the left, where the leaves are growing is the new growth, seen by the lighter branch colour.DSC_0531

And now in the Autumn.  The ends of the branches still show their Ash characteristic black bud, but the leaves have almost all fallen:

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As we drove past the pond yesterday we saw an enormous change with banks being built and machinery every which way you look. I am itching to get there with the children and my camera!  Hopefully tomorrow.  I don’t want to miss getting a picture of the machinery which is sitting right in the middle of the pond!  I’ll post next week.