Young Oaks at Brighton Dam Azalea Garden

There lots of big oak and tulip poplar trees at Brighton Dam Azalea Garden that provide the dappled environment that azaleas need. The surprise for me this time was the large number of smaller oak trees. There must have been a large crop of acorns in the past few years that the squirrels planted and forgot and the result were a group of foot high oaks with tehri leaves unfurling. The leaves of one were still wrinkled and red.

Another was a little further along and the leaves are looking more like oak leaves (red oak probably).

I wish there was a stand of young oaks like this to show the pre-schoolers when they come for a Nature Tales field trip and we talk about the life cycle trees.

The is such a great time of year to see how trees come bare from the bare branches of winter – and the small trees are much easier to observe than the giant trees with their branches so far above eye level.

There is an art like quality to the unfurling of leaves as well…I could resist these very young leaves emerging from the bud.