By mid-December, the deciduous trees and shrubs in the Puget Lowlands are mostly bare, and many of the views in the forests open up. But much too soon our short winter season will end. In a half-dozen weeks or so the buds will start breaking, and the forest will begin to close in around us again. So, get out there if you have a chance, and take a look at the winter woods.
Leafless Bigleaf maples (Acer macrophyllum) appear above a field of Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and Sword fern (Polystichum munitum).A Sword fern soaks up light in the leafless woods.A cushion of moss covers the broken root stub of a windthrown tree.Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) pairs nicely with Oregon grape.Crustose lichens form random patterns on the trunks of Red alders (Alnus rubra).Summer deciduous Licorice ferns (Polypodium glycyrrhiza) favor the trunks of Bigleaf maples.Vine maple (Acer circinatum) photosynthesizes with its green bark.Youth-on-Age (Tolmiea menziesii) emerges through fallen leaves on a frosty morning.Young Western hemlocks (Tsuga heterophylla) naturally regenerate around a small forest opening.Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and other conifers will continue to photosynthesize through the mild, wet days of winter.A Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) sends down roots from its perch atop a redcedar stump.A few years ago, pteridologists made changes to the classification of Hard ferns, and Deer ferns became Struthiopteris spicant instead of Blechnum spicant.A Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) freezes motionless at full alert.Western hemlock cones on a fallen twig dangle like small bells above Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa).This crinkly Stereum fungus makes its living eating dead wood.Trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus) climbs a short way up the trunk of a Douglas fir.Salal (Gaultheria shallon) spreads across the understory next to the thin, twisting trunks of Red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium).It takes a hard freeze to turn the green leaves brown on the Fragrant fringecup (Tellima grandiflora).Twin Black cottonwoods (Populus trichocarpa) stretch into the sky, carefully making room for each other’s branches.Buds are already growing on the Osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis). Soon the woods will fill with new leaves.
