Can
you identify what's in this photo?
Each Wednesday morning
on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page
the Lutherlyn Environmental
Education Program posts a photo.
Readers
have all morning and afternoon
to
make their best guess about what the photo is.
Around
6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.
Each
week's What is it Wednesday post
will
also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
after it is posted on Facebook,
sometimes
with additional bonus information.
In
addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday
on the
Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
we
will be reposting old editions,
creating
a What is it Wednesday archive.
This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on
December 16, 2020.
And
the answer is....
It is another species found on the Lutherlyn property primarily because it was planted many years ago as part of Eisler Nurseries. While eastern red cedar is native to eastern north America, it does not grow anywhere else on the Lutherlyn property other than the old nursery areas near the Enchanted Forest and Nursery trails, so it is unlikely that it would have grown here without human help. (Most of the evergreens at Lutherlyn were planted here at some point in the past, or are descendants of those planted trees.)
Eastern red cedar is described as having “needle-like
leaves” or “scale-like needles” – the young needles look like the ones in the
photo, while older needles can be arranged in a flatter fan and have a
less-pointy and more overlapping scale-like pattern. The bark is smooth, soft
and fibrous and is layered in vertical strips. All cedars are part of the
cypress family; within that family eastern red cedar is part of the juniper
genus. The needles of eastern red cedar look very similar to the
low-to-the-ground juniper shrub.
 |
| juniper on left, eastern red cedar on right |
Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on
Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when
they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!
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