No Releaf from the Drought

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Listers,

Here's an article I've submitted to the North Grenville Times.

fred.
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---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
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No Releaf from the Drought

Fred Schueler – Fragile Inheritance Natural History

As one drove along the 401 during this summer’s drought, the trees on
the tops of the rockcuts – Oaks and Maples – had shriveled dead brown
leaves, and in Bishops Mills we documented the death and loss of leaves
on trees and shrubs: Sugar & Manitoba Maples, American Elms, Black
Locusts, Willows, and Common & Shining Buckthorn.

As the drought progressed, with repeated “level 3 low water advisories”
from Conservation Authorities, wells drying up, fields of Corn and Soy
going brown, creeks ceasing to flow, and daily buckets of water being
donated to Squash plants, the meteorological question was: “When will it
break?”

After the 1999 drought, with no rain recorded between 8 June & 8
September, and a rainy September & October, on 31 October we collected a
Buttercup with “one bloom on lateral stem below two drought-killed
buds,” and Willow, Aspen, and Common Buckthorn were growing new green
leaves, which were still noted in mid-November.

The 2001 drought broke with a rainy September & October, and in an
extensive survey around Bishops Mills on 18 November, Apples, Aspens,
Balsam Poplar, and both Buckthorns were noted as releafing, with fewer
Red-osier Dogwood & Meadowsweet Spirea, one clump of releafed Manitoba
Maple shoots, and, on 3 December, unseasonable flowerheads on
extensively releafed Lilac. On 13 October 2011 & 6 November 2012
releafing was noted on a few Common Buckthorn, but none has been noted
since.

This year the drought began after 33 mm of rain on 20 & 22 June, and
despite scattered showers through the summer it was only assuaged by 23
mm of rain on 7 October, and broken by 53 mm falling from 20-31 October,
followed by 10 cm of snow from the displaced Polar Vortex on 9 November.
This meant there was no well-watered autumn for new leaves to form,
suggesting that this may gave been the most severe drought in recent
decades.

It is a conventional wisdom that invasives from northern Europe retain
their leaves longer than native species do, and on the snowy 9 November
Lilacs were variably all green, yellow, or leafless, Siberian Elm had
shed only a few of their green leaves, the single Norway Maple was
yellow with only a few leaves shed, among the Common Buckthorn some
bushes retained quite a few green leaves, and the Shining Buckthorn
retained a modest fraction of yellowish-green leaves (many Buckthorns in
shallow-soil areas had shed their leaves early, while still in the grip
of the drought). Among native species, Manitoba Maples, the Red Maple,
& American Elms shed their leaves some time ago, and some of the smaller
Sugar Maples retain some pale leaves on their lower branches, while the
ones which had their leaves die in the drought in August still retain
the brown leaves.