Comments on: Merry Christmas

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:03:11 +0000

Maybe they didn’t put the trees in water back in the old days?

By: Lucy

Lucy — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:23:51 +0000

I’m very late to this but it’s magical.

My mum said they used to only do the tree on Christmas Eve. I think modern trees are designed to last a bit longer, the old ones used to drop needles at such a rate that 12 days was really all you got out of them.

I used to love blowing eggs…

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:28:35 +0000

(And thanks for fixing my typos!)

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:50:17 +0000

You’re probably right, Dave. I bet it was the Asian species. I didn’t realize it grew so rampantly.

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:17:24 +0000

Hmm… well, perhaps you can find some alternative, perhaps open-source version. I keep getting bitten by the ohnoseconds… and I just now saw the *other* typo, at the beginning of my first comment!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:48:14 +0000

Thanks for this extra information, David — really helpful. Should point visitors who come in from Google in the right direction.

I might be able to re-introduce a comment preview or editing function like I had before, but I’m concerned about too much javascript slowing down load times. Also, the major plugin for that now charges for upgrades.

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:30:18 +0000

And a bit more information from Duke University:

The alternate, deciduous leaves of American Bittersweet are narrower than the nearly round leaves of Oriental Bittersweet. Because Oriental Bittersweet is so common, there are a large number of photos on the web that are labelled American Bittersweet, but are actually of Oriental Bittersweet. Orbicular leaf shape is a giveaway for Oriental. The flower arrangement is another clue -- those of American Bittersweet are in terminal panicles, while those of Oriental are in axillary cymes.

Also, oops on that apostrophe above. Can we haz preview back? ;-)

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:25:55 +0000

Yes, it’s the children who give new life to our traditions — at Mom’s house, we had my sister’s children taking turns at the Menorah. (And why is there no collective word including both nieces and nephews?)

Bittersweet — Hah, so that’s what those are! Some of my first trailside photos in Charlottesville were of the Oriental version. Since I had some trouble finding out how to distinguish the types, here is the PDF I found that tells how. The money quote:

Asiatic Bittersweet is distinguished from the native American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens L.) by the fruits. In
Asiatic Bittersweet, the fruits grow in clusters of 2-3 (up to 7 fruits) from the point where the leaves are
attached. Long stretches of stem may have many clusters along their length. In American Bittersweet, fruits are
numerous, orange-coated when ripe and are located only at the tips of branchlets, not along the length of the
stems. Beware mislabeled nursery stock.

Wikipedia comments that they hybridize freely, and posits that this may keep the American form’s genetic diversity from being lost altogether. (From what I know of such things, that’s really a toss-up.)

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:42:42 +0000

Geez, I don’t know — when I see a tree engulfed in bittersweet like that, I tend to assume it’s the East Asian species. But I guess you’d have to see the leaf to be sure.

Butterfly weed is relatively common around here. The deer do eat it, as they eat regular milkweed, but it’s hardly a favorite.

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:00:14 +0000

OK, this is about the bittersweet. Mom and I carefully kept track of the only vines near the lake (and there were only two or three) – in that part of central NY it was as rare as you say it is down your way. But this December, on our way back up here, I saw a tree totally engulfed in a bittersweet vine by the side of the road, I think near Saratoga. The same thing is true for butterfly weed. There are some big stands of it along the Northway but almost no wild plants left back where I grew up.