I travel about 80 miles on the Long Island Expressway going back and forth to the North Fork to work every day. Thank GOD I am traveling against traffic, or else I wouldn't have the patience to make it there and back! (Now, before you start harping that I should reduce my carbon footprint, I would like to say that where my boyfriend and I live is about half way between our two jobs, and YES I am saving up for that hybrid!) So as I am making my daily pilgrimage out east, I can count on the car accidents, the cops pulling people over in the HOV lane, and the occasional abandoned cars on the shoulder to keep me entertained during my long drive....But what really keeps me amused is looking out the window at the trees. The flash of color from a red maple in the fall, the stately outline of oaks in the winter, the continuous white bloom of pears in the spring... These highway trees let me know in an instant how we're coming along with the seasons and what the weather's been up to lately.
At the beginning of July, after a drought and 100+ temperatures, I sadly noted the brown and crispy leaves of a group of honeylocust trees on the south side of the highway. All highway trees have a tough life - after being planted, they have to be tough and persevere without supplemental water, mulch, and care. This small group of honeylocusts I would guess were planted about three years ago, and had already survived three seasons of hot summers and cold winters, diligently pushing out new roots and photosynthesizing leaves. It was sad to see that they just couldn't keep pushing on and had succumbed to the fate of many a highway tree. Lifeless brown foliage clung to the almost bare branches. But about a month later, I realized that these honeylocusts were in fact not dead! They had leafed out and regrown a whole new set of leaves! By relying on the food that they had already photosynthesized and stored in their roots, these trees were able to tap into their "emergency" fund and regrow a new canopy. Yet, by tapping into stored reserves in the summer, these trees will have less food stores heading into winter, perhaps making them more susceptible to winter injury and slow to leaf out in the spring. What a delicate balancing act a tree must perform! They make balancing a checkbook look easy! For now though, I'll enjoy my group of highway honeylocusts as their leaves begin to take on a golden hue. Heading into fall, the days are becoming shorter and the nights are becoming cooler, and I can't help staring out the window at the highway trees ablaze in their golden yellows and fiery reds.
