Maybe it's the holidays, or maybe it's the bland, often snowy landscape that surrounds us, but by the time we reach the winter solstice, the shortest daylight period of the year, many of us are If you are looking for more light and green plants. Mix it with gray-browns that dominate the scene.
With sunrise at 7:51 a.m. and sunset at 4:23 p.m., 8 hours and 32 minutes on December 21st is the coldest day of the year. Sunsets are starting to get later, but sunrises continue to get later, peaking at the end of the year. Very slowly, daylight hours increase.
If you look at a bare deciduous tree right now, it may seem hard to see any green. There is more greenery inside us than we realize, and some of it is quite large.
Approximately 10 species of native conifers (evergreens) are regularly found in Northland. These include three types of pine: red (Norwegian), white and jack, and two types of spruce: white and black. These include balsam, juniper, cedar, yew, and, more common in Wisconsin, hemlock. (There are also many non-native conifers here.) Another conifer commonly found here, the tamarack, follows the deciduous path and sheds its needles in preparation for the coming winter.
If you look below the forest floor, you'll find short green plants. Some leafy wildflowers have retained their green foliage, and with a little searching you can find hepatica, pylola, and wintergreen retaining their green foliage just as they did last summer. Green moss hugs the base of the tree, while club moss, also green, rises about 6 inches above the forest floor.
Clubmoss (Lycopodium)'s cousins are ferns, and some continue to be green as well. The green above-ground parts of ferns often have a “feather” shape and are known as foliage. Underground stems are rhizomes. Almost all local ferns have leaves that turn brown and fall to the ground with the onset of winter's cold and darkness.
The exception to this is the wood fern (Dryopteris). Often these plants have green leaves poking above the forest floor among the dead leaves in late fall. But their greenery is temporary, and while they may be green under our typical snow cover, their green leaves don't spread throughout the cold season.
To see true evergreen ferns in our area, you need to look elsewhere. The hillsides and cliffs of Northland are home to small ferns that hang down from the cliff bedrock. Here, in such a precarious place, it thrives. Leaves reach 6 to 10 inches in height. Those that grow in these locations are known as polypodiums, and despite limited resources, they remain green throughout the winter, making them true evergreen ferns.
Winter days are cold and dry, so the leaves may curl up to avoid drying out, but they remain on the plant.
Also, many of the leaves have brown lumps on the underside. These are sori, structures that hold reproductive spores for the new season.
The deciduous forests to our south and east have large ferns that remain thick and leafy throughout the winter. It is commonly called Christmas fern (Polystichum). Wintergreen fern, which does not grow in Northland, is a cliff crown fern that adds even more green throughout the cold season.
larry webber
Larry Weber, a retired teacher who lives in Burnham, is the author of several books.