i*CT MVfCAL 



TORREYA «-^i>fiN 



Vol. 25 No. 1 



January-February, 1925 



SOME TREE BUDS 



CiEOKGii T. Hastings 



For winter field study the botanist finds nothing to equal 

 in interest the buds of trees and shrubs. To aid in such study 

 there are numerous keys to the trees in winter, based on the 

 buds, leaf scars and twig characters, those found in Brown's 

 Trees of New York State and Jarvis and Blakeslee's New Eng- 

 land Trees in Winter being among the most accessible. Some 

 difficulty may be found in using these keys if twigs are taken 

 from lower limbs where growth has been slow. Such twigs are 

 more slender, the buds are small, usually with fewer scales than 

 those on more vigorously growing twigs. 



Of trees with opposite leaves and hence opposite buds the 

 maples, horse-chestnut, ashes and flowering dogwood are the 

 only ones native in our region. In all of these the buds are pro- 

 tected by scales formed of modified leaves. The short pointed 

 buds of the ashes with two pairs of dark scales are very distinct 

 from the oval buds with four or more pairs of gray, red or brown 

 scales of the maples. The striped maple and the ash-leaved 

 maple or box elder have but a single pair of bud scales. In the 

 latter case the rounded, short-stalked buds are unlike those of 

 any other tree. In the lateral buds of the ashes the single pair 

 of scales join so closely on the edges that it is often difficult to 

 see that there are any scales at all. In the red and silver maples 

 the rounded flower buds at the sides of the narrow leaf buds 

 are a reminder that these will be among the first flowers of 

 spring. Often these flower buds, especially in the silver maple, 

 are densely crowded, eight at a node with the two leaf buds 

 making a complete ring of buds around the stem. But lower 

 branches and young trees will usually have no flower buds. 

 The buds of the flowering dogwood are of special interest. 

 Many branches bear the broad flower buds at their tips. These 

 buds have two pairs of bud scales which in the spring will grow 

 out from their bases into the four large petal-like bracts that 



