Leaves

We have trees in our front yard. Big ones. There is a huge yellow cedar right in front of the dining room window – a tree that evidently sheds in the fall. And another, smaller cedar at the corner of the driveway. And another great big pine tree of some sort on the far corner. And right in the middle of them is a great big maple.

Or at least I think it is a maple.

I tried to consult the Western Garden Book to see if I could figure out what it was. I looked in the index for ‘Maple’ and was first informed that I needed to see ‘Acer’ instead. What? Since when are maples not maples but ‘Acers?’ Is there not at least one Maple Street in every city in the country? Whoever heard of Acer Street? Is nothing sacred?

Then I find this entry:

“ACER. Aceraceae. MAPLE. Deciduous or evergreen trees or large shrubs.”

Evidently nothing IS sacred. They are called maple but listed as acer? They loose their leaves, but some of them don’t? They might be trees, but then again they might be shrubs? Some have ‘dense, compact and rounded heads’; others have ‘narrow to rounded crowns’; still others are ‘broad-topped’ – all of which could mean pretty much the same thing? Or not.

There is Trident Maple, Hedge Maple, Coliseum Maple, Formosan Maple, Bigleaf Maple (maybe that's mine?,) Japanese Maple, Black Maple... It goes on and on. And, curiously, also includes Box Elder. Shouldn't that be an Elder, not a Maple? Oh well.

I have 4 pages of tiny print and a few sparse drawings to sort through in an effort to identify my tree. I probably won’t do that.

But the reason I was wondering about it in the first place is that today dawned windy and rainy and that tree is loosing leaves like there is no tomorrow. It is looking like the flora version of “raining cats and dogs.” My lawn is full of huge yellow leaves – leaves big enough to cover your head in a storm. And, unfortunately, my neighbor’s lawn is full of them too. And the lawn next door to them as well…

Today is the first day off of daylight savings time. Today is the day we will have bare trees, and for the rest of the winter.

(Tomorrow is the day I’ll have to call our garbage service and sign up for ‘yard debris’ collection! Or, actually, maybe my neighbor will have to instead!)