In an earlier post, Daily green activity to start the year with healthy curiosity, I noted that I did not record the tree. I did that today. I used an app called Picture This. I have had this app for several years and it works great. Take a picture and it identifies the tree. You can take a picture of the leaf of the tree or plant etc… To my knowledge it has been correct. Today I took the picture of the tree and it did not have leaves. I did not think it would work but the tree was identified as a sycamore and I pretty confident that it is right. I can check again in the Spring.
So…then knowing that I know it is a sycamore, I am not sure if that helps me learn anything for this exercise. I would have imagined the leaf of any tree that has fallen has about the same benefit when it decomposes. This post did help explain that the leaf size is a factor and recommended shredding the leaves up for faster decomposition. I would want to research if that is preferred from a natural decomposition. Shredding trees and leaves was an idea I wanted to pursue to see if that would help provide better ground cover on the grass in muddy conditions. The leaves not cut up seemed to provide some protective benefit.
By the way I am starting to track down more information about the “chemical make-up of plants and soils”.
Early stage litter decomposition across biomes
In summary, I have a lot to learn and personally I think there is an opportunity to help make this information easier to understand.
By the way here is a picture of the sycamore.
