Bucket list trees - Nothofagus

Although TPP cannot remember when the list was made, a bucket list of trees was constructed, it did include a baobab (seen in South Africa) and the southern Beech.  TPP does not know this genus well, and while he's seen it a few times, you cannot say you've seen a lion if only in a zoo.  This is a high latitude southern hemisphere tree, and not sure why the southern Beech is named Nothofagus (N. solandri shown here probably).  The forest (just below the subalpine zone) is almost a monoculture and pretty low diversity until you get to the fern/moss floor of the forest.  It has the look of Middle Earth about it, and the trees have quite a covering of mosses and lichens on their trunks. The genus has quite an old looking distribution the type we now associate with Gondwana an ancient super continent. But sadly no Glossopteris. No one said this was an easy bucket list. 

The leaves are about a cm or so long.

Snow & cold avoidance

Erie PA made news for the big snow storm ( 50+") they got for Christmas, but TPP is a native of the upstate NY snow belt and you simply would not believe what can happen.  A long time ago like when TPP was starting college at the SUNY college in Oswego NY, the city got a 104" snow fall in 48 hrs.  When you hear something like that is possible, you go out and buy a week's worth of supplies, and in those days that would have been beer, milk, bread, eggs, Ping-Pong balls, pinochle cards, and not necessarily in that order.  And you parked your car where it could be dug out and was safe from snow plows that don't stop for anything. 
You'd tie an old fishing rod with a flag at the top to the front bumper so people could see you at intersections.  So the news from Erie brought back some memories.  Wow, glad that was when TPP was young.
Right now here in the upper Midwest, a few inches of snow covers the ground, but the snow was followed by a high pressure front that brought along really cold temps. The night time lows are hitting a few degrees below zero, but remember on the goofy temperature scale here in the USA zero is well below freezing, out -4 F is equivalent to -20 C.  The only solution for this kind of weather is avoidance, to leave, and that's what the Phactors are doing.  (You didn't think we'd go to Florida did you?)  Just after Jan. 1st the Phactors are heading for the southern hemisphere, New Zealand to be exact.  And all the really cold weather should happen while we are inverted.  TPP wants to see some Nothofagus, the southern beech, no matter what the scientific name means, in the wild.  It's on his bucket list.

Field Guide to Gymnosperms & Book of Leaves

Nothing is better than well-illustrated plant books, except maybe an exceptional bottle of wine for under $10 (one can have dreams). Two newish books have come to the attention of the Phactor and both upon initial inspection seem quite good. The first is a field guide to Gymnosperms of the United State and Canada, and the wonderful illustrations may be glimpsted over at ArtPlantae, and do not let anyone anywhere try to tell you that photography can take the place of good botanical illustration. You'll love this book. However, as a field guide this book has not been tested to determine how well it works at actually identifying gymnosperms. Maybe some reader will have given it a go and let us know.
The second is a book about tree leaves, The Book of Leaves, more precisely the leaves of exactly 600 temperate zone trees. This is less of a field guide, being a rather hefty tome, and more of a reference book, but a quite handsome and very well done one. Each page has an excellent image of a leaf, full-sized (as much as the page allows) next to the full leaf, and an interesting commentary about the tree as well as its botanical specs. The tree selections, and you might quibble with a few, are selected from all the world's temperate zones, so yes, it includes Nothofagus as surely you were wondering. As a tropically oriented botanist, the temperate zone restriction is rather disappointing, but perhaps this will give the author, Allen Coombes, an idea for his next project. Looks like the Phactor has found a couple of presents to buy for that very special botanically-inclined someone. Or send this blog to someone as a hint of a present for yourself!