Thursday, March 19, 2009

Picture Of The Day: Seeing Red

oo



Overnight,
these tree branches
sprouted
little red buds.
See them?

What beautiful, beautiful days we have had,
but unfortunately, rain is in the forecast.



3 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you noticed that many of the first blooming trees are red? Wonder why.

Anonymous said...

My first guess (without knowing a damn bit about botany or biology) -- those are plants that utilize salts and not rely mostly on sugars in their growth.
My guess is those plants could get an earlier start on growth as the weather warms from freezing.
A few small plants I'm aware of that don't mind salts in their diets sprout early and sprout 'red'.

See differences of sugar & salt effect on FDP at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezing-point_depression

Not sure what role the salts might have in the red coloring, but why not?
I would love to hear from trained folks if this has any bearing...

Kelly said...

Wow, you know way more than I do.

That is an interesting theory.