By Ranger Steve Mueller
Fall yard raking is upon us and provides healthy physical activity. We rake leaves onto a tarp and drag them to the Island Bridge Trail or Peninsula Bridge Trail at Ody Brook Nature Sanctuary where they protect boot soles from clogging with mud in wet locations.
The fun work is watching the occasional wood frog hop to a new hiding place, noticing the mosaic of remaining colors in fallen leaves and varied shapes. Encourage children or grandchildren to join with yard clean up. My kids helped by piling leaves and then jumping on them or crawling into the middle of the pile to hide like a frog. They are good memories that last a lifetime, even though their work might not have been very productive.
Most leaves have a yellow tinge. A great activity is finding leaves from one tree that express many shades of the same color or even different colors. Examine leaves on a tree that match colors with fallen leaves. It is a great way for you and children to learn attention to detail. We are not too old to live like a child. We just get too hurried in life. My writings are to encourage nature niche experiences primarily for adults and hope kids will learn and grow to appreciate continued outdoor activities that were learned from parents and grandparents.
It is excellent for all family members to participate in nature center activities for fun and learning. The Howard Christensen Nature Center has many programs locally and other nature centers in Grand Rapids and Ottawa County have wonderful activities as well.
After collecting leaves on the ground from one tree to compare colors with those that remain on the tree, collect leaves from different tree species and align them in a row to create a smooth transition within one color and then among various color shades. Arrange them in the ROYGBIV spectrum of the rainbow. ROYGBIV is Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet.
Identify as many colors as possible and determine which are most to least abundant. Learning details about chlorophylls, carotenes, and xanthophylls can wait until you feel like delving into the science of pigment color and function.
Compare leaf margins and sizes of leaves from the one tree and with different trees species. Compare with leaves remaining on the tree. It will be noticed that leaves with greatest sun exposure are smaller than leaves that are more shaded. They are referred to as sun and shade leaves. For those that like exploring on the internet, look up those terms and look up trees to identify them by matching leaves. Googling “Michigan Flora” will help limit your search to Michigan species.
Most of us have not spent time noticing varied leaf shapes. Some are long and thin, round, oval, wavy or toothed margined. Teeth on the margin might have large and small teeth alternating or have teeth of equal size. Some have many teeth or few. Different oak species have rounded or sharp pointed lobes. Oaks tend to turn purple or brown as fall progresses. Where does purple fit into the ROYGBIV sequence? It is a good discriminating activity for all of us.
If that is not enough, learn to separate tree species based on their growth silhouette. Yardwork can be fun.
Natural history questions or topic suggestions can be directed to Ranger Steve (Mueller) at odybrook@chartermi.net – Ody Brook Nature Sanctuary, 13010 Northland Dr. Cedar Springs, MI 49319 or call 616-696-1753.
