The Forest

Last night my Master Naturalist Class was about trees. Different trees live in different soils. Oaks like dry soil. Maples and basswoods like wet soil or floodplains. Birches and poplars like soil in between wet and dry. Each type of soil has it's own trees, shrubs, and herbs. Aspen can grow underground and connect via their root systems. For a long time, an aspen forest in Russia was the largest single plant organism. Now there is a big fungus that has taken that honor. I believe we are supposed to be able to identify the trees in our biome during this class. I have some studying to do there. I know red oaks and white oaks, pines and spruces, basswood, maples, birches and poplars. But I can't tell the difference between a red maple and a sugar maple. I'm not sure what an ironwood tree looks like (although I think I could identify it as firewood). I know elms, but what is a Siberian elm? I can spot poison ivy from a LONG distance but I don't know all the shrubs. Our instructor was having technical difficulties with his equipment so we had long lapses during the class. From where I was seated, I had an excellent view of the moon from 7 until class ended about 9:10. The window was very high and the moon was awesome. We had to take several moon breaks to admire the eclipse. Next week? Mammals. We were asked to bring scat if we have any. What a cool class. Where else would you be invited to bring scat?