We narrowed it to an Ailanthus or, to my surprise, a black walnut. I can guess which ones the squirrels would be more interested in. She broke off a sprig and brought it in to the computer. The nut husk is supposed to be green on a walnut; this beginning one among new leaves is a brown wooden bead of a thing with the slightest greenishness at its base. I was surprised; we’d never noticed any degree of nuts growing on it.
Just a random tree in a random place, but I’ve always liked it. I’m an Easterner, I want all the green I can get. It got me thinking about cultivated trees: how you cut off a twig in the right place from one you want more of, tree-t it right, and it’ll sprout roots and grow upwards and downwards into a whole beautiful new one. When it gets big enough, you can repeat the process again till you eventually create a whole forest or more of trees, all of them part of and connected to that one original specimen. Which may die of blight or eventual old age, yet still an integral, connected part of itself continues on without end to give to those who partake of the nuts or fruit or whatever good quality that tree has to give.
Plant enough of them and we’ll outnumber the squirrels yet.