Grand old American Elm

 

A massive American Elm (Ulmus americana), in post-dawn fog, yesterday. This tree is along State Route 104 in Pickaway County, Ohio. It is isolated from other trees in a cornfield; thus, the Dutch Elm Disease has not yet been able to find it. I rue the day it does. For years, I admired an even larger elm 15 miles to the south, but DED finally found it about a decade ago and quickly killed the behemoth.

While Dutch Elm Disease largely kills off elms before they achieve old-growth status (a very few seem to have natural resistance), the tree remains very common. Younger plants are plentiful in bottomland and other moist habitats, but DED invades most of them within a few decades. The days of grand old American Elms lining boulevards and forming sylvan pergolas over the street are long gone. But the young wild plants continue on with at least some of elms' long-evolved duties. Many of them still attain fruiting age, and their samaras are avidly consumed by a variety of songbirds. A large number of insects evolved specialized associations with elm bark, wood, and foliage, perhaps most notably some moth species such as Double-toothed Prominent (Nerice bidentata) and Elm Sphinx (Ceratomia amyntor).

One animal that has been largely shut out by the loss of ancient old elms is the Baltimore Oriole. The colorful blackbirds were quite fond of weaving their ornate nests into the lax outer branches of mature elms. They still do, if a specimen can be found. I would not be surprised if a pair of orioles is using the tree in my photo as a home site. It's a relatively short flight to other large trees across the road, and for the orioles it might be worth the travel to utilize an all too rare opportunity to use an ancestral nest tree.

PHOTO NOTE: I always look forward to driving by this tree on southbound commutes, and yesterday dawned mostly clear, but with thick fog in places, especially as I drove south. I figured there might be dramatic lighting and mist by the time that I reached the elm, which was a bit after 6:30 am (the early bird often gets the worm, in photography). Sure enough, light veils of mist enshrouded the tree, and the barely arisen sun cast interesting colors in the sky. I pulled off and clipped the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II to my R5 and set out on foot looking for angles. A 70-200mm lens is a staple for many photographers due to its useful versatility and I have had mine for many years now and use it a lot. Mostly for landscapes, and also botanical photography of a wide array of subjects. I'll often put a 25mm extension tube on to enable closer focusing and shoot all manner of small plants. No extension tube necessary for this elm, nor tripod. While I generally prefer prime lenses over zooms, in cases like this it is nice to have the ability to fine-tune the composition with just a twist of the wrist. This image is uncropped. Settings were f/8, ISO 200, 1/100, at 105mm, with in-lens image stabilization turned on.