Black Cherry Treats

Watercolor of Black Cherry leaves and berries

As part of the proposed February 2017 opening of the Cabrini Woods Nature Sanctuary, near Fort Tryon Park, I was asked to draw a leaf of the Black cherry, Prunus serotia.  Planning a drawing involves a few steps including finding pictures online, in books, and going to look at the actual trees.  I knew there were several black cherry trees in the Ramble in Central Park, so I went to see them.  I soon realized that in drawing the black cherry, I would need to include the cherries that the trees produce, berries that are almost entirely gone by this time of year.  These cherries are food for all kinds of wildlife especially squirrels and birds who eat the berries when they are red or purple, but we humans generally wait to eat them until they are so ripe that they turn blackish purple.  Interestingly, when you look at a group of cherries on a branch, you see them in a variety of colors and ripeness and that is what I wanted to show. 

Black cherry trees are members of the Rosaceae or Rose family – a family that includes apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, almonds and many vines like strawberries, blackberries, and roses of course.  Black cherry trees produce flowers in the early spring, long pendulous blossoms that bees enjoy.  And then there are the cherries.  Like apricots and apples, the seeds contain compounds that can be converted into cyanide which can be released if the seed is ground or minced, but the flesh does not contain the enzyme that converts the chemical into the dangerous form of cyanide. However, there needs to be a word of caution about the foliage.  When it wilts, it contains a chemical that converts it into hydrogen cyanide if eaten by animals.  Farmers with grazing animals need to be aware of this, and they often remove these trees so the livestock do not eat the wilted foliage.  But for most of us, the trees do not pose a problem—we eat the cherries and not the leaves.  The black cherry timber is renowned for its beauty and durability.  The trees themselves grow easily in the urban environment and are replanted through the droppings of the animals who eat the cherries.  It is exciting to research a plant and to have the opportunity to draw it, especially knowing that it will be used as part of the signage in what will be a nature sanctuary in one of the loveliest parks in the NYC area. 

Celebrate coleus

Drawing of coleus leaf

In this transition from summer to fall, a rarely celebrated plant is having a bit of a heyday—the coleus or painted nettle.  I’ve been noticing multicolored coleus leaves popping up at the base of trees all around both the west and the east sides of New York City.  Once fall leaves emerge in their full magnificent palette, we may not notice the coleus and they will die away when the cold days arrive, but for now, they are a source of a great beauty—a huge range of brilliant colors and sizes from under an inch to some more than 6 inches in size, like the one that I drew.  There are more than 600 varieties of Solenostemon scutellarioides, formerly known as Coleus blumei and Coleus x hybridus.  These lovely plants are native to India, Thailand, and other areas of Asia and Africa.  Their shape and texture always reminded me of mint leaves and sure enough, I found they are from the same family: the Lamiaceae family that contains peppermint, salvia, lavender, thyme, basil, and oregano among others. 

For those of us who were not born with a green thumb, coleus are good to know about because they are easy to grow and to propagate.  They also reward you since if you water them when they get droopy and withered, they will spring back to life like a little smile when you water them.  If only it were so easy for all of us to accomplish this feat.  There is also a little trick to keeping them growing bushy and not spindly and that is to pinch off their flowers before they get growing.  By the way, they don’t do well in the winter, like a lot of us, so you need to bring them in if you want them to survive the cold weather.  The National Gardening Association has a great entry on the coleus plant: I was fascinated to read that “coleus are frequently used as `lab rat’ plants” and so are tested for everything from salt tolerance, water uptake, plant nutrition, leaf morphology, etc.  They are even testing them to see if “coleus cell cultures may be useful in production of a compound called rosmarinic acid which has anti-viral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.”  In India, the roots of coleus plants have been used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat heart and lung diseases; in addition, the chemical Forskolin, found in the tuberous roots of some coleus varieties, may be used to help us burn fat, build bone mass, as well as support healthy testerone levels. No bad, right? So keeping all this in mind, I think it is time that we celebrate the colorful, easy-growing, and possibly medicinal coleus. 

The Monarchs are Migrating

Drawing of a Monarch Butterfly

I cannot believe that it is the last day of August and my first post this month.  It has been a crazy summer, what with selling my house in New Paltz and getting so caught up in all the parts of the move that I lost my impetus to draw and write, but I feel the urge again. The days are getting shorter by about 20 minutes a week. I know I notice it and lament the move toward longer dark winter days although they are good days to draw and write.

This change in day length is a signal to all living things that times are changing.  Much of our wildlife sees this as time to migrate. One group of fall migrators is the Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. These exquisite butterflies start to leave our area and migrate to Mexico in late August and early September--now.  Before they leave, you may see, as I did in Riverside Park, the Monarchs doing some intense eating or nectaring. They use their proboscis, which is a long narrow tube almost like a straw that is coiled on the butterfly’s head and is the life straw for the creature. The Monarch stands on a flower in bloom and uncurls its proboscis and sucks the flower's nectar juice, a fluid that contains about 80% water and 20% sugar.  The butterfly then curls the proboscis back up again and moves to the next nectar site. Monarchs are gorging now.  Some say they are so intent on eating that you can easily pick one up, but I suggest not doing that and instead using your eyes to watch these little creatures filling their stomachs for a long trip.  Monarchs are gathering as much as they can so they can build their body fat to give them the strength for their long migration and so that they can survive the winter in Mexico. 

There is an organization called Monarch Watch that tags Monarchs before they migrate, so they can be tracked when they reach Mexico.  The work is important because we have all heard about the decline in Monarch populations—there are estimated to be around 57 million Monarchs now but the average used to be closer to 300 million up to 1 billion.  What is causing the decline? The caterpillars are finding it hard to get the milkweed that they need to survive because of changes in agricultural practices.  The extreme heat and drought on the Mexican breeding grounds led to a record-breaking low population in 2012 and the population has not fully recovered and probably will not. But there are things that you can do to help it along.

If you have a garden, you can plant milkweed to feed the caterpillars.  You can plant nectar plants that bloom during the fall migration time.  You can avoid pesticides, and you can join the Monarch butterfly watch group to report any sightings of the butterflies. The MonarchWatch website has maps and places for you to enter data about Monarchs that you see. They will even send you free milkweed plants so you can become a part of keeping the Monarch population healthy and thriving.   

Happy July 4th and let's celebrate the Bald Eagle

Drawing of Bald Eagle flying over mountains and lake

    Here’s a success story that everyone can feel good about—the Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus.  It’s also appropriate to celebrate this amazing bird as part of July 4^th Independence Day because the Bald Eagle has been the national emblem since 1782, a mere 6 years after 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. However, this beloved bird was moving toward extinction in the 1970s when it became a protected species under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.  What endangered the species is something that caused widespread loss of wildlife—the pesticide DDT.  This pesticide resulted in the weakening of eggs and death of newborn chicks.  It also threatened and weakened species that the Bald Eagles sought for dinner.

New York State took the loss of this bird very seriously and began an extremely successful reintroduction campaign in the 1970s and 1980s.  The Bald Eagle is no longer on the endangered species list.  The birds have become popular: there are bird cams in Washington DC and other parts of the U.S. where people can watch live the hatching of new life, the care of parent eagles, and the fledging of baby bald eagles.  In the Shawangunks near Mohonk Preserve, bald eagles have been sighted.  And I am proud to say that my contributions to this wonderful Preserve may have helped in their efforts to keep wildlife, both flora and fauna alive and healthy.  These mountains near New Paltz are one of the things that I will miss dearly when we leave our house and this area in the next few weeks.   

But I will always remember watching the bald eagles at the Rondout Reservoir in Grahamsville where we had a house in the early 1990s.  Watching these magnificent birds, sometimes with 7-foot wing-spans, in their aeries and especially in flight, is a sight that is truly unforgettable.  So perhaps I will find another house and another place to watch birds and nature—I sure hope so