Three white oaks (Quercus alba) — 1, 2, 3 — planted the exact same year at Poplar Circle. Autumnal red, brown, and tawny, respectively.

I’ve commented on this before: so often we tend to think of trees in the aggregate, for example, an entire species (all white oaks) or an entire forest (all trees in Fernbank Forest).

I enjoy taking note of an individual tree’s idiosyncrasies.

Individual trees tend to get noticed because they’re especially large or old. But every tree, not just a towering redwood or ancient bristlecone pine, has a unique story to tell, if we take time to listen (as it were).