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S E C T I O N b , P a g E 6

A single-lobe leaf, a ‘glove,’ and matching “mittens,” above, all are found on a single sassafras sapling. The differntly shaped leaves are arranged on the stem to al-low light through gaps on upper leaves, the mittens and gloves, to the one-lobe leaves beneath for maximum capture of food-producing sunlight.

Oak savannas, above, were burned periodically by Native Americans to open up the forest floor to sunlight and encourage the growth of various berries and other edible plants. The oaks, with thick corklike bark, withstood the burns while other less robustly barked species such as ash and maple succumbed, leaving oak openings.

Autumn-blooming witch hazel, above, forms a tight seed pod that pops open and spits its seed to the forest floor.

Bob Jacksy, above, Secor Metropark natural-ist and educator, leans against a giant oak on the Yellow Trail.

The OuTdOOrs Page

White Oak

Red Oak

White Oak

Red Oak

WolfingerCemetery

Paw Paw TreesPaw Paw Trees

Oak Buttressed

Witch Hazel

SassafrasSassafras

Start oftrail

Start oftrail

Oak Buttressed

Witch Hazel

Secor Park headquarters and National Center for Nature Photography

Secor Park headquarters and National Center for Nature Photography

WolfingerCemetery

T h E b l a d E , T O l E d O , O h I O S U N d a y , N O V E M b E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 1

A mighty oak, below, soars to the canopy; its sapling once had 20 years to race to the top, or find itself shaded to death.

Footlike buttresses , below, provide sturdy “legs” in soggy soils to anchor a mature oak against strong winds. When buttress-ends rot, they provide mini-caves for smaller animals.

The Yellow Trail passes a fine stand of paw paws, below.

Right: A large paw paw leaf.

The Yellow Trail, right, begins next to the National Center for Nature Photogra-phy at Secor Metropark.

An attentive autumn walk on the Yellow Trail loop at Secor Metropark, at the

North-South-East-West intersec-tion that is the Oak Openings, is a lesson in the wonders of nature.

Especially if you take a slow stroll with a veteran Metroparks’ natu-ralist such as Bob Jacksy.

Here you will find, for instance, a magnificent stand of sassafras trees and saplings.

Sassafras mostly grows in the understory but on the 1.3-mile loop of the Yellow Trail, you can find po-tential champion specimens that reach the canopy. “They’re bloody huge,” Mr. Jacksy said.

He tells a small band of nature-hikers one recent Saturday morn-ing that young sassafras come with green stems jam-packed with chlo-rophyll, “which supercharge their growth. They are really fast-grow-ing at youth.” It is an evolutionary advantage. “You don’t want to com-pete with yourself.”

Roots from the sassafras, if clipped, traditionally were chewed for a tasty root beer-flavored treat,

or the roots shredded to brew sas-safras tea. Young twigs smell lem-ony.

The wonderful sassafras carries four shapes of leaves — right-hand and left-hand mittens, a three-fin-gered glove, and a single-lobe leaf. The variety is purposeful: The up-per leaves are arranged just so, with the empty space between thumbs and fingers allowing sunlight to reach the lower single-lobe leaves. So clever is nature.

Then there are grapevines, ev-erywhere, growing like weeds. Trees have to compete with the shading effect of grape leaves, the naturalist points out. Often, “the trees lose the battle because grape-vine streaks for the sunlight.” But they have a redeeming value; pio-neers learned that big, wrist-thick grapevines, when cut, can pour out fresh water. “It can be a life-saver.”

In a swampy zone you find that large white and red oaks have de-veloped long “feet” or buttresses, which stick out in all directions. Like the feet on a lampstand or side table, they support the trees, this because they have wet feet in what the naturalist calls “gelati-

nous swamp more like pudding than solid ground.” If you don’t find buttresses, you can be sure that the oaks are rooted deeply and solidly in well-drained soils.

When buttress-ends in swamp-land oaks start to rot, they make lit-tle wood “caves” — perfect havens for shrews, voles, mice, and chip-munks. Even blue racer snakes may den there in near suspended ani-mation for the winter in these “hi-beranaculas.”

Sapling oaks beneath 80-foot canopy giants have about 20 years of make-it-or-break-it time. “If they don’t reach blue sky and that cano-py in 20 years, they’ll die.” Nature takes no prisoners.

Even if you are not a tree expert,

you can at least separate the two main oak families by their leaves. White oaks have rounded leaf-lobes; the pioneers called them bullets, Mr. Jacksy said. All the red oaks have pointed lobes, like Na-tive American arrows.

Some members of the upper-most canopy, even outstretching the oaks, are the tulip trees, al-so called tulip poplars. In season they are told by the leaves, which in profile resemble a tulip. They may stretch upward on the Yellow Trail to 100 feet, nice and straight. They are self-pruning, meaning that old, lower branches die and drop off neatly. They are a logger’s dream.

Mr. Jacksy said that tulip trees also are disease resistant. “They are darn near the ideal tree.” Their yellow and orange-etched spring flowers are so lovely that they may emote tears.

Elsewhere, in the understory, is a patch of paw paws. They love shade and wet feet. The paw paw, the nat-uralist said, “cannot hack it under the blue sky.” They produce a real-ly desirable fruit for wildlife, “a lit-tle like a banana.” Paw Paw, Mich., west of Kalamazoo, was named for

the species, prevalent there to the point of encouraging townsfolk to hold an annual Paw Paw Festival.

Last but not least on a short list of natural wonders on the autumn Yellow Trail is witch hazel. Its wood has been used for divining rods for those folklorists who believe they can find water sources via “water-witching.”

Witch hazel produces yellow, stringy, spiderlike f lowers in the fall, not in spring. It produces tight seed capsules that open and spit the hard little seeds several feet on-to the leaf duff of the forest’s floor. Being struck in the face by one can sting just a mite.

Mr. Jacksy said that historical-ly, pioneers thought of the ground-strike of catapulting seeds as “sounding like footsteps on the for-est floor at night.” Hence, witches, ghosts. “It reminds me of Hallow-een.” Indeed.

So, the Yellow Trail in autumn. Much to wander in and wonder over, but so soon done. You want to go back and see, and learn, more.

By STEVE POLLICK and JEFF BaSTING

Bancroft St.

Wolfinger Rd.

Central Ave.

Yellow Trail

Secor Park Secor Park headquarters

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Toledo : 5 miles

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Contact Steve Pollick at:spollick@theblade.com

or 419-724-6068.

On the yellow trail at Secor Metropark