My Green Ash

     I have a rather nice green ash in my front yard. It's about 12 or13 m high(40 ft) and about 40 to 50 cm (18 in.) diameter at the bottom. For Alberta it's not a bad specimen for green ash. There are lots in older areas where green ash would be larger. I know that in other areas of north America green ash can be huge. Specimens in Chicago would be 60 to 80 ft. high.

     Now there's been a large branch that I have been looking at and thinking that it should be trimmed so today was the day to do the trimming. The branch was about 4 or 5 m( 15 ft.) long and was parallel to the ground. Sooner or later it was going to part from the tree and I thought it may do damage to the tree.

    Taking the branch off went well when you have a light chain saw. I cut some pieces to stove length for my friend David. When I picked one of the pieces up I noticed a small red spider mite. Then I noticed that there were numerous red spider mites on the one piece of wood. Then I got thinking as to how many spider mites would be on the branch or for that matter how many red spider mites would be on the whole tree. The numbers would be astounding. So much life on one green ash.Now some people hate these little guys with a passion as they can do harm to plants.

     Later as I was picking up small pieces I saw a lime green caterpillar with pale orange pink on the back. This caterpillar was impressive as it was about 30 mm (1 1/2 in ) long and about as thick as my pinky. I've seen these before and have not paid much attention to them. I suppose I knocked this individual out of the tree when I took the branch off. Now I'm wondering what kind of butterfly will emerge from this caterpillar. I hope somebody can tell me. I'm also wondering if the caterpillar becomes a butterfly or lunch for some crow.

     So one green ash gave me a number of good topics to post on. My green ash looks better and I hope it remains healthy.