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Wild cherry drama

2008 May 3

Originally published April 3, 2008
Young wild cherry leaves have subtle beauty. Photo by Ken Moore.
Young wild cherry leaves have subtle beauty. Photo by Ken Moore

By Ken Moore

Last Saturday, I saw a roadside spectacle as beautiful as any deliberately designed garden landscape. Nature’s inter-planting of yellow sassafras and pink redbud resulted in what may be best described as “roadside impressionism.” Fortunately, the recent cold spells have extended the flowering of these early bloomers.

Now, amidst all this beauty, I noticed another of nature’s seasonal designs. Less welcome to most folks are the webbed nests of tent caterpillars that appear in wild cherries, Prunus serotina, and cultivated apples, cherries and plums. Some homeowners cause tree injury in the practice of burning the nests. If there is an urge to battle this particular cycle of nature, a twist with a cloth-tipped stick will harmlessly extract the nests.

Just about every year, my old plum tree hosts tent caterpillars, and every year it recovers to flower just as robustly the following year. Caterpillars feed on young leaves and work communally to build a webbed nest in the crotch of several limbs. For six weeks, those little critters demonstrate real architectural skills in designing and constructing larger outer compartments to accommodate their larger size, as they abandon the inner compartments containing their droppings. When you observe those caterpillars streaming across the ground and sidewalks, you know they are in search of a spot to hide as they pupate. Three weeks later, they emerge as little reddish-brown moths with pale horizontal stripes that you may observe flying around during early summer. Following successful mating, the moths lay eggs on branches of a host tree, where they will hatch the following spring.

Last Saturday, I saw a roadside spectacle as beautiful as any deliberately designed garden landscape. Nature’s inter-planting of yellow sassafras and pink redbud resulted in what may be best described as “roadside impressionism.” Fortunately, the recent cold spells have extended the flowering of these early bloomers.

Now, amidst all this beauty, I noticed another of nature’s seasonal designs. Less welcome to most folks are the webbed nests of tent caterpillars that appear in wild cherries, Prunus serotina, and cultivated apples, cherries and plums. Some homeowners cause tree injury in the practice of burning the nests. If there is an urge to battle this particular cycle of nature, a twist with a cloth-tipped stick will harmlessly extract the nests.

Just about every year, my old plum tree hosts tent caterpillars, and every year it recovers to flower just as robustly the following year. Caterpillars feed on young leaves and work communally to build a webbed nest in the crotch of several limbs. For six weeks, those little critters demonstrate real architectural skills in designing and constructing larger outer compartments to accommodate their larger size, as they abandon the inner compartments containing their droppings. When you observe those caterpillars streaming across the ground and sidewalks, you know they are in search of a spot to hide as they pupate. Three weeks later, they emerge as little reddish-brown moths with pale horizontal stripes that you may observe flying around during early summer. Following successful mating, the moths lay eggs on branches of a host tree, where they will hatch the following spring.

Sassafras and Redbud: Roadside Impressionism. Photo by Ken Moore.
Sassafras and Redbud: Roadside Impressionism. Photo by Ken Moore

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