Blandy Cowl Week 3/4

Welcome to the third installment of our Blandy Cowl Knit-Along miniseries! In this penultimate update, we'll be talking about the black tupelo tree, which punctuates both the beginning of the round in our cowl and the landscape of the eastern US.

This is our second tree species featured in the miniseries, the first being the "White Walnut" butternut tree. You can learn more about Blandy Farm and this knit-along in the introductory post. 

 

The Scientist 

This week's researcher is Ethan Skuches, a PhD student working at Blandy to study black tupelo trees through the lens of assisted migration. He designed the cowl pattern in partnership with Willow Lovecky, the chimney bee guru we met in week one. If you're following along at home, you can watch his presentation to the knit-along group here (and/or watch his presentation to admire his "Nice Stems" tee shirt, which I absolutely need in my wardrobe).

 

The Tree 

The black tupelo tree, often called the black gum tree or the sour gum tree, grows eastward from Texas to the Atlantic coast and northward from Florida through the Hudson Valley and into Massachusetts. The trees are hardy in a variety of environments, including wetlands and ridges, meaning that you may have spotted one just about anywhere in the eastern US. Ethan says, "The best way to describe black gum is that if you're looking at a tree and it looks like a tree, and it had a leaf that looks like a leaf, it's a black gum." If that description helps you as much as it does me, here's a visual aid:

Young Black Tupelo Tree Photo © Elaine Mills
Available through Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

The fruit of the black tupelo ripens in autumn as the leaves change color. The vibrant foliage is a signal to migrating birds that the fruit is ready to eat. The fruits themselves, called drupes, look like a cross between a grape and a blueberry.

Black Tupelo Fruits
Photo courtesy of Mt. Cuba Center

Virginia is solidly located in the middle of the tupelo's range, making it a valuable research site for Ethan's work. As part of his PhD project, he is collecting tupelo seeds from across the range and growing them together in shared conditions to see how a tree's genetics influence its success--essentially examining "nature vs nurture" in the context of trees.

Autumn Leaves of Black Tupelo Tree Photo © Mary Free
Available through Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

 

Assisted Migration 

Learning about the genetic characteristics that make trees thrive in different environments helps ecologists support plants through climate change. Many plants considered to be native to Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region are now extending their range northward into New England and Canada. Unfortunately, most trees are not able to self-migrate quickly enough to keep up with the current pace of climate change. This is where assisted migration comes into play.

One example of assisted migration is the city of Montreal planting tupelos along the streets inside the city limits. Although Montreal is outside the trees' current native range, the trees survive thanks to the city's heat bubble effect. Over time, as the surrounding climate warms, the tupelos will spread into neighboring landscapes, largely thanks to the songbirds that eat its fruit and drop its seeds.

Cowl Progress 

Now that I can see all the imagery emerging on this cowl, I am much more motivated to work on it. 

So far, I've reached row 45 of the chart, so I expect I'll be able to finish the last 20 rows for next week's finale. I make no promises as to the final bit of ribbing; we'll have to wait and see.

I'm still really enjoying the yarn. The Bamboo Pop is incredibly soft and, dare I say, smooshy. I'm excited to see how it blocks, because I know I didn't do the best job keeping my floats even on this project. I'm hoping a good soak will smooth out the surface a bit.