Fireweed*

By Sandra Gibson
Photograph by Geoff Edwards

The Liberation of Sky

January 2013

Our deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter. There’s a sound economic reason: they need to conserve energy and minimise any damage caused by bad-ass weather. Cold dry winds strip moisture from leaves, which have a large surface area, and diminishing sunlight means decreased efficiency. By losing leaves the tree can stop feeding them and retain moisture in the trunk and branches. Being in a state of dormancy reduces the amount of energy it needs to stay alive.

The absence of leaves has a triple effect, visually speaking: the evergreens become more prominent and there is more sky visible too, as if to compensate for the reduced light. Sky takes the places vacated by the leaves which are otherwise occupied providing compost for their tree. There is a change from form to line – the trees trace linear patterns against the sky and the preening magpie’s long tail follows the angle of the branch on which it perches. The treeline is punctuated with twiggy nests and above, in the icy arena of sky, the crow flies low and so black. So black.

The third effect is that buildings reassert themselves because the softening effect of foliage has gone. It’s all a bit hard-edged and skeletal in January.

Unless it snows…

To read other Fireweed columns click here

*Also known as Rose Bay Willow Herb, the prolific wild flower called Fireweed, five feet tall with spikes of magenta flowers, cheers the hearts of those whose cityscape has become a bomb site or whose buildings have been cleared by machine. The dormant seeds spring to life after destructive events such as forest or man-made fires, hence the name, Fireweed. This occasional column will celebrate the persistence of wildlife in urban conditions.

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