In my part of the world, The Bluegrass, this is an extraordinary summer to be a tree. I don’t recall a summer with such frequent rain, and the trees take advantage of wet summers like this to produce flushes of new growth. In spring, buds open and leaves formed the previous year grow. Then, growth stops, usually before July 1. If summer rains come, buds that were laying down leaves for next year open and a recurrent flush begins. Trees have often used up their mineral nutrients in the first flush, so a second or third flush is pale. This makes it easy to spot recurrent flushes.

Chinkapin oak, Quercus muehlenbergii, is an extraordinary tree. It is typically very slow growing and long lived. One chinkapin oak whose rings I counted was 800 years old. Given its conservative growth habits and longevity, it is uncommon for this tree to produce recurrent flushes. Yet that is what they are doing this summer.

Photos: an ancient chinkapin oak in a Bourbon County woodland pasture with horses; A new flush of growth on chinkapin oak. Photos by Tom Kimmerer.

What are you seeing? Are trees near you producing new flushes?