Nature Sketching 2: Toronto Botanical Gardens

This past Saturday was the second of the Nature Sketching classes.  This time we meet at the Toronto Botanical Gardens (Edwards Gardens) and went down to sketch beside Wilket Creek in the ravine.

Our naturalist talked about invasive species and how important the ravines are to the ecosystem.  The beautiful grasses that I love to take pictures of are an invasive species -- they grow quickly and with a deep dense root system that really takes over and area.  Since the seeds are so light in the feathery heads, it also spreads like wildfire.  Its not native to this area so nothing or atleast not many animals will eat it so there are no natural predators.  I hadn't thought about plants having predators to help keep them under control. 

Invasive grasses (different location)

In the last century many ravines were filled in, often with garbage, without thought or understanding of their importance.  Ravines are carved by rivers.  In this case, rivers flowing out of the Oak Ridge Moraine to Lake Ontario.  With heavy rains and storms, absence of ravines or impaired ravines causes flooding.  Apparently this was the cause of several deaths in Toronto in the 1950s when Hurricane Hazel went through the area.

For sketching, Jessica gave us a view finder to use and suggested we do a few fast sketches as we explored the creek area.

I was surprised to discover that the red ends on the buds on this maple tree weren't the stamens of bloom but the tiniest petals of a flower hanging down.  I thought the flower was the yellowish green bit. 

After sketching at the creek, we walked a bit further towards the closed section.  Just before the closure we came a fallen tree with beautiful buds.  It looked like it had come down recently.  Noone recognized it but a photo in iNaturalist suggested it was an black cottonwood and google suggested aspen poplar.

Then we headed back to the more central groomed area and learned a bit more about invasive species and did a little more sketching.  The geese were trying to have a nap but several people wanted selfies with them.  Fortunately for the people, the geese didn't seem to feel too threatened. 

It was a fun afternoon sketching although a bit chilly.  I was thankful for hats and gloves.