Being with Buds

Jon McAlice

For several years I have been especially attentive to the budding and leafing of the trees in the springtime. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say the “budding-out,” the leafing-out of the trees. The budding-in — the formation of the buds — takes place during the summer. When autumn comes, deciduous trees lose their leaves and the buds that have formed in the warmth and light of the passing summer remain. They carry the spoor of the tree’s summer growth through the winter and into the following spring. The winter buds are small. They are easy to overlook. We find them at the tips and along the sides of the twigs that formed during the summer, wherever the tree bore leaves. With the exception of the terminal bud (the bud on the outermost tip), the buds form in the axil of the leaf, where the leaf stalk meets the twig. Beneath each axillary bud, we find a leaf scar.

Just as each tree species has characteristic leaves, bark, branching, and growth patterns, each also has characteristic buds. Some, like the American hornbeam, (Carpinus caroliniana) are very small and barely noticeable unless one looks closely. They are slender, delicately scaled, almost the same dark brown color as the smooth bark on the young twigs. The buds of the red oak are larger, thicker, more compact. They angle out away from the branch, whereas the hornbeam buds tend to lie alongside the branch. The oak twigs terminate in a tight cluster of buds. The shagbark hickory has short, stocky axillary buds and a prominent terminal bud that grows directly out of the end of the branch. The scales are of a light brown, sometimes tan color.

With a steady hand and a sharp blade, it is possible to slice a bud lengthwise. Inside we find, in a sense, a miniature whole plant: a tiny stem with primordial or embryonic leaves laid tightly one against the other or curled into one another. Some buds also contain embryonic flowers. If the cut is clean it is sometimes possible, with a magnifying glass, to glimpse the embryonic traces of what will become next winter’s buds. Within the bud, in a primordial or embryonic state is not only everything that will unfold and expand outward into the light and warmth of a new growing season, but also the polar gesture of concentration that comes to expression in bud and seed. We often become aware of the rhythm between expansion and contraction in plant growth as a temporal sequence; in the bud, both potentials are present simultaneously. The bud contains both embryonic stem with leaves and flowers and embryonic bud — expansive and contractive elements together in a state of potency.

As the spring grows warmer and the days longer, the buds begin to change. We notice first a swelling, then an elongation. This is more marked in some species than others. At first the entire bud swells and stretches, the scales become softer and more colorful. The changes in color are often as noticeable as the changing shape of the buds. The beginning of new growth is colorful like the display of autumn foliage, just more restrained. The spring colors are gentler and tend to be more translucent than the autumn colors. As budding-out continues, the scales begin to roll back as the young leaves and flowers emerge and unfold into the light.

Among the trees here, in northeastern New York on the edge of the Berkshires, one of the more expressive budding processes is that of the hickories. The images at left are of the pignut hickory (Carya glabus) and show the budding out process over the course of about seven days in early May. The buds shown are from immature shoots, thus no flowers are apparent. The budding-out process takes hold of the bud in its entirety. The scales grow with the maturing leaflets. They become increasingly diaphanous; the greening of the new leaves shines through. The characteristic gesture of the leaves emerging is reminiscent of a contemplative joining of the hands at their fingertips. This disappears overnight to be replaced by the rather windblown appearance of the leaves unfolding into the sunlight.

A very gratifying springtime practice is to choose two or three trees to visit each day during this budding-out period. By returning each day and spending time with the buds as they change and grow, you get a deep sense of the subtle beauty of this yearly birth of new growth. It progresses slowly over the course of any number of days (and nights). For anyone used to the fast pace of modern society with its constantly changing stream of stimulation, the process can appear maddeningly slow. You have to slow down inwardly and experience the joy of living into and engaging with the tree’s time. If you then take the time to reimagine the budding process — that is, to picture the buds in their changing — you can catch a glimpse of “tree” bringing itself to expression in the particular way of this tree, in this place, in this springtime.