America’s Unexpected Tree Diversity Hotspot

First: A big thank you to everyone who organized and attended the wonderful Field & Fork event in western Pennsylvania.

It was a lovely evening of delicious food, great conversation, and beautiful scenery. I enjoyed discussing a few ideas that don’t usually make their way into my videos, including some of the more powerful effects that nature has on human beings.

Moving forward: I recently took a last-minute trip to the southeastern United States.

In addition to surprising my uncle for his 65th birthday, I admired all the trees I don’t usually see back home in Pennsylvania: water tupelo, willow oak, southern red oak, loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, sugarberry, and dozens of others.

I eventually lost count of all the trees I saw. As it turns out, there was a good reason for that: more native tree species grow in the Southeast than in any other region of the contiguous United States.

But why?

Why is the Southeast so special? And why don’t other regions of the U.S. — like the Northeast, the Midwest, or the Pacific Northwest — support such an incredible variety of native trees?

In my newest video, I dive into the fascinating story behind the Southeast’s remarkable tree diversity.

You can watch it here.

Thanks for reading and watching.

— Adam Haritan

Mary’s Gold: Calendula Sun Cake

Mary’s Gold: Calendula Sun Cake

The Surprising Rise Of A Native Tree

In my neck of the woods, there’s a particular tree that grows in the understory.

It’s not a very big tree, but it’s doing something that has recently caught my attention: It’s becoming much more abundant.

On the surface, this looks like a wonderful thing.

Known as pawpaw (Asimina triloba), this native tree produces a highly prized edible fruit. It also serves as a host plant for the zebra swallowtail.

But looks can be deceiving.

The recent increase in pawpaw numbers may actually reflect broader, deeper changes within eastern forests.

What are these changes, and why exactly is pawpaw winning in the 21st century?

In a brand-new video, I visit a humid, buggy bottomland forest to explore these questions.

You can watch the video here.

Thanks for reading and watching!

— Adam Haritan

I Never Expected To See This Oak

Imagine spending over a decade with the same group of friends, only to discover a stranger had been among you the entire time.

This recently happened to me, but it didn’t involve humans.

It involved oaks.

For more than a decade, I’d been visiting the same patch of woods near my home. I thought I knew all the trees there, but I guess I was wrong.

One day, I came across an oak I’d never noticed before. It didn’t look like the other oaks, and it left me with many more questions than answers.

Of course, I filmed the experience to show you this unusual tree.

Do you have any idea what kind of oak this is?

You can watch the brand-new video here.

Thanks for reading and watching (and thanks for any input you can provide)!

— Adam Haritan

Even I Got Confused Out There

I have two updates: a special live event next month, and a brand-new video on an iconic forest plant.

First up: On Tuesday, July 21, I’ll be speaking at a unique, immersive event called Field & Fork.

This is a multi-sensory farm-to-table dinner and ecology experience hosted by Plant it Further at the scenic 80-acre Lodge at Water’s Edge in Portersville, Pennsylvania.

I’ll be speaking alongside Cornell Master Beekeeper Christina Joy Neumann, and we’ll all be sharing a beautifully crafted seasonal dinner.

If you want to slow down, talk forest ecology, eat incredible local food, and connect in person, I would love to see you there.

Click here for details and tickets to Field & Fork.

Next up: Ginseng.

Recently, I thought about a forest I visited 8 years ago, and I wondered if two American ginseng plants were still growing there.

To get an answer, I decided to visit the forest and see for myself.

The only problem was that I never dropped a pin on a map, and I wasn’t sure exactly where I found the plants 8 years ago. But after an hour of intense searching under a canopy of tulip tree and red maple, I finally found them.

“What luck!” I thought to myself.

Interestingly, I was also surprised to see quite a few other plants that looked like ginseng. Some of these lookalikes were even growing right next to the real thing.

This made me wonder: If I’m getting confused out here, I’ll bet other people are too.

So, I decided to film a video breaking down how to spot a few ginseng lookalikes, as well as how to identify true American ginseng in the wild.

You can watch the brand-new video here.

Thanks for watching, and I hope to see some of you in July!

— Adam Haritan

Why This Shrub Is A Tick Paradise

In my neck of the woods, some places are absolute tick hot spots. If I need to photograph ticks or study their habits, I know exactly where to go.

But until last week, I didn’t know that a particular shrub was strongly associated with tick abundance. A new study found this to be true, and we can now add this species to the growing list of plants that sustain ticks.

What is this shrub? And why do ticks love spending so much time near it?

In a brand-new video, I answer these questions and discuss why we shouldn’t be too surprised to see things moving in this direction.

You can watch the video here.

Thanks for reading and watching.

— Adam Haritan

Spring Greens as a Nourishing and Healing Food

Spring Greens as a Nourishing and Healing Food

The Great Tick Illusion

Before I share a brand-new video with you, I have some great news:

My newest online course, Elders: The Ecology of Old-Growth Forests, will be open for enrollment in two weeks!

I’ve spent the past 16 months filming, researching, and structuring this course to be a comprehensive guide to these incredible ecosystems. I’ve gone deeper into the science and soul of the forest than ever before, and I’m excited to finally bring this vision to life.

If you’ve been following the updates over the last few months, thank you for your patience.

Keep an eye on your inbox over the next two weeks. The official launch date is Monday, May 11.

In the meantime, I have some new information to share with you about a well-known member of the forest:

The black-legged tick.

So far this year, I’ve had more than two dozen ticks crawling on my body. [Fun fact: Not all these ticks surprised me. To capture video footage of ticks, I often have to intentionally walk through shrubs and tall grasses to find them.]

No matter how they end up on my body, I’m always left with the same question: Where are all these ticks coming from?

For a long time, we’ve been told that ticks are simply moving north as the climate changes. But interestingly, a recent preprint study challenges this assumption.

It turns out that the history of the tick on our landscape is far more complex and ancient than we realized.

In a brand-new video, I discuss the latest research and what it actually means for those of us living in tick territory.