A walk in the woods

When I walked through the maple-basswood forests on the river bluffs in Eden Prairie on Saturday, most of the maples and oaks had were still stobornly colored in various shades of green.  The glowing yellow leaves of a group of bitternut hickory (Caraya cordiformis) stood out brightly in the forest.  The conspicuous “sulphur-yellow” bud is the distinguishing characteristic that helped me identify the species.