After autumn's spectacular color show, after the hickories have shed their golden leaves, following the fireworks of maple, sassafras and tupelo, when the last fading embers of the scarlet oaks have been extinguished, then the branches of our hardwood trees lie barren in the winter wind. Winter twigs are studded with jewels. The tip of each branch contains the packaged promise of next year's growth. This package is called the bud. A tree bud consists of next year's leaves, stems, and perhaps flowers, which are folded, twisted, crumpled, pressed together and covered by a waterproof coating of modified leaves called bud scales.
Buds are small.
You have to be close enough to touch a tree to notice its buds. Take time to examine a twig in fall or winter. You will be amazed by the diversity of color, form, and texture of these distinctive features of our winter flora. Tree buds come in any shape that can be constructed with a curved line. Let's start by looking at the bud of one of the most common trees found at low elevations in the southern Appalachians, the Tulip Tree.