Weird corn

Last week I noticed something weird in a corn field--kernels of corn growing on what should be corn tassels. Note in the picture below that there is a strand of tassel along with the naked cob of corn.

 There were quite a few of these strange structures.

 Checking the Internet, I found this explanation from someone at Purdue. I will not try to summarize it because I would undoubtedly get something wrong and I suspect there are some people who will read this who will know a lot about tassel-ear corn.

In other plant news, the Rensselaer Urban Forest Council recently planted some Tri-Color Beech trees near Staddon Field. You can read about this variety of tree here.  It is not a native species.

 Nearby are some more tree plantings, those behind the new O'Reilly Auto Parts store. They planted three different types of trees, some river birch, some kind of maple, and what appears to be some crab apple trees.

I noticed the tree plantings on my way to the Food Truck Friday event hosted by Alliance Bank. The food vendor was the Doggers food trailer. Even though Doggers will soon close their Rensselaer restaurant, they will keep their Wheatfield location open and plan to start a new restaurant in Francesville, which may not have the Doggers name.

Friday was a remarkably cold and windy August day.

And an update on the shuttle service between Rensselaer and Morocco: it is scheduled to begin on August 14.

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