local ecologist

The Astor Place beaver

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

As soon as I sighted the beaver plaque at the Astor Place subway station, shown above, I recalled a passage from Eric Jay Dolan's Fur, Fortune, and Empire about John Jacob Astor, his astute real estate acumen, the places in New York that bear his name and those he once owned that do not, and his role in the beaver fur trade. Here is an excerpt from a most excellent chronicle of the North America fur trade:

Not one to let his money sit idle, Astor plowed his growing profits from the fur trade into real estate. His first purchase came in 1789, when he bought two lots of land on Bowery Lane for a little more than six hundred dollars....Over the years many of Astor's associates ridiculed his real estate transactions, especially those in which he acquired empty land well beyond the city proper. They said he had wasted money on dirt and trees, but when the city expanded right up to the edge of Astor's holdings, he sold or rented his "worthless" land for enormous sums--including all of what would one day become Times Square. When he was very old, Astor was asked if he had accumulated an excessive amount of real estate, to which he replied, "COuld I begin life again, knowing what I now know, and had money to invest, I would buy every foot of land on the Island of Manhattan."...Unwilling to sit on his laurels or his growing fortune, he was looking for ways to expand his operations and earn more. And soon after Lewis and Clark returned from their epic journey, Astor's gaze shifted westward. (pages 193-194)

The beaver, "a source of the Astor family wealth from fur trading," is depicted in a terra cotta and mosaic plaque by the Grueby Facience Company in 1940, according to nycsubway.org and the Arts for Transit website. (Aside: The latter website has been redesigned and is easier to navigate.)

Suburban setback in Manhattan

2012-01-23T15:48:00.001-05:00

Walking towards Park Avenue on 38th Street, I saw the change in the streetscape before I reached the source. On an overcast day, the bright, airiness conveyed by a gap in the building line was very noticeable. 152 East 38th Street has a generous setback, a gorgeous pair of gates, and a handsome three-story Federal Revival brick house. The area was originally part of an estate belonging to a member of President Martin Van Buren's family, wrote Christopher Gray of the New York Times. The house was completed in 1857 by contractor and owner Patrick McCafferty. Its 60 foot setback was unusual for a house of that period. The house was landmarked in 1989 by the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation. A history of the house's owners and occupants can be read at Daytonian in Manhattan.

Polis: NYU Expansion Threatens Greenwich Village Green Space

2012-01-20T12:08:00.002-05:00

Our essay about greenspaces and wildlife at risk in Greenwich Village was published on polis on January 19, 2012. We would like to thank Polis for affording us the opportunity to share this story with their readers.

2012-01-18T12:03:00.002-05:00

We support the #SOPASTRIKE but our blog does not recognize the code.

What is wrong with this picture?

2012-01-13T13:24:00.000-05:00

Image: "Superblock Interim Condition" slide (page 11), NYU 2031 Land Use (source)

The vegetation in southwest section of the Sasaki Garden is missing (see above) on page 11 of the powerpoint presentation that NYU made at the Community Board 2 Zoning & Land Use Hearing on January 9th.

The actual state of the southwest section of the garden is show above. The omission of vegetation certainly supports the university's claim that green space would increase with its campus expansion plan in the superblocks below Washington Square Park. Also, note the language used to describe the graphic -- "interim condition" -- implying a temporary state.

Tulip tree allee at New York Botanical Garden

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Described as "a signature planting", the tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipfera) that form the allée leading to the Library Building at the New York Botanical Garden were planted in 1905 alternating among poplars which were originally planted in 1903 by Nathaniel Lord Britton. The poplars did not fulfill Briton's vision and were removed by 1911.

We have featured alleés in Frankfurt, in Berlin, and as precursors to tree-lined streets.

Bond Street Mews or Great Jones Mews?

2012-01-06T13:20:00.002-05:00

The unsigned, private mews pictured above is located between Bond and Great Jones Streets in Manhattan. Button Agreement has a gallery of "little streets" here and we have written about other mews in the neighborhood here and here.

Book Review: American Eden by Wade Graham

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Image: American Eden cover (source)

In the garden there is more than meets the eye. An everyday space (your balcony garden), a once-in-a-lifetime icon (Monticello or Central Park), clever art (The Bagel Garden), or waspish gardening (Turkey Hill) are infused with ideas and practices about natural resources conservation, environmental theory, land use and management, social class and wealth, and politics, too, argues Wade Graham in American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are. Graham situates the politics and ecology of garden design from 1600 to the 2000s in seven chapters.

The founding gardens of 1600-1826 were designed to obfuscate and to escape from the landscapes of production (whether slave- or factory-based) which fueled the lifestyles of the founding gardeners but plagued their moral compasses. An extended quote from - the final paragraph of - Chapter One:

A man of the 18th century who embodied its ideals of natural science, exploration, and enlightenment, Jefferson prefigured the momentous, wrenching changes of the 19th: slavery, which tore his own conscience, would very nearly tear the country apart; factories, of which he was one of the first owners, would transform the nation's economy and social structure and feed the explosive growth of crowded, industrial cities--anathema to him and to millions of others who would point to his articulation of the agrarian ideal as they fled those cities to suburbs modeled on the image of the vanishing wilderness, tamed into manicured private gardens, each a miniature, simplified version of this vaster, layered one at Monticello.

Logically, in Chapter Two, Graham considers the garden landscapes of the suburbia between 1820 and 1890. The story of the suburbs has been told by many scholars and typically close with the failing fortunes of the city. Graham argues otherwise.

As cities spread and dominated their hinterlands, and the true agrarian countryside emptied of population as the small farm economy was replaced by factory farming, fear of the city had become a pervasive, basic element of the Victorian worldview....Once the city had decisively triumphed against the wilderness, modern pastoralism reclaimed the landscape, first in the form of the city park, bringing "country into the city, then reexporting this aestheticized wilderness ideal to the areas around cities, as garden suburbs, which were linked to the city by parkways--city streets turned into linear parks....In a few years the natural park idea was extended to the national park....This last development can be best understood not as the preservation of wilderness, since this was not the goal, but the designation of large tracts of scenic lands, cleared with guns of Indians and wolves, as resorts for public recreation--in essence city parks once removed from the city. In other words, the advent of the national park marked the total triumph of the city over the wilderness.

Gardens and landscapes of the Gilded Age (1880-1915) and Arts & Crafts period (1850-1945) are discussed in Chapters Three and Four, respectively. An exemplar of the former period is the White City for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, 1893. In addition to classical idioms of design, cottage garden styles were also a dominant design motif in the Gilded Age. Graham writes, "In a very real sense, Grandmother's garden was a political garden, an assertion of the common people in a time of increasing inequality and 'conspicuous consumption' by the rich...."

Image: Dumbarton Oaks site plan courtesy of Wikimedia Commons via Library of Congress/HABS (source)

Although I have always associated Arts & Crafts design with the West Coast, a spectacular landscape thrives on the East Coast: Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown was designed by Beatrix (Jones) Farrand between 1921 and 1947. Farrand donated her estate to UC Berkeley. Having lived in Berkeley I am familiar with Farrand's legacy as well as those of the designers profiled by Graham in Chapter Five on the modern California garden like Garrett Eckbo, Thomas Church, Lawrence Halprin, and others. I was particularly struck by the description of designers and their work during the 1920s to the1960s as being imbued with social design principles. This period is associated with numerous injustices which Graham does point out.

Images: Time Landscape

Conceptual landscape architecture between the 1940s and 2000s is the focus of Chapter Six. Think Martha Schwartz's "The Bagel Garden," Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," Richard Serra's "Spin Out (for Robert Smithson)," and though it is mentioned in the last chapter, "Time Landscape" by Alan Sonfist is one of my favorite pieces from the conceptual or land art period of landscape architecture.

Image: Lurie Garden

Graham placed "Time Landscape" in the final chapter among the Lurie Garden (Millenium Park, Chicago) and the High Line (NYC) as well as Alice Waters Edible Schoolyards and the Obama White House kitchen garden. Graham's description of the High Line as an example of "unprecedented naturalism in gardens and landscape" was striking because as I drafted this review, I read Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin. In Genius of Place, Martin discussed the wetland restoration projects that Olmsted completed in Boston. Those too were unprecedented but I understand Graham's argument. Graham did not detail the founding of the High Line but the political ecology of its creation is reminiscent of Olmsted's lobbying for Central Park and many of his other projects. Also, the White House kitchen garden did not spring from thin air; it can trace its origins to John Adams's vegetable garden. Graham has brilliantly excavated the threads in landscape architectural practice.

I would like to thank Wade for providing a copy of American Eden for review. For more essays by Wade Graham, follow his blog Reflections on Landscape.

Now & 2031: The endangered Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village

2011-12-20T21:32:00.003-05:00

The Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village is located in the interior of the block bounded by West Third Street, LaGuardia Place, Bleecker Street, and Mercer Street. The garden is historic with landmark potential. It was completed in 1959 and designed by the world-renowned landscape architect Hideo Sasaki. The garden is endangered. It is located in the "North Block" of the NYU's proposed 20-year expansion plan area.

The Garden Now

Image: Verdant and lush WSV Sasaki Garden

The Proposed Replacement

Image: Highly paved interior of the North Block under NYU 2031 (source)

The NYU 20 Year Expansion Plan (or NYU 2031) has to undergo a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) which will begin in January 2012. The first round of hearings will be conducted by Community Board 2.

1. Monday, January 9: Land Use & Business Development: NYU will present its overall proposal.
2. Tuesday, January 10: Traffic & Transportation: What are the implications of the NYU plan on traffic, pedestrian uses and mass transit?
3. Thursday, January 12: Parks, Recreation & Open Space: How does the NYU plan impact public open space?
4. Tuesday, January 17: Social Services & Education: Does the community support adding a public school to the superblocks and what are the plans for such a school?
5. Wednesday, January 18: Environment, Public Safety & Public Health: Will NYU’s proposal affect local environmental conditions?

The above dates are subject to change so please check the CB2 NYU 2031 webpage for updated information.

English Elm in the Tree Year, part 5

2011-12-19T11:28:00.000-05:00

The English elm is still in leaf as of December 12. The Tree Year is winding down with only 11 days remaining in the year. This is our final post about the English elm in Washington Square Park for the Tree Year project. We would like to leave you with this amazing information about the species from a research abstract by Gil et al., 2004:

The outbreak of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s ravaged European elm populations, killing more than 25 million trees in Britain alone; the greatest impact was on Ulmus procera, otherwise known as the English elm. Here we use molecular and historical information to show that this elm derives from a single clone that the Romans transported from Italy to the Iberian peninsula, and from there to Britain, for the purpose of supporting and training vines. Its highly efficient vegetative reproduction and its inability to set seeds have preserved this clone unaltered for 2,000 years as the core of the English elm population — and the preponderance of this susceptible variety may have favoured a rapid spread of the disease.

(source: Phylogeography: English elm is a 2,000-year-old Roman clone, Luis Gil, Pablo Fuentes-Utrilla1, Álvaro Soto, M. Teresa Cervera, and Carmen Collada in Nature 431, 1053 (28 October 2004).)

Previous English Elm posts:
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 4
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 3
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 2
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 1

Bird Watch: Project Feederwatch Top-25 List

2011-12-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

I am always delighted to receive publication from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Winter Bird Highlights from Project FeederWatch 2010-2011 is chock full of information including a regional roundup of birds sighted by citizen scientists.

Image: Northern Cardinal, Washington Square Village Sasaki Garden courtesy Hubert J Steed (source)

The Top-25 List for the the Mid-Atlantic, East Central, Northeast, Great Lakes, Allegheny, & Atlantic Canada Regions included Chickadee, Dark-eyed Junco, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Finch, Tufted Titmouse, and more.

Image: House Sparrow, WSV Sasaki Garden courtesy Hubert J Steed (source)

The New York State Top-25 List included Black-capped Chickadee, Dark-eyed Junco, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Tufted Titmouse, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and more.

Image: American Robin, WSV Sasaki Garden courtesy Hubert J Steed (source)

If you have not spent time in the Washington Square Village Sasaki Garden in Manhattan, you should do so for many reasons, one of which is the bird life. Hubert J. Steed has been photographing the birds that frequent the Garden and his photo galleries are available at http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/wsvg_sg_birds. Steed has recorded Northern Cardinal, Mockingbird, Thrasher, Catbird, Mourning Dove, Pigeon, American Robin, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hermit Thrush, Sparrow (House & White-throated) and European Starling. A great Top-12 List for a 1.5 acre urban garden!

At play: Moon-inspired books

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Playgrounds are typically profiled in the "At play" series but we would like to share our list of moon-inspired children's books in advance of the total lunar eclipse to occur on Saturday, December 10, 2011. We were inspired by a moon-inspired book list on oomscholasticblog tweeted by @ScholasticNYC.

Dinosaur's Binkit, Sandra Boynton
Pajama Time, Sandra Boynton
Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, Eric Carle
My Mommy Hung the Moon, Jamie Lee Curtis
Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson
In the Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak
Zoom into Space with the Shiny Red Rocket, Tick Tock Books

Space, NASA Information & News reported that the best places to view the eclipse will be in "Alaska, Hawaii, northwestern Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and central and eastern Asia," while people in the contiguous United States and eastern Canada "will see either only the initial penumbral stages before moonset, or nothing at all."

What are your favorite moon-themed books for children, and adults, too?

Urban Tree of the Year 2011: Goldenrain tree

2011-12-08T11:43:00.001-05:00

There has been high interest in the post about the Callery pear and at least one of our readers has made a planting decision based on information contained in the article. If you are looking for another showy tree, consider Goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata).

Image: Goldenraintree courtesy of City of Troy, MI Parks and Rec (source)

The Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA) selected the species as the 2011 Urban Tree of the Year. In addition to its flowering characteristics, SMA members valued its tolerance of drought and soil conditions "including pH extremes (4.5-8.0), coarse to fine texture, and compacted soils with low organic content and fertility." The species is relatively insusceptible to disease and insect infestation. The goldenrain tree bug (Jadera species), a native insect, is an occasional nuisance according to the University of Florida/IFAS Extension. Early structural pruning was recommended to "correct" its decurrent form if the species will be used as a street tree.

Image: Goldenraintree courtesy of Salt Lake City Urban Forestry (source)

Goldenrain tree is also historically interesting. On "June 12, 1809, Jefferson received seeds of Koelreuteria from France and had a tree growing from them two years later at his home in Monticello, Virginia," according to a statement written by Dr. Nina Bassuk of Cornell. And from the Monticello House & Gardens website:

In 1809, Thomas Jefferson received seeds from his Parisian friend, Madame de Tessé. He reported back to her in March 1811 that a seedling "has germinated, and is now growing. I cherish it with particular attentions, as it daily reminds me of the friendship with which you have honored me."[2] Jefferson's tree was likely the first grown in America, and Jefferson made the earliest American citation of this tree.[3] Goldenrain trees are now naturalized at Monticello.

The scientifically-minded French Jesuit, Pierre d'Incarville, was one of the few privileged explorers allowed in China during the mid-18th century. It is believed that, while in Peking, he collected the black, pea-sized seeds of the Goldenrain tree, which he entrusted to a Russian caravan on a westward trek to Europe. The seeds would eventually reach the Jardin du Roi in Paris and were being grown by 1763. However, according to Joan Dutton, the tree was introduced in England in 1560.[4]

[1] This section is based on the Center for Historic Plants Information Sheet.
[2] 27 March 1811. Betts, Garden Book, 454-455.
[3] Denise Wiles Adams, Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940 (Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc., 2004), 83.
[4] Joan Parry Dutton, Plants of (Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1979), 22.

Then & Now: Showy Callery Pear

2011-12-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

Early cultivars of Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), for example 'Bradford,' perform poorly in inclement weather (ice and wind) as they age. Its reported inferior branching habit composed of many vertical stems weaken over time and cannot withstand heavy loading from ice and wind. In contrast to the 'Bradford' is the 'Cleveland Select' aka 'Chanticleer' which was selected as the 2005 Urban Tree of the Year by the Society of Municipal Arborists.

(For a perspective of these two pears in spring click here.)

What the 'Bradford' and preferred cultivars of the species have in their favor are showy spring flowers and brilliant fall color. And for the wildlife enthusiasts among us, its fruit is a food source for birds. A description of the flowers from the Central Park Conservancy:

A profusion of beautiful white flowers, each 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter, growing in clusters measuring 2 to 4 inches across, appearing before or with the leaves.

The leaves exhibit a range of colors: yellow, orange, red, purple. Callery pear is reportedly one of the first trees to flower in the spring. If the tree is growing in Chicago, its fall color can last 10 to 21 days and into December in the absence of a frost, according to the Morton Arboretum. The photograph of the Callery pears, pictured above, was taken on November 29, 2011 in Manhattan.

Acer or Platanus acerifolia

2011-12-02T12:23:00.001-05:00

Have your tree i.d. skills been challenged by a leaf that looks like a maple species (Acer) but could be a London planetree (Platanus acerifolia)? If so, read our leaf key in the inaugural post of Metropolitan Field Guide's On Being Misunderstood series.

Identifying trees in the "leafless deep bush"

2011-11-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

The following is excerpted from "Wood" in Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro with images by this blog for Festival of the Trees 66.

Many people recognize trees by their leaves or by their general shape and size, but walking through the leafless deep bush Roy knows them by their bark. Ironwood, that heavy and reliable firewood, has a shaggy brown bark on its stocky trunk, but its limbs are smooth at their tips and decidedly reddish. Cherry is the blackest tree in the bush, and its bark lies in picturesque scales. Most people would be surprised at how high cherry trees grow here--they are nothing like the cherry trees in fruit orchards. Apple trees are more like their orchard representatives--not very tall, bark not so definitely scaled or dark as the cherry's. Ash is a soldierly tree with a corduroy-ribbed trunk. The maple's gray bark has an irregular surface, the shadows creating black streaks, which meet sometimes in rough rectangles, sometimes not. There is a comfortable carelessness about their bark, suitable to the maple tree, which is homely and familiar and what most people think of when they think of a tree.

Beech trees and oaks are another matter--there is something notable and dramatic about them, though neither has as lovely a shape as the big elm trees which are now nearly all gone. Beech has the smooth gray bark, the elephant skin, which is usually chosen for the carving of initials. These carvings widen with the years and decades, from the slim knife groove to the blotches that make the letters at last illegible, wider than they are long.

Beech will grow a hundred feet high in the bush. In the open they spread out and are as wide as high, but in the bush they shoot up, the limbs at the top will take radical turns and can look like stag horns. But this arrogant-looking tree may have a weakness of twisted grain, which can be detected by ripples in the bark. That's a sign that it might break, or go down in a high wind. As for oak trees, they are not so common in this country, not so common as beech but always easy to spot. Just as maple trees always look like the common necessary tree in the backyard, so oak trees always look like trees in storybooks, as if, in all the stories that begin, "Once upon a time in the woods," the woods were full of oaks. Their dark, shiny, elaborately indented leaves contribute to this look, but they seem just as legendary when the leaves are off and you can see so well the thick corky bark with its gray-black color and intricate surface, and the devilish curling and curving of the branches.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Schwartz Plaza Native Woodland Garden

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

We reprinted on May 7, 2010 an NYU Alumni Magazine article about the university's "public" gardens including the Schwartz Plaza Native Woodland Garden. The alumni magazine article reported 39 species growing in the 2200 square-foot garden such as ferns, sedge, wild ginger, and sarsaparilla. Also growing in the garden were non-native trees like littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata), pictured above, Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), and Japanese pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum).

When we first saw the garden, several lindens rose above the fern and wild ginger understory in its northern section. This fall the trees were removed to accommodate a construction project and were replaced this month with American hornbeam or Carpinus caroliana, also known as ironwood. The species is described as

A handsome tree in many locations, the tree slowly reaches a height and spread of 20 to 30 feet. It will grow with an attractive open habit in total shade, but be dense in full sun. The muscle-like bark is smooth, gray and fluted. Ironwood has a slow growth rate and is reportedly difficult to transplant from a field nursery (although 10-inch-diameter trees were moved with a 90-inch tree spade during the winter in USDA hardiness zone 8b with no problem) but is easy from containers. The fall color is faintly orange to yellow and stands out in the landscape or woods in the fall. Brown leaves occasionally hang on the tree into the winter.

Native to the East Coast, the American hornbeam seems an appropriate addition to this garden which offers "a small, rare glimpse of the landscape that the Manahates might have known in 1609." According to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, American hornbeam has low-minor wildlife value. The NRCS fact sheet for Carpinus caroliana is available at http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_caca18.pdf.

Although I did not notice this while the lindens were growing in the garden, the linden flowers are a major bee attractant which may be a drawback in this heavily populated area or the garden might have hosted some of the city's "new" bee species. A few lindens remain in the plaza proper but I will miss the large massing of the species.

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Have you seen the Time Landscape at LaGuardia Place and Houston Street?

From the plaque posted at the park:

Landscape artist Alan Sonfist (1946- ) created Time Landscape as a living monument to the forest that once blanketed Manhattan Island. He proposed the project in 1965. After extensive research on New York’s botany, geology, and history Sonfist and local community members used a palette of native trees, shrubs, wild grasses, flowers, plants, rocks, and earth to plant the 25' x 40' rectangular plot at the northeast corner of La Guardia Place and West Houston Street in 1978. The result of their efforts is a slowly developing forest that represents the Manhattan landscape inhabited by Native Americans and encountered by Dutch settlers in the early 17th century. (source)

Chlorophyll to mostly xanthophyll

2011-11-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

If you follow us on Twitter (@localecologist), you already know that the first version of this post was eaten by the proverbial dog. Since the time we drafted the essay and now, fall color has peaked in the city. In some places you can still see brilliant yellows and yellow-oranges. Although there are three classes of pigments responsible for fall color in broadleaf, deciduous trees, the most common public trees across the five boroughs exhibit in the yellow-orange-brown range. Yellows are produced by xanthophyll, oranges by carotenoid, and reds and purples by anthocyanin.

The ten most common street trees across NYC's five boroughs and their associated fall colors are:

London planetree (yellow),
Littleleaf linden (yellow),
Norway maple (depends on the cultivar),
Green ash (yellow),
Callery pear (depends on the cultivar),
Red maple (red),
Honeylocust (yellow),
Silver maple (yellow),
Pin oak (red-brown),
Ginkgo (yellow)

If you spot red- and purple-leaves this time of year excluding those on the above list, you might be looking at "purple-leaved" plums, Japanese or Norway maples or anthocyanin-leaved sweetgums and Zelkovas. A good thing about the "dog eating my homework" is that I read about the map of potential autumn colors of street trees" in Somerville, Massachusetts created by Bostonography in the November 11 issue of The Atlantic Cities. If such a map existed for NYC I could diversify my autumn colors of trees photo collection!

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Then & Now: Mercer Street Plaza in Fall 2010 and Summer 2011
Munich awash in carotenoids, too in 2010

Festival of the Trees No. 65

2011-11-01T12:11:00.002-04:00

Image: Fallen sassafras branches, New Jersey

Snow-covered trees were not among the topics in the submissions in this round as the October 27 deadline preceded the Northeast snow event. Last weekend, New York and other Northeastern U.S. cities received snowfall. For New York it was record breaking: not since 1952 has snow fallen before Halloween. My brother's sassafras (shown above) was still in leaf and lost a major branch due to snow loading.

Image: Scotch Pine wasps, image courtesy of Seabrooke Leckie

Seabrooke Leckie's Canadian Thanksgiving was sunny and dry based on the photographs of the "nice patch of woodland habitat" near her in-laws house. In that woodland, Leckie discovered Scotch Pine wasps feeding on the scale nectar produced possibly by Pine Tortoise Scale (Toumeyella parvicornis).

Another discovery comes by way of Dave at Fidaldo Island Crossing. On a visit to Washington Park in Anacortes, Washington, he observed from a distance what he thought was a "wonderful, weathered old" but dead tree. Dave later learned that the tree is a Seaside or Puget Sound Juniper, Juniperus maritima and until 2007, this species was classified as Juniperus scopulorum, the Rocky Mountain Juniper. Furthermore, the population at Washington Park "is the most robust with hundreds of trees".

The freakish snow storm in the city last weekend postponed a local fall foliage tour. I hope the tour is rescheduled before the peak of fall color and more importantly before the trees shed their leaves. If you have forgotten why leaves change color, head to Rebecca in the Woods where Rebecca has composed a concise answer about the biochemistry of fall color and one that is beautifully illustrated, too. Do you know the origin of the London planetree, Platanus x acerifolia? Paul at The Street Tree has written an impressive natural history of one its parents, the Oriental Plane, Platanus orientalis.

Larry Ayers of Riverside Rambles captured the fall colors of a Black Oak, Quercus velutina -- so royally purple and blue! Even more fall color can be seen at Tasting Rhubarb. Jean wrote with her submission: "Looked up the other morning on my harassed way to work and saw these - what more can I say?" Indeed!

Image: Beech, Ewden Valley, courtesy of treeblog

In addition to fall color, size and age are "wow factors" for tree lovers. Ash at treeblog saw some "beautiful, jaw-droppingly large" beeches in a woodland in the Ewden Valley and the largest of the lot he has named "the King of Ewden". Over at Human Flower Project, James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary of EarthScholars™ Research Group related the story of "a nearly infinite- looking, 3-mile-long, alley of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) and Coast Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) leading up to" Gerome Charles Durand's former plantation home in St. Martinville, Louisiana. More than 150 years later, only one mile of the original allee remains.

Arati at Trees, Plants & more experienced white of a different kind than the folks in the Northeastern U.S. did. He was struck by a path lined with Morinda tinctoria whose flowers had carpeted the ground white in a local park. I was struck that the first photo in Arati's post about a recent trip is of a Traveller's Palm, so named according to Wikipedia because the rainwater stored in its sheaths were used as emergency sources of drinking water for travelers.

I have never seen in person a Traveller's Palm or a Banyan Tree. Uma of Mauve Sea has written and illustrated with photographs and drawings an essay about the oldest Banyan Tree (Ficus benghalensis) in Chennai which is growing at The Theosophical Society there. What I thought were several trees is actually "a clonal colony carrying memories of the mother tree in their fibers of existence". See for yourself!

Image: Perry pears, courtesy of The Street Tree

More than any other time of the year, I associate the fall with food and eating. Perhaps this is true for the authors who submitted the following posts about edible trees. A street of Perry pear trees (Pyrus communis) near the Archway tube station in north London were preserved and now, Paul wrote, "the council picks the fruit each autumn (not since 2007 in such abundance) and local residents make use of them. Apparently one group has even made Perry" or pear cider. Let's not forget maple syrup. Mindful Momma wrote about a taste testing of Hudson River Valley-made Crown Maple Syrup. Crown Amber Light was the family favorite. If the persimmon tree would grow in the Northeast U.S., I would convince my brother to plant one. I discovered the deliciousness of a ripe persimmon when I lived in California and count it among my favorite fruits. I was pleased to receive the essay about "a special tree that is sharing it's sweet fruit with the world right now" from Rebecca of A Year With the Trees.

The year is winding down as is Natalie Raeber's The Tree Year Project 2011 the origin of which she explained at Save Our Woods. Don't fret, though, there is still time to participate in The Tree Year. Also, Natalie is seeking collaborators to extend the project into 2012 (contact her at tty @ raebeer.ch).

Finally, I would like to offer my own contribution: an aerial photograph of the Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village, one of my favorite places in New York City. The garden, completed in 1950, is home to a wide range of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials in addition to unique design and hardscape elements.

Image: Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village

I would like to thank the contributors for their help in producing this 65th Edition of the Festival of the Trees. The festival relies on volunteers and needs your help: please volunteer to host! Information can be found at http://festivalofthetrees.wordpress.com/volunteer-to-host/.

Coming soon: Festival of the Trees 65

2011-10-30T18:07:00.003-04:00

Snowy day near Jersey Street in Boston (Nov. 2003)

Mark your calendar for November 1, 2011 -- the arrival of the 65th edition of the Festival of the Trees.

5 Things I Like about Montreal

2011-10-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

As you might have guessed, we like Montreal's parks. In September, I wrote about my hike in parc du Mont-Royal. See more Mont-Royal photos at our Flickr page. Other enjoyable design elements of the city include its street tree gardens, (we first wrote about them in August 2010); small squares; and infrastructure. If you followed our Where in NYC? (Subway Series), you know we like subway art. Like NYC, Montreal's Metro stations house art.

Do you know in which Metro station this stained glass art is located?

We like the dual function of this infrastructure: street lighting and sidewalk seating.

Square-Victoria, quiet in the early morning, is livened by commuters emerging from the Metro.

5 Things I Like about Boston

2011-10-24T10:01:00.000-04:00

When we returned from our trip to Munich and I reviewed our photographs, I realized that they fell into five categories: parks, street trees, transportation, recreation, and architecture. Parks and open spaces, transportation, and architecture are also the subjects of our photos from a recent trip to Boston but I photographed infrastructure and food places, too.

Haymarket, downtown Boston

Old City Hall

Boston Harbor Hotel, Rowe's Wharf

Hubway bike sharing system

North End Parks, Rose Kennedy Greenway

Sukkah in Washington Square Park

2011-10-16T19:46:00.002-04:00

More than a year ago we reported on the Sukkah City:NYC 2010 exhibition at Union Square Park. This year, a sukkah was erected in Washington Square Park to celebrate Sukkot. Sukkot 2011 is celebrated from October 12 to October 19.

The basic rules for constructing a sukkah are:

The structure must be temporary, have at least two and a half walls, be big enough to contain a table, and have a roof made of shade-providing organic materials through which one can see the stars. (Source)

The Washington Square Park sukkah was built by Chabad House at New York University. Located slightly southeast of the Arch, it is made of variously sized wood boards and topped with branches of arborvitae (Thuja). Arborvitae is classified as a tree or a shrub and means "tree of life"; the Morton Arboretum describes it as long-lived with decay resistant wood.

At play in Houston Street Playground

2011-10-11T10:01:00.000-04:00

If you are familiar with the Lower East Side of Manhattan you might be wondering about the location of the Houston Street Playground. It is the northernmost of five playgrounds in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie Street. We played at this playground numerous times this summer as it is across the street from a grocery store where we frequently shop. Yesterday we played there with friends.

As in our inaugural At play post about the larger playground in Washington Square Park, this review is based on visits accompanied by a 16 to 24 month old child and the following factors in our assessment: sun/shade, seating, water, safety, and cleanliness.

Houston Street Playground is well shaded by large, broad London planetrees. However, pigeons roost in the trees and their droppings splatter unto most of the play structures and ground. Yesterday, the structures were the cleanest they have been of all our visits. A trash bin is located at the entry gate. There is litter but not enough to pose a concern.

The playground is surrounded by a tall fence. There are two entries: the northern one which faces the basketball court is chained but the southern one is not, and it is hard to secure. Also, users, especially preteens, do not close the gate on entering and leaving the playground. Luckily, the playground is located within a wide park so your child is not at immediate risk of running into the street.

There is adequate bench seating in the playground but we usually sit on the northern steps or on the play equipment. The benches are sometimes covered in pigeon droppings.

Water fountains and a wonderful misting fountain are located outside playground's southern gate.

This summer, the slides were a favorite; now, it is the jungle gym area and the short ramp just south of the misting fountain. Our youngest reviewer appears not to remember his summer visits as he kept referring to the playground as the "new playground". We will be going a few more times this season.

English Elm in the Tree Year, part 4

2011-10-10T11:47:00.000-04:00

In the previous post in this series, we wrote about the deepening color and thickening canopy of the English Elm with the onset of summer.

Whenever we walk by the elm, we observe squirrels eating, playing, standing, or engaged in other activities. In the spring, they would likely eat elm buds. With fewer buds to eat in the summer, the squirrels who frequent the elm are likely eating the nuts fed to them or left there by regular park users and tourists. Squirrels, so common to us, amaze tourists. The sheer size of the English Elm is also remarkable which might account for the greater amount of nuts and squirrel activity in this area.

Previous English Elm in the Tree Year posts are available at
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 3
English Elm in the Tree Year, part 2
English Elm in The Tree Year

This series of part of The Tree Year project.