Green-Wood Cemetery Trees

Horse Chestnut

2012-01-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

Right now, if you went into Green-Wood and looked at a horse chestnut, you'd see branches with big sticky terminal buds. Inside the buds contain the beginnings of the flower panicles you'll see in spring. For more peeks inside a horse chestnut bud, go to the blog "Beyond the Human Eye."

Doors

2011-12-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

from 9/10/09

2011-12-09T18:06:00.001-05:00

Waking up to go to the cemetery isn't always a walk in the park, but this helps a little:

Dawn Redwood

2011-11-17T11:15:00.000-05:00

The dawn redwood, or Metasequoia, is dropping its leaves.

Golden Rain Tree

2011-10-14T09:55:00.003-04:00

The yellow clusters of Koelreuteria flowers gave way in the summer to balloon-like green pods...

which all turned brown a couple weeks ago.

Pear

2011-04-23T09:15:00.005-04:00

Pears are in the genus Pyrus. The pears we eat come from trees in this genus, but most of the pear trees planted along streets and in gardens are just decorative. The fruit they make is very small and probably not very tasty.

Stinkier than a ginkgo? I'm not sure which tree's scent is more repulsive. The pear has deceiving looks. These globular panicles of white flowers draw you towards the trees, promising beauty and lightness... and then the stench hits you.

I like the contrast of the immature purple anthers against the white petals.

Sedum

2011-03-21T08:25:00.000-04:00

I was a little surprised to see this sedum. I usually think of succulents as being warm-climate plants, but this sedum is cold hardy. It was growing on both sides of a headstone. This discovery led me to do some reading, and I've learned that some sedum are cold hardy to 30 below zero!

move over, liberty bell

2011-03-21T07:38:00.000-04:00

Forever stamps went evergreen this winter. Clockwise from the top left, they are ponderosa pine, eastern red cedar, blue spruce, and balsam fir. I'm not sure if we have a ponderosa pine in Green-Wood, but the three other species are represented in the cemetery.

Spring is here...

2011-03-20T16:41:00.012-04:00

After a long hiatus (involving a long trip to Houston and several more months of living a semi-nomadic lifestyle in Brooklyn), it's time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to Green-Wood Trees.

Spring is just about here. The snowdrops were starting to bloom last week.

Leaves were no obstacle for the snowdrops. The shoots poked holes right through them.

Daffodils, scilla, camelias, and even a cherry tree were also in bloom.

Fall Tree Tour on Sunday, Oct. 24

2010-10-20T10:17:00.003-04:00

It's time for fall color. Come along for a tour of Green-Wood's trees from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 24th.

The entrance is at 5th Ave. and 25th St. in Brooklyn. We'll meet just inside the Arch (the big brownstone arch) at 2 p.m. and go from there.

Wear comfortable walking shoes, and bring a bottle of water if you think you might need it (there are no drinking fountains along the way). I will try to work in a bathroom break, but I'm still planning the route based on which trees will have the best fall color, so it's not a guarantee. There are bathrooms where we will start and finish the tour, however.

The tour will be $10. Part of that will go to the Historic Fund, which helps maintain the grounds and the lots, and preserves the history of Green-Wood.

Beech

2010-09-27T20:14:00.001-04:00

-the biggest beech tree in the cemetery-

Spotted in the Cemetery

2010-09-27T20:12:00.002-04:00

Lotus Leaf

2010-09-24T11:39:00.001-04:00

Himalayan Pine

2010-09-09T10:30:00.000-04:00

Himalayan pine (Pinus wallichiana) needles grow in bundles of five.

When the leaves are fully grown, they're quite long.

Here is a cluster of male strobili right below the new leaves.

-view from under a Himalayan pine-

The larger cone is a Himalayan pine cone.

-unripe cones-

-ripe cones-

Stewartia

2010-07-10T11:39:00.004-04:00

The stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) flowers are similar to the Franklin tree blooms or, as the species name indicates, camellias: white petals with orange anthers.

The growing flower buds look like pin cushions.

This native of Japan is a three-season tree: beautiful summer blossoms, excellent fall color, and exfoliating bark (for winter interest).

These trees do not establish easily. Green-Wood has several young stewartias that I hope will survive the drought.

Brooklyn Underground

2010-07-09T11:03:00.003-04:00

Many Green-Woods collided at the Artful Conspirator's preview last month of "Brooklyn Underground: Theatrical Stories from the Green-Wood Cemetery." The performance opened with a clash of opinion which wasn't about liking or disliking the historic Brooklyn cemetery; each character agreed that it was wonderful. It was the "why" that was the point to be argued. A referee came out to make sure the debate was carried out in an orderly fashion. There was the tree constituent, who argued that the finest part is the landscape, the history buff, who brought to attention the famous people who are buried there, and the monument faction. These are all current, present-time voices, however, and we all know that there is more to Green-Wood than the living. The cemetery's past was evoked with selections from a book of regulations from 1853, some that surely have evolved in a straight line from then to now, such as those concerning plot sizes, and others that are humorously archaic (with mentions of riding on horseback and speed limits of four miles per hour). But what does make Green-Wood so special to its neighbors? It might not have to do with the past or the present, but a superimposition of one on the other: the imagined stories and lives of any of the 560,000 permanent residents. The theater group segued into this imagined Green-Wood with an interpretation of the family dynamics that might have led to the placement of two 19th-century family members at the opposite ends of a plot. Aaron Fisher provided the music, including a rendition of a song that DeWitt Clinton might sing if he had today's rap music at his disposal. The show was reminiscent of Spike Jonze's film Adaptation in which the audience is taken through the process of discovery and witnesses the resulting creation. There couldn't be a more fitting way to convey what Green-Wood is. Although the show might morph into another animal by the end of August, if the Artful Conspirators bring the same talent, heart, and humor that they brought to the preview, it's going to be a pure delight.

"Weeds"

2010-07-07T07:26:00.007-04:00

In spring, sections of the lawn were covered with purple, and I thought to myself how delightful it was. I read about these little violets and to my surprise found out that they are largely considered a weed. But what is a weed, I wondered.

There is no definitive list of which plants are weeds: weedness is in the eye of the beholder. We (in the U.S.) have been conditioned to think that lawns must be free of any plant that isn't the fine-blade grass we now worship. It hasn't always been like this, as Michael Weishan points out:

The first lawns were just mown pasture; whatever flowers or
“weeds” existed were let be. Later in the 1800s, nurseries
began to sell specialized seed mixtures. The lovers of the
monotone lawn that modern chemicals produce would no
doubt wince at the mixture for a perfect lawn given by
Frank Scott in 1876:

12 quarts Rhode Island bent grass

4 quarts creeping bent grass

10 quarts red top

3 quarts sweet vernal grass

2 quarts Kentucky blue grass

1 quart white clover

In Green-Wood, we tend to let these violets live.

And I saw these trumpet-shaped flowers the other day dotting the lawn near 9th Ave. I think it's field bindweed. I hope it's one of those that gets to survive as well.

I love these weeds.

Kousa Dogwood

2010-07-02T09:24:00.001-04:00

The kousas bloom about a month later than the flowering dogwoods.

On May 12th, the bracts on the kousa dogwoods had just started to grow...

They kept growing...

until the flowers finally bloomed. This was taken on June 4th.

But the show wasn't over: before the bracts fell off, they turned pink! From start to finish, the bracts last for about 5 or 6 weeks (which makes for a very long "flowering" time).

Here's a kousa in winter. You can see the vibrant fall color and exfoliating bark in the previous kousa post.

Dogwood

2010-06-30T23:21:00.000-04:00

Here's the first dogwood (Cornus florida) flower that I saw this spring. Flower bud, I should say. What look like petals here are actually bracts, modified leaves. The inconspicuous flowers come out of the green buds in the center.

The flowering dogwood is native to the eastern United States and Mexico. Here's a white flowering dogwood with fully grown bracts.

This pink dogwood is in bloom. Notice the tiny yellow flowers in the center.

Cornus florida has a reputation for becoming gnarly and mangled as it matures.

Here's a flowering dogwood in the early fall.

The clusters of fruit ripen by late summer or early fall.

The flowering dogwood is one of my favorite trees in winter. I love the way the twigs hold the snow.

passion flower

2010-06-29T13:25:00.000-04:00

I've seen stone flowers and plants adorning headstones, but this is the first passion flower I've seen.

The passion flower has been used as a symbol of the passion of Christ since the 16th century. Spanish conquistadors, perhaps in an effort to convert South American indigenous peoples to Catholicism, named the flower and used its parts to tell the story of the death of Christ. The petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles, the five anthers represent the five wounds, and the three stigmas represent the three nails. The flower also has a corona of thin lobes (although not carved here) that represent the crown of thorns.

The passion flower vine climbs up the cross, the ultimate symbol of the passion.

Southern Magnolia

2010-06-28T08:03:00.001-04:00

Until last year, I thought the southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) was the only kind of magnolia tree. (I'm from the D.C. area.) I've since discovered the saucer magnolia, the bigleaf magnolia, and the cucumber magnolia, among other species, but the southern magnolia is especially dear to me. It's native to the southeastern United States. So far, they seem to be doing well up here too. (Okay, the growth isn't quite as vigorous as it would be down south.) If you haven't noticed a southern magnolia in winter, the waxy coating on the leaves might give you a hint that it's evergreen. Right now the southern magnolias are blooming. The flowers give off a strong citrusy fragrance.

Inside this flower, there were at least three honey bees. Here, a forager is heading back to the hive. Check out the pollen on her legs.

All of our southern magnolias are relatively young. You can find most of them in the south section near Fort Hamilton Parkway.

stairs

2010-06-26T09:18:00.000-04:00

Some family plots have staircases going up from the road. They serve a purpose, especially when the grade is steep, but some of them are also decorative and seem to be an extra opportunity to embellish the family plot. Here is one of my favorites.

Privet

2010-06-24T08:58:00.000-04:00

Click on the photo to make it bigger. Between the pond and the buildings, there are hedgerows of privet, newly trimmed. I only started to appreciate the privet (Ligustrum) after I saw it like this from a distance.

It's also nice up close when it's in flower.

These panicles of fragrant white flowers are reminiscent of lilac.

Here's another view of the hedgerow in winter. Click to see.

To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 3

2010-06-22T09:51:00.001-04:00

I would say this is the end of the story of the cherry tree with two habits, but I have a feeling that it will eventually be cut down. That was the idea, I believe, when the grounds crew was sent to work on this tree. Instead of giving up on it, they cut out the root stock sport (which had almost completely taken over), and left the weeping limbs. It looks like a bad perm. Maybe it will fill in and look better in a few years. But probably not.

a look back at winter

2010-06-19T19:56:00.004-04:00

...to cool you down on this hot day.

Linden

2010-06-17T07:02:00.001-04:00

If in the past couple of weeks you've been walking down the street (or through the cemetery) and have been struck by a pleasant scent, you've probably walked by a linden tree.

Under the leaves, you can see clusters of whitish flowers suspended from long pale-green bracts.

Once the flowers turn into fruit (small fuzzy balls), the bracts aid in seed distribution.

The fragrant flowers are used to make linden flower tea, the very infusion that sparked an awakening in the narrator of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu: "Soon, depressed by the gloomy day and the promise of more like it to come, I took a mechanical sip at a spoonful of tea with a piece of the cake soaked in it. But at the very moment when the sip of tea and cake-crumbs touched my palate, a thrill ran through me and I immediately focused my attention on something strange happening inside me. I had been suddenly singled out and filled with a sweet feeling of joy, although I had no inkling of where it had come from. The joy had instantly made me indifferent to the vicissitudes of life, inoculated me against any setback it might have in store and shown me that its brevity was an irrelevant illusion; it had acted on me as love acts, filling me with a precious essence--or rather, the essence was not put into me, it was me, I was it."

The genus Tilia takes its name from a word meaning flexible or lithe. The wood is easy to work and is used for guitars and wooden blinds.

There are about 30 species of linden trees.

Green-Wood's collection includes at least five different linden species.

Agave

2010-06-16T12:57:00.004-04:00

Willie.

2010-06-09T18:22:00.003-04:00

Mulberry

2010-06-06T21:05:00.003-04:00

The mulberries are in fruit.

Here's fruit from the weeping mulberries.

-the weeping mulberries during a snowstorm this past winter-

And here are some white mulberries. White mulberry leaves are a silkworm's preferred food. This is a cultivated variety; in the wild, white mulberry (Morus alba) fruit is actually dark red or purple. (Forget about science--it's because of Pyramus and Thisbe, ancient Rome's Romeo and Juliet.)

Norway Maple

2010-06-03T09:08:00.005-04:00

The Norway maple (Acer platanoides) is not one of Green-Wood's most prized trees. For one thing, it's an invasive species, and although my beloved weeping willow and Amur cork tree are as well, this spring I could see why the Norway maple is on the list. Before spring mowing started, the lawn within fifty feet of each Norway maple (and beyond) was covered with seedlings. Green-Wood would quickly become a Norway maple forest if the mowing operations were ever halted. With a canopy that creates heavy shade and roots that secrete chemicals preventing the growth of other plants, the Norway maple has the ability to completely dominate a forest. Mowing isn't going to stop, however, and as the cemetery isn't bordering any forests or uncultivated green spaces, it isn't posing a risk to our native flora in that way. This maple species, although it's able to survive in extreme conditions, does pose other problems for a garden environment: it has a structure that tends to break easily. Each time we have a big storm, there's surely a Norway maple down or damaged, and over the years, the ones that remain look gangly. But Norway maples do have their moments. Here, at the end of April, they were still leafing out.

They are also delightful in flower. Flowering happens before any leaves appear and before most any other species has leafed out, giving the landscape an early touch of color.

These groupings of greenish flowers dot the canopy. Above, flowers in full bloom; below, flowers not yet opened.

Japanese Snowbell

2010-05-28T07:53:00.000-04:00

The Japanese snowbells have been in bloom for about two weeks.

The pendulous white blooms of Styrax japonicus are reminiscent of the Carolina silverbell...

but these petals are separated.

Whenever I went up to a Japanese snowbell to get a closer look or to enjoy the sweet fragrance, I couldn't hear anything but the buzzing of bees: bumblebees...

and honey bees alike. The pollinated flowers will soon give way to showy fruit.

Mountain Laurel

2010-05-24T11:01:00.006-04:00

Mountain laurel is a broadleaf evergreen native to the eastern United States. It gets part of its scientific name, Kalmia latifolia, from Pehr Kalm, a Finnish botanist who sent plant samples to Linnaeus in the mid-eighteenth century. The flowers are grouped in corymbs of a few dozen.

The ten stamens of each flower are pressed into the five conjoined petals, puckering them into a sort of decagonal bowl.

Mountain laurel is in the Heath family, along with rhododendron and azalea.

White Fringetree

2010-05-16T18:14:00.005-04:00

Chionanthus virginicus is native to the eastern United States. It's in the same family as lilac, privet, and forsythia.

Its fragrant flowers have four long, thin white petals that each taper to a point.

The white fringetree can be shrubby; this specimen has more of a tree-like form.

Locusts

2010-05-08T14:53:00.001-04:00

The honey locusts are leafing out.

This leaf can't decide if it wants to be pinnately or bipinnately compound.

The flowers buds are growing on the honey locusts...

while the black locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia) have already bloomed.

The flowers look like pea flowers (locusts are in the same family as the pea) and smell just as delicately sweet.

All the black locusts I've seen are still young, which means about another 100 years of sweet pink blossoms. Thanks, Art!

Carolina Silverbell

2010-05-07T12:02:00.003-04:00

Halesia tetraptera (Halesia carolina) is native to the eastern United States. It's in the Storax family (along with the Japanese Snowbell).

This small ornamental tree drips these charming white pendulous flowers in the spring.

Here's a view from underneath.

It is just starting to leaf out. Four-winged fruit will develop as the summer progresses...

Kwanzan Cherry

2010-04-26T08:30:00.002-04:00

Although the single-flower cherries have been long done, the double-flower cherries are still going.

Petals are dropping...

but the canopies are still full of pink.

paths

2010-04-23T12:30:00.002-04:00

To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 2

2010-04-19T18:59:00.001-04:00

In early fall, I saw a cherry tree with a split personality.

Not only does it have two different habits, it has different flowering times and different flower colors. The weeping part bloomed first with pink flowers, and the rootstock sports bloomed afterward with white flowers.

feathers

2010-04-19T12:50:00.000-04:00

I saw what looked like baby bird feathers scattered around a silver maple. I hope this is a normal feather development process, but there are many birds of prey around the cemetery...

Cherry

2010-04-07T12:41:00.001-04:00

-Okame cherry-

-yoshino cherry-

-yoshino leaves in fall-

-a weeping cherry in winter...

and in spring-

Sweet Gum balls

2010-04-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

Near a sweet gum tree, the entire surface of the ground is covered with decaying sweet gum balls that settled in a perfect blanket in the dirt. I'm not sure when this blanket was formed: maybe last fall, maybe the year before.

The freshly fallen sweet gum balls are still on the surface of the ground - not embedded like the old ones - and are more reddish-brown.

graves

2010-03-30T16:37:00.000-04:00

Saucer Magnolia

2010-03-22T07:46:00.002-04:00

These buds have been getting bigger over the past couple of weeks, shedding layers in the process.

Last week I saw a handful of buds like this on each tree.

Now there are too many to count. Some buds even have little hairy leaves peeking out.

Foliage doesn't usually emerge until after full bloom, but the occasional renegade adds a refreshing bit of green to all the fuschia.

first to bloom

2010-03-20T10:36:00.006-04:00

The autumn cherries are in bloom. I had seen one a couple weeks ago in premature bloom, but freezing temperatures put a halt to that. Now all of the autumn cherries are blooming (safely, I hope).

The silver and red maples beat them to it, though. Both of these species have been in bloom for at least ten days.

Red maples have different male and female trees while silver maples are monoecious. These silver maple flowers have long stamens topped with pollen-releasing anthers that bees are already busy exploring.

An early bloom that particularly caught my eye was the snowdrop. I had never seen these before (maybe because I'm from Virginia). I always thought of daffodils and crocuses when it came to spring flowers, but the snowdrop is such a little delight.

There are patches of these all over Green-Wood.

March storm

2010-03-19T08:00:00.009-04:00

On Wednesday, crews were cleaning up some of the major damage from last weekend's storm. Here, a member of the grounds crew had just cut up a Norway maple that fell.

It had toppled the marble column of a family monument.

Damage can be seen all over.

With the losses from the snow storms earlier this year, Green-Wood has taken quite a hit in 2010.

The saddest for me was seeing this willow. I turned the corner and saw the roots up in the air.

What a big loss for this little pond! Green-Wood Cemetery is accepting donations for replanting and restoring the cemetery.

more storm damage

2010-03-17T11:10:00.007-04:00

this time, not snow, but wind:
-a pear snapped in half-

-uprooted Norway maple-

stone plants

2010-03-12T14:13:00.001-05:00

Tulip Tree (and a sign of spring)

2010-03-07T18:03:00.014-05:00

Today I stopped to take a look at what was left of the tulip tree fruit.

The fruit, green in the summer and brown in the fall, is a cone-like aggregate of winged seeds (samaras). The samaras fall off (from top to bottom) throughout the winter.

I noticed the buds and was looking at their curious duck-bill shape when I saw that one had popped open on the side.

I helped it along and inside I saw a perfectly shaped miniature leaf folded in half neatly along the midrib. Other buds had started to open as well.

Here's a photo of a mature leaf from last summer (this leaf is two-lobed but leaves can also have four lobes),

and a tulip tree leafed out.

The bark is deeply furrowed on mature trees.

The tulip tree is one of the tallest species in the cemetery, known to reach a height of 190 feet.

Liriodendron tulipifera is sometimes called yellow poplar although it's not related to poplars. It's actually in the Magnolia family.

pine needles

2010-03-06T18:44:00.002-05:00

Sango kaku

2010-03-05T09:20:00.003-05:00

This Japanese maple pops out of the landscape when there's snow on the ground.

Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku' is sought after for its red bark. It's also known as coralbark maple.

The leaves are green in the summer with a touch of red,

and turn yellow in the fall.

a look back at fall (for the winter-weary)

2010-02-27T17:03:00.001-05:00

not so light and fluffy...

2010-02-25T11:42:00.005-05:00

Having greenery in a winter landscape is refreshing, especially when winter starts to get dreary. After the last couple snows, I appreciated it even more: I had never realized that evergreens were sticking their necks out by keeping their leaves all year round.

I used to see pines like this one with only a muffin top of foliage and wonder why all the lower branches were broken off.

During the last snow a friend explained to me that snow loads snap branches, especially when the snow is wet.

He pointed out this pine skirted with broken branches.

Close by there was another with damage.

It had only been snowing for a few hours.

Snow can help prune dead branches from a tree, but it can also take huge healthy limbs.

The new losses made the old ones more obvious. To prevent disease, broken branches will be cut back to the branch collar.

Although the pines seemed to be the most affected, no evergreen species in the cemetery was immune. There was damage to arborvitae, pine, spruce, holly... Here's a blue atlas cedar with a snapped limb. There was even a tree that was entirely uprooted by the big snow we had.

Sometimes snow weight will simply bend braches without causing any breakage. It can also splay the more shrub-like evergreens. When the snow melts, some branches will spring back to their former position. (Thanks for the photo, Art.) As another wet snow falls today, I'm thinking of my favorite evergreens in the cemetery. There are some ways to prevent damage, but with the number of big trees in Green-Wood, there's nothing to do but let nature have its way.

Camperdown Elm

2010-02-23T12:25:00.004-05:00

Paper Birch

2010-02-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

Here's one of the younger paper birches in the cemetery. Betula papyrifera usually has several stems and can have either a conical or an irregular crown. This specimen has a single stem with branches starting low on the trunk.

The white bark peels in papery sheets. At first the bark underneath is orange, but it whitens with time. Harriet Keeler, in Our Native Trees, says that the paper birch "possesses the most wonderful bark of any of our native trees." Personally, I would make an argument for beech bark, but paper birch bark comes in a close second. Although it's papery, it's quite strong. Native Americans used it to make canoes. It can also be written and painted on.

This accumulation of exfoliated bark looks like burnt newspaper.

The long horizontal lenticels in the bark allow for the exchange of gases.

Here are the pre-formed male catkins. The female catkins will emerge in the spring as the male catkins elongate. If you click on the photo, you can see that twigs are reddish-brown and dotted with small lenticels.

Trees Near You

2010-02-18T09:40:00.004-05:00

If you're interested in learning about the street trees in your neighborhood and you have an iPhone, check out the new Trees Near You app.

Each tree on the map is represented by a circle. When you click on a "tree" you can see the species and trunk size. The app also links to the wikipedia entry on the species in case you want to learn more.

For the moment, this app only covers New York City trees. This could be fun in Green-Wood... Thanks, Tibor.

Saucer Magnolia

2010-02-07T13:22:00.001-05:00

Here's a saucer magnolia after Tuesday night's snowfall.

When it's leafed out, it looks like a giant shrub. Now that the leaves are gone, you can see that it's multi-stemmed.

The large hirsute (fuzzy) floral buds give this tree an interesting winter texture. You can see the crescent-shaped leaf scars directly below the buds.

Here is an infructescence from last summer minus the red seeds. Most of these empty fruiting bodies have fallen to the ground by now.

The saucer magnolia is one of the earliest blooming trees in the spring (which unfortunately makes the flowers susceptible to frost damage). The pink or purple and white flowers emerge before the leaves. The saucer magnolia was hybridized around 1820 by Etienne Soulange-Bodin, a French horticulturist. Hundreds of varieties of this hybrid exist today.

Kentucky Coffeetree

2010-01-23T09:29:00.011-05:00

Gymnocladus dioicus has huge bipinnately compound leaves that can measure up to 40 inches long. Of course now, there's not a leaf in sight. Gymnocladus means "naked branch." With few twigs and barely visible buds, the tree looks almost dead in winter.

The Kentucky coffeetree has another unmistakable feature: the seed pods. They are stout and hard to break open.

Inside, surrounded by a sticky pulp, there are round seeds that pioneers purportedly roasted and used as a substitute for coffee. (I wouldn't try this at home. Raw seeds are toxic.) The species is dioecious, so pods can only be found on female trees.

The bark is furrowed and rough, and can break into scales resembling those of an alligator's back.

Sweet Gum

2010-01-17T20:25:00.002-05:00

These seed balls on the ground indicate that there's a sweet gum close by. The globose fruits can be confused with those of the sycamore or the london plane tree.

The sycamore or london plane ball is an aggregate of hundreds achenes with tufts of hairs tucked inside (like the seeds on dandelions). When the balls break apart, the achenes are released.

The sweet gum ball is an aggregate of about 50 capsules with a seed or two in each one. As the balls mature, they become woody and holes open up between the two points of each capsule, allowing the release of seeds as the balls shake in the wind. The empty fruiting heads can still be found hanging on branches now. Some will remain on the tree throughout the winter. (The previous sweet gum post shows the unripe seed ball.)

The sweet gum typically has a single straight leader.

This species is a treat in the fall. From afar, the trees look like pastel rainbows.

Close up, the color varies from leaf to leaf, and even from one side of a leaf to the other.

These leaves were taken from one tree on the same day.

more snow

2010-01-01T16:03:00.003-05:00

Some more shots from after the snowstorm in December...

Tulip Tree

2009-12-27T17:15:00.004-05:00

Turkish Filbert

2009-12-22T09:49:00.002-05:00

The Turkish filbert, or Turkish hazel, (Corylus colurna) is in the Birch family. All members of the family have male and female catkins on the same tree. Here are the filbert's male catkins. They will hang on all winter and mature in the spring.

The leaves are cordate at the base and have double-serrate margins.

The corky outer bark is grey, but when it exfoliates, reveals reddish-brown inner bark.

The tree has a pyramidal form with most limbs perpendicular to the trunk.

The nuts are encased in a stiff, bristly husk called an involucre. They come in clusters, the involucres joined at the base.

Here are some nuts still on the tree in late summer.

And here's one of the filbert's guests. All of its visitors are harmless; the filbert is not susceptible to any major diseases or pests.

winter tree identification

2009-12-22T09:38:00.001-05:00

Just as I seemed to be getting better at identifying trees, they went and lost all their leaves. I've started to use bud and twig keys, but it will be a while before all of the buds stop looking the same to me.

snow

2009-12-20T14:40:00.007-05:00

Excited for the first big snow, I trudged over to the 9th Ave. entrance this morning only to find that the cemetery was closed. I looked in through the gates and decided I'd try later.

But this afternoon, no change...

sunset

2009-12-19T22:39:00.000-05:00

Beech

2009-12-19T22:01:00.004-05:00

Even completely leafless, the beeches are beautiful. This one was drying off after a morning rain...

and this one was starting to get covered in snow earlier today.

Bittersweet

2009-12-13T20:36:00.002-05:00

Bald Cypress

2009-12-08T11:11:00.003-05:00

Taxodium distichum, like Metasequoia, is a deciduous conifer: unlike most cone-bearing trees, its changes color and drops its leaves in the fall. The feathery leaves are made of needles that appear two-ranked but are actually arranged spirally on branchlets.

The globular cones are covered with peltate scales.

Here are two bald cypresses side by side. The far one has turned red ahead of its neighbor.

Bald cypress has a conical shape when young. At maturity, it has a more cylindrical form with a rounded top. Bald cypress is also called swamp cypress because of its occurrence in low, wet land. When it grows near or in water, woody knobs protrude up from the roots. These "knees" were thought to help with oxygen intake, but the current dominant theory is that they help provide stability in loose substrates.

These cones are closer to maturity.

Behind each scale, there are two seeds. Although bald cypresses are known for their ability to live in flood-prone areas, seeds immersed in water will not germinate. Seedlings have to establish themselves in well-drained or saturated soil before they are able to survive in standing water.

Sourwood

2009-12-03T10:26:00.004-05:00

This sourwood was at peak fall color about three weeks ago with candy pinks and peaches on the ground...

and some redder leaves still on the tree.

Oxydendrum arboreum, a member of the Heath family, gets both its common and its scientific name from the sour taste of its leaves.

Sourwood bark has deep irregular fissures and is gray with reddish tints in the crevices.

The ovate leaves are about five inches long.

The fruit, in woody capsules, stays on the tree throughout the fall.

Here are two photos of another sourwood from late summer. There are still a few blooms on each raceme. The flowers are reminiscent of lily-of-the-valley.

All the leaves are green, but the flowers give hints of white just as the fruit does in the fall.

Black Birch

2009-11-15T22:21:00.002-05:00

Looking down at the ground, I noticed birch leaves,

and tasted a twig to confirm that it was a black birch (also known as sweet birch - click to see previous post on this species).

The fruiting catkins are mature; they're densely packed with papery seeds.

New female catkins will emerge in the spring out of the pointed buds. Male flower buds (in the upper left corner) are long, scaly, and rounded at the tip. In the spring, they will grow into yellow male catkins.

Persimmon

2009-11-12T09:31:00.011-05:00

The persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) is native to the Southeastern United States. It's in the Ebony family and true to its family name, it has very dark (and very hard) wood. Persimmon wood has been used in golf clubs, bowling pins, and billiard cues.

The mature bark is distinctive; it's cracked into square plates.

But the most distinctive feature of the persimmon is the fruit. It looks like a small orange tomato with a large persistent calyx. The fruit is edible, but if eaten before ripe, can taste uncomfortably chalky. Usually it's ready to eat after a frost.

In "The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia" (1612), William Strachey wrote of the fruit:

     They have a plomb which they call pessemmins, like to a
     medler, in England, but of a deeper tawnie cullour; they grow on
     a most high tree. When they are not fully ripe, they are harsh
     and choakie, and furre in a man's mouth like allam, howbeit,
     being fully ripe, yt is a reasonable pleasant fruict, somewhat
     lushious. I have seene our people put them into their baked and
     sodden puddings; there be whose tast allowes them to be as
     pretious as the English apricock; I confesse it is a good kind of
     horse plomb.

planting bulbs

2009-11-10T21:19:00.001-05:00

Now's the time for bulb planting.

Daffodils will bloom around the Pierrepont monument in early spring. Other monuments around the cemetery are being bulbed as well, either by family request,

or because monuments with built-in beds simply demand flowers.

Ginkgo

2009-11-06T09:33:00.002-05:00

Fossils indicate that the Ginkgo family is over 200 million years old. Ginkgo biloba is the only species living today in the entire division Ginkgophyta.

Ginkgoes are dioecious, meaning some trees are male and some are female. This particular group of trees is the product of asexual reproduction. An older gingko was cut down and new shoots came up around the stump.

As the stump decayed, the strongest shoots survived and grew into trees, forming a ring of ginkgoes.

-looking up from the center-

-cicada shell on ginkgo bark-

The leaves are set in whorls on short, slow-growing shoots.

They're green in the summer...

and turn yellow in the fall.

If you've ever walked by a female ginkgo around this time of year, you know why most cities only allow male ginkgoes to be planted along the streets: the fruit smells pretty bad. Some say rancid butter, but I didn't even know butter could go bad, so consulting my personal odor library, I can only say that it's reminiscent of stomach acid mixed with partially digested food.

This path was covered in fallen leaves and fruit.

a treacherous route...

Kousa Dogwood

2009-11-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

This kousa was glowing a couple days ago. I recently went back and all of the leaves had been dropped. Things are changing so quickly these days...

A mature kousa can be recognized at any time of year by the bark. It exfoliates in small round pieces,

...creating a multi-colored trunk.

yellow maple

2009-11-03T07:49:00.001-05:00

Japanese Maple

2009-11-01T21:14:00.003-05:00

The Japanese maples are having their fall moment right now. This tree had leaves of all colors from green to red.

This one near the catacombs had some nice reds and oranges.

chapel and fall trees

2009-10-30T15:53:00.003-04:00

To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 1

2009-10-29T09:20:00.004-04:00

A weeping cherry is supposed to only weep, but this tree has a split personality.

The bottom of the tree is skirted with pendulous branches.

But the top of the tree has no signs of weeping at all. And looking up into the canopy, all you see are branches reaching for the sky.

A weeping cherry is often made by grafting: a non-weeping variety is left to grow until the trunk is about four or five feet tall, at which point the branches are cut off and the weeping cherry is grafted on. The original tree can still throw up branches from below the graft, and if these aren't cut off at the base, they can end up dominating the tree.

That's what has happened here. Both types of branches are different varieties; they might even flower at different times. The only way to make a uniform tree at this point would be to cut off all of the weeping branches.

Beech

2009-10-22T13:57:00.002-04:00

Beeches are easy to fall in love with.

The canopies are full and round, with purple --almost black-- leaves where constantly exposed to the sun,

but the trunks are their main draw.

Something about them evokes elephant legs: the authority with which they grip the ground,

the way the bark wrinkles and folds,

their unreserved size...

Vista Avenue is lined with beeches, so tree (and pachyderm) lovers visiting Green-Wood should be sure to take this route. (The weeping beeches on Larch are also a sight).

Arborvitae

2009-10-17T16:15:00.002-04:00

The flattened sprays of scale-like leaves make Thuja occidentalis easily recognizable. These immature cones will open up and brown as they ripen.

Arborvitae (meaning "tree of life") gets its common name from the medicinal properties of the bark and twigs. It's also called Northern white cedar.

This arborvitae has outgrown (or has been trained out of) the typically conical shape.

Heavy winds or loose soil might have caused this specimen to fall over.

Now each branch is like a mini-tree. Or, as a friends says, it's a single-tree forest of arborvitae.

Oak Silhouette

2009-10-17T16:05:00.001-04:00

Bud Sporting in Alberta Spruce

2009-10-13T07:05:00.006-04:00

The tree on the right is a dwarf Alberta spruce. It's a popular landscape planting because it grows slowly and retains its conical shape without any pruning. The tree on the left is also a dwarf Alberta spruce, but it's sporting.

The dwarf Alberta spruce, discovered in 1904 near Lake Laggan in Alberta, Canada, is cultivar of white spruce, Picea glauca. Cultivars are prone to bud sporting, a phenomenon in which a branch reverts, or mutates back, to the original species. This bud sport, if left to grow, will dominate the dwarf Alberta spruce, as white spruce grows much faster.

White spruce has thicker needles with a slight bluish tinge.

Dwarf Alberta spruce rarely fruits, but the white spruce sport has lots of cones.

red, yellow, and blue

2009-10-09T15:10:00.000-04:00

Korean Pine

2009-10-09T14:31:00.003-04:00

Pinus koraiensis is native to Northeast Asia, Japan, and, of course, Korea.

The cones grow singly or in groups of three,

and are greenish until maturity. Korean pine nuts are widely consumed in China.

This Korean pine is leaning over...

but it still has a roughly conical shape.

It's a five-needle pine. Click on the photo - you can see that there are five leaves in each cluster.

bricks

2009-10-08T07:04:00.000-04:00

A fallen headstone revealed this brand on a brick.

It was made by the Sayre & Fisher Company, formed in 1850 by James Sayre and Peter Fisher. The company was one of the leading brick manufacturers in the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. S & F bricks were used throughout the East Coast.

Crab Apples

2009-10-05T13:56:00.010-04:00

There are about 30 species of crab apple and hundreds of different cultivars.

I opened a book about Malus hybrids and cultivars, but distinguishing between all of them seems like a task for someone who's passionate about crab apples... and only crab apples. Maybe one day... but for now I'm happy to call each and every one by the same name.

The difference between an apple and a crab apple is a matter of size: a fruit with a diameter of two inches or less is a crab apple and anything bigger is an apple. Of course, the line gets blurry near two inches, and that's just the way it is. These crab apples were about an inch in diameter.

There was so much fruit on the tree that supports needed to be put under a couple branches.

Branches still broke under the weight and needed to be cut off.

Here's fruit from the same tree about six weeks after the first close up was taken.

The fruit is now entirely red,

and ripe fruit is falling off the tree. (Walking around here is not for the weak-ankled.)

Here's a different kind of crab apple.

It has a squat trunk and several twisting leaders.

The tree is covered with fruit right now.

The diameter is about a half an inch or less. The size and color remind me of the game Hi Ho! Cherry-O.

This crab apple had already dropped all of its fruit a couple weeks ago, carpeting the ground with the berry-like crabs.

A few oddball crab apples have some blossoms these days. But there are other things flowering out of time, too: rhododendrons, azaleas, saucer magnolias, crocuses, horse chestnuts... The crab apples will bloom again in the spring; there just might not be quite as many flowers.

The spring flowers and fall fruit make this tree highly sought after. If you're looking to plant a crab apple tree, here's a list of ten recommended varieties.

Fall Changes

2009-10-02T16:40:00.010-04:00

As the leaves start to change color, you might ask yourself about trees' autumn habits. Why do trees lose their leaves? Is it because leaves would freeze in winter? Is there not enough light over the winter months to justify having leaves?

There are a number of reasons deciduous trees shed their leaves in certain months, including diminishing light and, surprisingly, drought--physiological drought, that is.

A tree loses water through its leaves. This transpiration (and the resultant decrease in hydrostatic pressure in the leaves) is what keeps water, a necessary ingredient for photosynthesis, flowing to the tree's extremities. In the winter, the drop in temperature makes the transport of water problematic. The cold, dry winds would suck way too much water out of the leaves, dehydrating and killing the tree. Evergreens don't have this problem because their leaves have a waxy coating that keeps moisture inside. Deciduous trees have to drop their leaves to keep from drying out. (Even deciduous trees in the tropics, which don't have shortened days, lose their leaves during the dry season to conserve water.)

Sunlight plays a role as well. With shorter days, the amount of energy spent on maintaining leaf health would be greater than the amount the leaves would be able to create.

So when fall comes, leaves stop producing chlorophyll, which up to this point has given them their green color. The absence of green pigments allows the yellow and orange pigments that have always been in the leaves to show. Some leaves start producing red pigments in late summer, and these pigments also start to show when chlorophyll production slows down. After the color change, the tree sheds its leaves and goes into a dormant state until spring.

Katsura

2009-09-28T17:31:00.003-04:00

Cercidiphyllum japonicum is one of the two species in the single-genus family Cercidiphyllaceae. Both species are native to Japan and China.

This katsura has a rounded shape, but habits can vary from conical to wide-spreading.

A katsura typically has a multi-stemmed trunk and surface roots.

The bark is grayish-brown and split into thin strips.

The leaves are cordate at the base and either can form a true heart shape with a pointed tip or can be more rounded at the bottom, like these ones.

As they fall off and start to decay in autumn, the leaves emit (so I'm told) a burnt sugar or caramel scent. I'm still waiting to be blasted by it one day when I walk by.

A few leaves are turning yellow already. Fall color can vary from yellow to bronzy pink to red to a mottled mix of the three. When new leaves first come out in spring, they are purplish.

Older branches have these woody nodes from which emerge leaves and buds.

They should give the tree an interesting winter look.

baby graves

2009-09-27T12:06:00.001-04:00

Despite the large number of baby graves in the cemetery, I never seem to get jaded - they always make me stop for a minute or two. Some tell the age of their lost baby,
some let you figure it out,

and some tell exactly how many days their little one lived.

Still, some only give a name.

Some only give the sex.

And some give no more than this.

This story particularly struck me (it's fitting that the tombstone is shaped like an open book):

Carl died at five months, Therese died at four months, and three months after baby Therese's death, the father/husband Emil died as well at the young age of 25.

Weeping Willow

2009-09-25T08:50:00.000-04:00

I spotted this weeping willow from outside the cemetery at 20th St. and 7th Ave. so when I got inside, I went to take a closer look.

I was familiar with these tresses...

of long tapering leaves.

What surprised me was how far these pendulous branches hung down,

...or rather, from how high up they came.

I think this is Salix babylonica, but it could be one of a few other willows that also weep.

Sweet Birch

2009-09-22T13:05:00.001-04:00

Betula lenta belongs to a group of birches that have rough bark and sweet sap. It has several common names, including black birch and cherry birch.

The leaves are oval-shaped and finely toothed. The twigs, dotted with lenticels, have a minty taste. Before oil of wintergreen was produced synthetically, sweet birches were a prime source. Sweet birch sap was also used to make birch beer.

The female catkins are erect and are about an inch long.

When the sweet birch is young, the bark is shiny with long, horizontal lenticels; it resembles that of a cherry tree. Mature trees like this one have rough, plate-like bark.

Cliff Path

2009-09-19T14:38:00.002-04:00

Silk Tree

2009-09-16T15:23:00.008-04:00

I made a post about this silk tree when it was in bloom. Now, instead of flowers, the tree is covered with seed pods like this one, which was about about six inches long.

The pods are flat with little bulges where the seeds are. They will turn brown and stay on the tree through winter.

Shagbark Hickory

2009-09-13T22:05:00.000-04:00

Carya ovata gets its common name from this flaking bark. It curls away from the trunk at the ends, but stays attached to the tree in the middle, giving the trunk a shaggy look.

The leaves are pinnately compound with 5 or 7 leaflets on each leaf. Here's a closeup of a leaflet.

The nuts are tasty - at least, the squirrel who was gnawing away at the middle fruit thought so (click on the photo to see). When the fruit is ripe, it separates along the four grooves, leaving lots of husk pieces around the tree like the one on the right.

Pere Lachaise and Hungry Trees

2009-09-10T10:22:00.005-04:00

These photos were sent from France. They were taken at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Napoleon established the cemetery in 1804, and at the time, it was also in the suburbs. In fact, it was considered to be too far away from the city, so in an effort to get business rolling, cemetery administrators organized transfers of LaFontaine's and Moliere's remains to Pere Lachaise. Later, in 1817, remains of Abelard and Heloise were transferred to the cemetery (the authenticity of the remains has been disputed). These publicity stunts did the trick. In a few years, the number of permanent residents increased from under 100 to about 33,000. Today there are over 300,000 permanent residents.

Here's a monument...

and, of course, a tree! This one has grown into the fence. Although I haven't seen that yet in Green-Wood, I did stumble across this:
(looks like a sycamore) and a few other stone-eating trees.

Spring in September

2009-09-09T08:10:00.001-04:00

Chartreuse really catches your eye this time of year. While most other leaves are on the verge of changing to red, yellow, orange, the horse chestnuts, after having dropped all of their mature leaves due to anthracnose, are pushing out brand new ones.

Out of these sticky buds...

come both leaves and flowers.

I'm not sure these will get pollinated. Even if they do, the fruit will probably not make it to maturity as winter is around the corner.

Nearby, a mature fruit from the first wave was sitting on top of a monument.

PeeGee Hydrangea

2009-09-07T21:19:00.001-04:00

The PeeGee hydrangea can be pruned into tree form.

Its species name, Hydrangea paniculata, refers to the pointed flower clusters, or panicles.

Unlike Hydrangea macrophylla, the PeeGee flower color does not vary with soil pH.

PeeGees bloom in mid-summer. The flowers start out white, and as they age, turn pink and then rusty brown.

A friend of mine says of the PeeGee: "These old fashioned hydrangea remind me of over-powdered old ladies of the south."

Honey Locust

2009-09-06T21:43:00.003-04:00

Gleditsia triacanthos is one of 15,000 species in the pea family (Leguminosae). This family, also called the legume family, is characterized by pod-like fruits. Honey locust seed pods can be up to 18 inches long. The tree's common name refers not to the sap, but to the sweet pulp of the seed pod, which Native Americans used in food, drink, and medicine.

The leaves are pinnately or bipinnately compound.

The bark is vertically fissured...

and has clusters of branched spines, so it's not the best climbing tree. Early settlers used these thorns as sewing needles and nails.

In spring, the honey locust is covered with strongly scented white flowers.

Some light can come through the canopy, so there's more grass around the trunk than you find with trees that create unadulterated shade, such as beeches.

Sweet Gum

2009-09-04T08:16:00.002-04:00

"The autumnal coloring is not simply a flame, it is a conflagration." Harriet Louise Keeler in Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them, 1900

At first glance, I thought this was a type of maple.

I had noticed a lot of woody seed balls on the ground, though, and when I saw an unripe fruit on the tree, I realized it was something completely different.

The sweet gum, Liquidambar styraciflua, gets its name from its thick, balsamic sap. But it's best known for its stunning autumn foliage. The leaves will turn every shade, from orange to red to purple. Its leaf shape does lead to confusion with maple. One easy way to distinguish between the two is to check the leaf positioning. Maple leaves are in opposite pairs (right across from each other) while sweet gum leaves are alternately positioned (staggered).

Austrian Pine

2009-09-02T19:17:00.004-04:00

Pinus nigra is a native of central and southern Europe and Asia Minor. It was introduced to the United States in 1759.

This is a rather sad-looking Austrian pine. It's suffering from Diplodia tip blight, which has obviously done some damage (dead branches, brown needles) and will eventually kill the tree.

It's a shame, especially because this is one of the sexiest trunks in the cemetery.

orange mushrooms

2009-09-02T18:30:00.000-04:00