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Elm Fruit
American Elm (Ulmus americana). Typically given their druthers, Amerian Elm will take the classic vase shape that made it such a popular park tree before Dutch Elm Disease (a beetle-vectored fungus) killed off so many of them. There are still mighty elms to be seen, though. Prospect Park’s most magnificent example, on the Long Meadow,…
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Wall of Nests
The 1869 Beard & Robinson Stores, stretching down to the end of Van Brunt Street. This stone wall on its southern end looks fairly smooth from afar, but is in fact riddled with lots of short ledges and crannies. Numerous House Sparrows are nesting here like troglodytes. There were a good number of Starlings around,…
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Willow, Weep
The “weeping willow” is one of those trees most of us can identify. Often associated with water bodies, it is distinctive. In my experience, the East Village is a good place to find them, often dominating community gardens. Columbia St. (above) and Red Hook (below) are good places to spot them in Brooklyn. All of…
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Life Aquatic
The fresh water ponds at Brooklyn Bridge Park were jumping with life in yesterday’s June-like weather. Bathing and drinking birds included Barn Swallows, recently returned north, Common Grackles, American Robins, Northern Mockingbirds, European Starlings, and House Sparrows, lots of House Sparrows. Water is very important for birds, and it’s been a very dry spring, so…
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Dogwood
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) on Van Brunt St. The flower-like petals of this species (and Kousa and Pacific dogwoods) are actually bracts, or specialized leaves; the flowers are the little buds clustered in the center.
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Back 40 Mugwort
The Rock of Repose holds back the line of advancing Common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). This sneaked in under the fence from the Mugwort/Knotweed jungle beyond, but you can find it everywhere in the city as it advances to cover the globe. I’ll say one thing for it: fresh (and uprooted) and dried out (in winter),…
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The Weekend in Blooms
Bursting out all over the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, azaleas (genus Rhododendron). Meanwhile, the hawthorns (genus Crataegus) in Prospect Park. Also in Prospect, some other kind of azalea. Butterflies, ladybugs, flies, and bees were happy to see these blossoms, too.
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Back 40 Pin Oak
My squirrel-planted Pin oak (Quercus palustris) enters its second year. The twig-like sapling is 7″ tall; this terminal bud is about a quarter of inch long. I had two of these last year in my Back 40. One I yanked accidently during a weeding frenzy. I replanted it when I saw what I had done,…
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Two Locusts
Two native trees in the legume family, which produce bean-like seed pods and, often, nasty defensive thorns.Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacia) just sprouting in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The pods for this one are small and flat. This hardy, fast-growing tree can be found pretty much anywhere and produces pretty white flowers.Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) on Bergen St.…
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Backyard and Beyond 