trees
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Calyces
The calyx of the American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) is this beautiful cross shape. A few stay on the tree as the fruits come down, but most fall with the fruit. There’s still some fruit on the trees. Most of it, though, is on the ground, and some of that is well beyond eating stage. We…
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Oak Wilt
Damn it! I really wanted to start on a positive note, but the bad news just keeps coming. Oak wilt has been discovered in Brooklyn. This is a lethal fungal infection of oaks and other species, its spores spread by beetles. When I was in Green-Wood on Friday, I heard a chipper hard at work.…
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Spiny Gall
Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is a good gall-tree. One species of aphid, Hormaphis hamamelidis, forces the tree to make cone-shaped galls on the leaves. The young aphid grows up inside this, protected from its enemies. Another species of aphid, the Spiny Witch Hazel Gall maker, Hamamelistes spinosus, makes the tree make these hard, spiny galls that…
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Central Park Flora
Recently, we got to join Regina Alvarez, Daniel Atha, and Ken Chaya for one of their Central Park flora expeditions. For three years, the trio have been searching for wild — that is, not planted by the park — plants in Central Park.Atha, who has travelled the world over collecting plants, uses an elegantly simple…
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Sunset Park Elm
Five Practical Principles to Guide Our Work Under Trump.
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Patterns of Wood
Trump’s entire proposed cabinet is made up of enemies of science, experts in “the dark arts of misinformation.” EPA-bound Pruitt, for instance, is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the oil and gas industry.
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Longleaf Again
I’ve written about the Longleaf Pine several times, including in this essay for Humans and Nature, but I’ve never seen a living example of the tree until recently. Alas, it’s just a stripling of 25 years or so of age at NYBG, perhaps 25 feet high.But look at those needles!
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Bigleaf Maple
Acer macrophyllum is one big-leafed maple. Also known as Oregon Maple, these trees of the moist, shady canyons of the Coast Range can have leaves 9″ or more long. The leafstalk can be up to a foot long. Just wow! And, speaking of wow, check out this intersection of the great naturalist David George Haskell…
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Oregonia
There’s your beautiful world, NW edition. Here’s Masha Gessen, an old hand at autocracy, on surviving Trumpism, very necessary reading now.
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Bronx River Dreams
Knowing the new regime is Republican is enough to know that the environment will be under assault. The air we breath, the water we drink, the soil that feeds us ~ it’s all real estate to these folks. Trump made many scattershot promises and threats, and his M.O. is blustery bullshit ~ his scriptwriter calls…
Backyard and Beyond 