trees
-
Sunset Park Elm
Our mighty elm is looking a little worn-out after a long hot summer of chlorophyll. Man, baby carriage, trash can underneath for scale. There’s just a touch of color in a few leaves yet. Here’s the whole series of portraits of this tree. The cathedral branching.
-
Sassafras
Sassafras albidum drupe on its pedicel. Such sassy colors! This should be eaten by a bird, the single seed within spread elsewhere, hopefully to germinate into one of these lovely three-leaf-type trees. This wonderfully aromatic plant–from the roots to the leaves–was long used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. It was also one of the…
-
Sunset Park Elm
An overcast view of the great elm during this week’s sweltering heat. The leaves are dark, dark green now. That’s the gilded city of Oz to the distant right. (Don’t forget you can click on these images to get larger versions.)
-
Stump
When I spotted Brian Nash Gill’s Woodcut recently, I was intrigued. A few days later I came across this character-laden stump in Green-Wood. Of course, this isn’t a print, it’s just a picture with the “Noir” filter on my iPhone camera.
-
-
Sunset Park Elm
The intensity of summer green is settling in on our elm tree. A man was whacking his martial arts stick against the low-slung branch. I suppose I would eventually call 911 if it fell on him.
-
Buckeyes in Bloom
Common Horsechestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), a species originally from SE Europe/Asia, now widely cultivated. Note that some are yellow inside, some pinkish-red; the latter have already been pollinated. Red Horsechestnut, a hybrid of Horsechestnut and Red Buckeye, Aesculus X carnea. (Unless it’s a hybrid of Red Buckeye and Yellow Buckeye, Aesculus X hybrida.) The above two…
-
Tuliptree Flowers
Liriodendron tulipifera: these are usually so far up these tall trees that they’re hard to see.But not all of them. Blooming now. They smell like some childhood candy I can never place…
-
Blighted! But…
One of the American Chestnuts (Castanea dentata) planted in Prospect Park a dozen years ago has succumbed to the pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, the dreaded Chestnut Blight. This is in stark contrast to the tree right next to it, which is long with leaf now. But the death was inevitable: these were non-resistant trees. There…
-
Trillium, Herb Robert, Hawthorn
Trillium grandiflorum.Geranium robertianum, growing in the crotch of a tree. As with above, in the Native Flora Garden.Crataegus…The ringer of the trio. Native hawthorns have white flowers. This looks like the English Midland Hawthorn, C. laevigata, perhaps the cultivar “Crimson Cloud.”
Backyard and Beyond 