trees
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Bark Question
Interesting bark in Prospect Park. I don’t know what kind of tree this is. Any ideas?
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Breakout!
Peekaboo. The magnolias are busting out of their winter furs right now in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Springing/Budding
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) bud emerging. Today marks the vernal or spring equinox, when the hours of day and night are exactly 12 hours each — except that they are not. But you can take that up with your local astronomer if you’d like. Otherwise, enjoy the eruption of life here in the northern hemisphere in…
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Checklist
Snowdrops: Check! Crocuses: Check! Witchhazel: Check! And half-a-dozen or so Red-winged Blackbirds, bringing the area around the Terrace Bridge to sudden, raucous life with their insistent “I am now here!” vocalizations: Check! It was interesting to observe these birds, all males. Two at the feeders presented variations in plumage, with one bird sill having some…
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Cold Tree
“A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another.” ~ Henry David Thoreau. The distinctive cone shape of the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is actually kind of similar to the distinctive cone shape of the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum). Both species grace Brooklyn Bridge Park and both appear “bald” this time of…
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Against the grain
More of the old-is-new-again Longleaf Yellow Pine in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This time I was looking at the knots and the resulting eddies of tree rings formed around them.During the last year, you were probably a combination of a little bit nice and a little bit naughty. (Whew! I know I was, but we’ll pass…
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Grain of the universe
The Rings of Saturn? No, the benches and tables at newly opened Pier 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.Like elsewhere in the park, this is recycled Southern Longleaf Yellow Pine (Pinus palustris), which was salvaged from the former Cold Storage Building at Pier One. This species has the highest resin content of any pine, perhaps because…
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Ten Thousand Trees
New York City lost ten thousand trees in the great storm. Many other trees had limbs torn asunder, like the one pictured above, whip-snapped by the fierce winds. By now, the streets and parks have largely, but not completely, been cleared of this wreckage, but the gaps will be around for a long time, in…
Backyard and Beyond 