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March 07, 2006
City Trees
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Most of the year, we walk past the great trees in our city parks without much sense of their shape and structure. But in fact winter is the best time to really see and admire our trees, before their leaves obscure their shape--like this elegant, vase-shaped elm on the east side of the Great Lawn.The European beech has massive silver branches, that are almost entirely invisible when the tree is in leaf. Other than shape, look at the bark of trees--the mottled light-brown-and-tan bark of the sycamore stands out against the dark trunks of most other trees; the peeling bark of the kousa dogwoods and Heritage birches create interesting, multi-colored trunks. An excellent guide to all our city trees can be found in almost any bookstore: Edward Sibley Barnard's New York City Trees: A Field Guide for the Metropolitan Area.. Get yourselves a copy and go out for a walk on a mild end-of-winter day.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at March 7, 2006 09:40 AM