A tree is not a tooth

J.J. Levison, 1909 in the journal Mycologia, 1(2): 77:

Everyone recognizes the necessity of filling a decayed cavity in a tooth. Everyone knows that the decayed material in the cavity must be removed in order to prevent the destruction of the whole tooth and that the opening must then be filled in order to keep out the further accumulation of injurious substances. Still, there are some who might be surprised to hear of scientific tree "dentistry," or tree filling, although the underlying principles and necessity for such treatment are alike in both human beings and trees.

As recently as 1974, the US Forest Service recommended "shaping the wound into a vertical oval" and applying "commercial tree dressings such as orange shellac or those with an asphalt base."  Proper disclosure: the Forest Service has cautioned readers that the advice in "Your Tree's Trouble May Be You!" might be out dated.

By the 1990s, "tree dentistry" was an increasingly marginalized arboricultural practice.  From "HOW to Prune Trees," a US Forest Service pamphlet published in 1995:

Wound dressings will not stop decay or cure infectious diseases. They may actually interfere with the protective benefits of tree gums and resins, and prevent wound surfaces from closing as quickly as they might under natural conditions. The only benefit of wound dressings is to prevent introduction of pathogens in the specific cases of Dutch elm disease and oak wilt.

The concept of tree injury compartmentalization developed by Alex Shigo Ph.D. was the primary factor in eschewing filling tree cavities.  From "How Trees Survive After Injury and Infection" written by Dr. Alex Shigo for the US Forest Service (undated):

The problem with wound dressings and with many other tree treatments center about the desire to treat trees like people. People who work with trees have borrowed too much from the people who work with animals. Indeed, trees are different.  The wound dressings and healing rationale fit for animals, but not for trees.

Further reading:
London planetree walls off decay

via the US Forest Service publications website:
Tree Decay, An Expanded Concept
Forest Insect & Disease Leaflet - Oak wilt
How to Save Dutch Elm Diseased Trees by Pruning

Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree

Image: Stuyvesant Pear tree, N.E. corner, 13th & 3rd Ave, NY City (screen capture) (source)

A pear tree belonging to Peter Stuyvesant once grew on the corner of E. 13th Street and Third Avenue.  Former governor Stuyvesant owned a bouwerij* (farm) in the area.  Excerpted from an article in The Villager:

The spot was once home to what was believed to have been the oldest tree in New York City, planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant, the former Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, after he brought it from Holland. The spot became known as “Pear Tree Corner.” However, in 1857, two horse-drawn carriages collided and plowed into the tree, killing it. Kiehl’s was founded in 1851, and used to be on the corner, where it was called Pear Tree Pharmacy, for Stuyvesant’s tree.

A Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) was planted in honor of Stuyvesant's tree in 2003.

The original pear would have been a different species of Pyrus, most likely Pyrus communis (European pear).

* Bouwerij became Bowery and lent its name to "a major native American footpath" at first called Bowery Lane and now known as Bowery as well as to the surrounding neighborhood.

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkins in the city

Tree Walk: Sexy Trees of the Marigny Calendar

A recent Candy Chang project really wowed us.  Candy has generously given us permission to reprint the Sexy Trees of the Marigny Calendar post below.  The original post can be read here.  Text and photographs are courtesy of Candy Chang.

Living in hot New Orleans has made me appreciate the simple kindness of tree shade like never before. The city lost over 100,000 trees after Katrina, and many neighborhoods roast in the sun. To promote tree planting in my neighborhood, I collaborated with local nonprofit Marigny Green to create the Sexy Trees of the Marigny 2011 Calendar. Marveling at the sexiness of a Live Oak tree (now featured for the month July), I photographed local trees and paired them with maps and fun facts to promote Marigny Green’s great work.

Marigny Green is a neighborhood volunteer committee of the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association. They promote sustainable living through local initiatives on tree planting, biking, energy-efficient lighting, and recycling. They’ve planted over 150 trees that are now helping cool temperatures, temper heavy rains, renew our air supply, and make the neighborhood beautiful. By purchasing this calendar for $15 you’ll help Marigny Green provide a healthier urban canopy of trees in New Orleans and make us crumple a little less upon walking outside in July. Make it your Christmas gift for fans of New Orleans or trees or both!

Buy it for $15 on Lulu here! (Printed through on-demand service Lulu. 11″ x 17″ (open), white wire-o binding, 100# unlaminated white cover stock & 100# white gloss interior text stock.)

The calendar is also available at these fine businesses: Cake Cafe, Sound Cafe, Beth’s Books, Orange Couch Cafe, Cafe Rose Nicaud, Faubourg Marigny Art & Books (FAB) Bookstore, Dorian Bennett. If you’re interested in carrying the calendar, please contact Marigny Green Director Deborah Oppenheim. Support tree planting in New Orleans!

If we had to choose a favorite photograph in this calendar, it would be the one of the Savannah Holly Tree.  What is your favorite photograph?

Then & Now: Bleecker Street Cherry Trees

The row of cherry trees (Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan', I think) in the NYU garden on Bleecker Street bloomed spectacularly this spring.  The trees were under-planted by several herbaceous perennials including tulips seen below.

The above scene was photographed in April and the one below in November.  The difference is dramatic but no less colorful. Read more about Kwanzan cherries at University of Florida IFAS Extension.

Park-adjacent living

Watch out Central Park: Families are flocking to more intimate neighborhood parks around New York City, wrote Rebecca Morse for The New York Observer Playground (November/December 2010). Thank you to managing editor Shaina Feinberg for permission to reprint the article.  The accompanying photographs of Teardrop Park in Battery Park City are our own.

Living within blocks of Central Park is the New York City dream, reflected in literature, in movies, in advertising campaigns—everywhere, it seems, except reality. Only those who live here know the deep, dark secrets of the most famous city park: that its size and breadth can make planning play dates a pain; that adjacent Upper West and East Side real estate can be more like unreal estate; and that, like the sidewalks they head into the green to escape, this park is packed. In recent years, New Yorkers in the know have turned away from the center to smaller parks that combine a quiet accessibility with familiarity and a neighborhood feel. New development projects near today’s It parks allow growing families to turn away from the ubiquitous Upper East and West Sides and find themselves at home in luxury buildings with New York City parks that serve as their backyard.

Park-adjacent living has been a green dream come true for the Fishman family. They use their neighborhood park all the time. Use? Well, sort of. “‘Use’ is not the word,” laughs Mya Han Fishman. “Since we have three children, we practically live at the park,” the park in question being Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, 12 acres spanning the Queens waterfront where children of all ages enjoy manicured gardens, a mist fountain and playgrounds galore. Mya and her husband, Lev, started renting at the View, a luxury condominium blocks from the park, when Mya was pregnant with their third child; they fell so in love with the proximity to the park that they ended up buying their unit. “Sometimes going to the park can be a big outing,” says Mya, “but for us, it’s right outside our door—it’s literally our backyard.” Since every apartment at the View has its own outdoor space, the Fishmans have a backyard, too—but “we usually go to the park more than we use our backyard.” At Gantry Plaza State Park, the Fishmans’ son, Joshua, 10, rides his bike while Briyana, 2, and Chloe, 16 months, play in the lush grassy areas. “The only place I can think of in New York City with grass is Central Park,” says Mya, adding, “Don’t get me wrong—I love Central Park. But this is more neighborhood friendly—we’re always bumping into people we know and my son’s friends.” Buyers at the nearby L haus have found the same pleasure in the area, combining luxury living at a brand-new condo with the award-winning Gantry Park just a hop, skip and jump away. Karen Mansour, the executive vice president of marketing and sales for the Development Marketing Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman, who works with the condominium, told Playground, “I have worked in the residential real estate market for over 25 years, mainly in Manhattan, and was pleasantly surprised by life in Long Island City and all it has to offer,” most of all, Long Island City’s parkside living that New York families are finding more and more appealing.

New green spaces are attracting families in Brooklyn as well—like in Brooklyn Heights, where Pier 6 has just opened at the Brooklyn Bridge Park where Pier 6 has just opened. One Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn’s largest condominium conversion, looms above the park: “We always knew this building was truly a one-of-a-kind development,” said the building’s developer Robert Levine, president of RAL Companies, the building’s development, “but with the opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park in our backyard, buyers have finally realized what park living really means.” At Brooklyn Bridge Park, a kids-only playground teems with happy tots a stone’s throw from Brooklyn’s largest sandbox and a variety of wading pools. And in nearby Williamsburg, the loft-like 80 Metropolitan condominium is within a few short blocks of the L train—but also the East River State Park, a newly opened 7-acre park on the side of a 19th-century shipping dock. With open views of Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan, the East River State Park is also home to concerts that Williamsburg residents love.

It’s not just outer-borough parks that are competing with Central Park: right in Manhattan is the jewel of downtown, Battery Park, which stretches along the Hudson River, and on sunny days, evokes a Southern California vibe. Towering above Battery Park is the Visionaire condominium at 70 Little West Street. The 35-story high-rise condo has 246 residences, having from one to three bedrooms: Not only does it overlook the green, but it is green—the greenest, in fact: It’s platinum LEED certified. For Nicole Schaffer and Jay Hirschon, who moved to the Visionaire from the West Village, Battery Park is a neighborhood perk that they use weekly with their 4-year-old daughter and 16-month-old son—“in the summer I feel like it’s all the time!” says Nicole. “Central Park just seemed so crowded to me, especially on weekends,” says Jay, a native New Yorker. “Bike riding is a totally different experience” in Battery Park. “Instead of it being a huge square,” adds Nicole, “you have a feeling of it being different parks all the way along—there’s a lot going on all the time,” like fishing, preschool classes and tai chi. For residents of Battery Park City, like Jay and Nicole, and recent buyers at buildings like the Liberty Luxe and the Liberty Green, Battery Park is a very good neighbor.

And uptown, at 1485 Fifth Avenue, there’s a park right outside the door for residents of Fifth on the Park. Not that park, though— while the majestic, window-walled, 28-story FX-Fowle–designed condominium does offer sweeping views of Central Park (“The views are breathtaking no matter where you are located within the building,” said a representative of the building), its studio through four bedroom residences are just steps away from Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, which boasts a farmers’ market, a dog run and designated areas for children. So important is Marcus Garvey Park to Fifth on the Park residents that they’ve created a committee to help with keeping the green clean and planting flowers; recently, a Fifth on the Park representative tells Playground, “some of the residents got together for the first-ever Mahatma Gandhi Health and Peace Walk in Mount Morris Park. It was organized by one of the first residents of the building … as a health enhancer and another way for people to meet each other.” Rainy clouds overhead? No worries. Fifth on the Park residents can enjoy the park from the comfort of their own spectacular windows—as well as a brand new children’s playroom off the lobby.

We’re green with envy of these park-proximate places!

Autumn color on the High Line

Not having a garden, I have photographed plants growing on the High Line to share in this month's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by May Dreams Gardens.  For more information on the planting at the High Line visit the park's website.  (Note: these photographs were taken at the end of October 2010.)

Three flower maple (Acer triflorum) on the 10th Avenue Square (taken by R. Idrus).

Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) near the Diller-Von Furstenberg Sundeck.

Also near the sundeck, 'Raydon's Favorite' aromatic aster (Symphiotrichum oblongifolis).

Golden-colored thread-leaf bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) in the Chelsea Grasslands (taken by R. Idrus).

Call for books: Ethnobotany of trees & forests

First Nations Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden

Ethnobotany is study of the relationship between people and plants, wrote Gabriell DeBear Paye, in Cultural Uses of Plants: A Guide to Learning about Ethnobotany.  The word ethnobotany is a combination of ethno, meaning "people" or "cultural group," and botany, meaning "the study of plants."

Inspired by the responses (thank you to Les of A Tidewater Gardener and Vicky of  TGAW) to our recent post about the comeback of the American chestnut, we've decided to make a list of books with (North American) trees and forests as central characters and to review them here.

We are calling on you our readers to suggest books in the comment section as well as on publishers and authors to send us copies of your books for a review on the blog.  We look forward to hearing from all of you!

Glass wall of cones (tamarack?), First Nations Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden

Here's our reading list so far

• Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm by Thomas Campanella
• American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• ...

American chestnut (soup) poised for a comeback

Image: American chestnut (source)

This post's title was taken from "The Root of the Matter" by Tom Christopher (Martha Stewart Living, Nov. 2010) about the loss of "emblematic American trees" as a result of chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle, sudden oak death, and mountain pine beetle (via climate change).  Christopher noted that the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) "is posed for a comeback" as a blight-resistant species courtesy of wheat genes. Read Christopher's entire article here.

Recently I drank cream of European chestnut (Castanea sativa) soup and look forward to a local version of this earthy soup.

Munich awash in carotenoids, too

Have you seen the Fall Color in NYC photographs on our Facebook page?  The numerous honeylocusts, green ashes, and London planetrees in our NYC neighborhood are full of yellow and orange leaves.  The leaf pigments responsible for this coloration are carotenoids.  (Red and pin oaks show brown leaves in the fall as tannins are revealed with the breakdown of carotenoids and chlorophyll.)  Most trees in Munich are also exhibiting yellow fall color.  A friend commented that she missed the red fall color so common in the U.S. northeast.

Horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) are brilliantly yellow along museum row near the Technische Universität München.  A row of street trees in the neighborhood near the Theresienstr. U-Bahn (subway) station are not to be outdone.

A willow (Salix) growing along Kleinhesseloher See (Kleinhesseloher Lake).

And a European beech (Fagus sylvatica) near Karolinenplatz is colored bronze!

More Farm City 2010: mobile garden and diy hydroponics

In addition to the people-plant interaction of Roussel Giraudy figural wheat sculptures, I saw Tattfoo Tan's S.O.S. Mobile Classroom and Boswyck Farms's soda bottle hydroponic planter tutorial.

Intrigued by bicycle-based commerce he saw in New York and in India, Tattfoo Tan developed a mobile garden workshop-on-a-bicycle -- the S.O.S. Mobile Classroom -- to "engage visitor by doing workshop and providing a real to life scale model of what a mobile garden and a compost bin would be by hauling all the necessary equipment along."  Hens travel with the classroom.

The hydroponic system showcased by Boswyck Farms was geared towards children.  But it was a great starter for a hydroponic newbie like me!  The first step is to cut off the top one-third of a large plastic bottle.  A soda bottle was used in the demonstration.  Remove and cut a hole in the bottle cap and thread through several pieces of rope for irrigation. 

Recap and add growing medium to the top one-third portion of the bottle.  Add water to the larger section of bottle and place the smaller section into it, with the cap facing down.

Shallowly plant seeds or plant seedlings in the growing medium.

You have made a hydroponic garden.

Harvest and replenish water as necessary.