https://www.facebook.com/627986947829560/

Trees of Cle, Cleveland, OH (2026)

07/20/2022

I don’t always post exotic/non-native trees in here, but when I do, it’s because they’re spectacular - like this sublimely gnarled and humongous European Beech on the edge of the Italian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park. Photos truly don’t do its sweeping spread and convoluted trunks justice.

I don’t know enough about the natural history of European Beeches to offer any fun facts, but I certainly hope to see them en masse in their natural habitat, someday.

06/17/2021

If, as you’ve traversed the city over the last week, you’ve noticed trees dripping with dangling clusters of pale, yellow-green flowers, wafting a perfumey, honey-sweet aroma, reminiscent of elderflower liqueur, what you’re seeing, (and smelling) are lindens, primarily Littleleaf Linden (Tilia cordata).

While these trees are not native to the US (they originated in Europe and western Siberia), they are popular landscape specimens locally, favored for their medium size and compact shape, and naturalized in forests to our north in eastern Canada.

The fragrant flowers, and other parts, can be used to make a tea, which may or may not have relaxing, sedative, pain-relieving and antioxidant properties. Either way, it smells and tastes as wonderful as you might expect.

While there are dozens of lindens gracing the tree lawns of my neighborhood, I took a bike ride to Lakewood today, to photograph this specific tree, on the lawn of the St. Clement Catholic Church rectory on Lincoln Avenue. I grew up at the other end of the block, and attended Mass at this church every Sunday until I was 16. I relished passing under this tree, as I walked home when it was in bloom. I even, in my experimental herbalist/witch phase as a teen, occasionally picked and used the flowers, as mentioned as a tea, or to toss in my bath water. My parents thought I was weird. My dad came around, though, he’s now a dedicated wild food forager.

02/01/2021

Brooklyn Heights, you’ve been holding out on us! How did we not know about this gorgeous park? Brooklyn Heights Village Park (listed on some online maps as Tuxedo Park) is a true hidden gem, nested in a steep gorge along West Creek, and surrounded by the sort of suburban sprawl and highway spaghetti that would never lead an unsuspecting soul to guess at the beauty hidden just around the corner.

Slipping in an hour or two before the snow really started blowing this afternoon, we had the park completely to ourselves, although it was obvious from tracks in the powder that at least one intrepid cross-country skier had been there shortly before. Following the ski tracks west on the paved trail, we took in Double Falls, and a few stands of young American Beech, distinctive in the winter woods with their smooth, gray boles, and straw-colored, undropped leaves rustling in even the slightest breeze. We followed the ski tracks east, too, for good measure, to where the creek passes into a culvert and under I-480 on the way to its confluence with the Cuyahoga.

This park is not destined to remain a secret treasure forever. It is a vital link in the planned West Creek Greenway, a trail loop connecting Cleveland Metroparks West Creek Reservation with Ohio Erie Canal Reservation, Cuyahoga Valley National Park and neighborhood parks in several surrounding cities. You can learn more about the greenway here: https://westcreek.org/project/the-west-creek-greenway/

We love seeing all of these wonderful connections being made between our remaining local natural areas and the people who live near them, and will be eagerly following this project, as it progresses.

01/29/2021

We did a little new park peeping today. Can anyone guess what not-yet-officially-open spot we checked out?

01/03/2021

We took a vigorous walk around the grounds of Lake View Cemetery on a snowy afternoon last week. We’ve visited there many times, but I’m fairly sure this was the first time we’d stopped by in the winter.

Lake View is an arboretum in its own right, with many species of trees represented, and many displaying identifying plaques. In the winter, though, the evergreens are the stars of the show.

I photographed the Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in the first image from the steps of the Hanna mausoleum. In the wild, hemlocks are typically a species of cool ravines and gorges, often seen rooted into seemingly impossible rocky outcrops. They are common throughout the cemetery’s hilly terrain. Their feathery, frond-like foliage and slightly weeping shape makes them a graceful and fitting presence in the landscape.

The stand of Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus viginiana) in the second image caught my eye, forming a boldly contrasting backdrop to the white marble statue atop the monument in front. The trees, as their scientific name indicates, are actually members of the juniper family, not cedars, which are part of the Thuja (Arborvitae) genus - the common names of these two families can be confusing and misleading. Eastern red cedar has typical prickly and aromatic juniper foliage, and those beautiful blue berries that form the flavor foundation of gin.

Look out for additional images from Lake View in coming weeks. It is a true treasure trove of trees, right within city limits. @ Lake View Cemetery

12/22/2020

We’ve been having a little fun with the app, and made this while watching Ken Burns’ “National Parks” on PBS tonight.

11/22/2020

I took these photos of one of several resplendent Ginkgo trees in Downtown Cleveland’s Erie Street Cemetery, two weeks ago. As I was composing the shot, my husband was checking his phone, and got the news that the major media outlets had declared the election for Biden/Harris. He politely waited for me to finish photographing the tree, before sharing the news. I whooped and twirled in the middle of the graveyard... and totally forgot to post these!

Ginkgo biloba is the only existing species in its genus, and is often referred to as a “living fossil” because the species has existed, essentially unchanged, for 200 million years! These trees, originally native to China, have been cultivated worldwide, and are popular for many reasons. They have unique, fan-shaped leaves, similar to those of a maidenhair fern (maidenhair tree is one of the ginkgo’s nicknames), and their canary yellow autumn color is stunning. They are also, as one might expect of a species that arose with and outlived the dinosaurs, tolerant of all manner of adverse conditions that other trees might find daunting. Poor soils at either end of the pH spectrum? No problem. Air pollution? Ginkgo doesn’t GAF. Those bone-tough characteristics have made ginkgoes a favorite of urban foresters worldwide, and thus you often see them in settings like this, smack in the middle of cities.

Unfortunately female ginkgo trees also produce incredibly stinky and messy fruit. But their advantages seem to outweigh the negatives.

You can find ginkgoes of all ages and sizes throughout downtown Cleveland. Next time you’re heading to Progressive Field, check out the much spindlier specimens lining Carnegie and Ontario, and take a quick stroll into the cemetery to compare them with this one and its fellow lush, well-established brethren. @ Erie Street Cemetery

11/21/2020

A few views from the Wetmore Trail in today. This amazing stand of towering Eastern White Pine, about a mile east of the trailhead was a highlight of our hike. Not far, was this incredible gnarled deciduous tree. I apologize that I didn’t investigate long enough to figure out its species. The afternoon was getting away from us.

11/05/2020

This cluster of red oak saplings was growing out of the stump of a fallen tree along the Buckeye Trail, near Brecksville Stables. They were among the few young trees in the area that weren’t American Beech. This section of forest might look very different in 20-30 years.

10/29/2020

Generally speaking, we try to focus our posts on trees within Cleveland city limits, or at least within Cuyahoga County, but sometimes we take a field trip and find a tree outside of our geographic radius worth posting. This Northern Red Oak resides right around the Cuyahoga-Lake County boundary in the A.B. Williams Memorial Woods section of North Chagrin Reservation. You can find it, and several similar specimens, along the Overlook Trail.

We took our hike there the day after a heavy rain. The trail was soggy, even flowing with water like a stream, in some locations, but the overcast conditions and the tree’s darkly saturated bark, contrasting with eons of moss growth made for a primordial-looking image we couldn’t resist. @ North Chagrin Reservation

10/17/2020

Ugh. A little piece of my heart dies every time I see this sight.

I am lucky to live in a neighborhood with an abundance of enormous, old trees. Unfortunately, many of them, like this one, are Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum), a tree that homeowners and arborists often view as a nuisance. As a result of their rapid growth and tendency towards huge, multi-trunked girth, they are sidewalk spallers and plumbing invaders. They also have somewhat brittle wood and are prone to losing limbs during wind and snow storms.

I understand the need to protect people and structures from the dangers an old, ailing tree can pose, but it hurts to see one as gigantic and ancient as this one go - especially as I am pretty sure only one of its three trunks was dying.

Silver maples are lovely trees, named for the shimmery underside of their lacy leaves. Their spreading crowns and dense foliage provide much-needed urban shade, and in older trees, their shaggy-looking bark provides visual interest. They also tolerate a variety of soil conditions other trees would fare poorly in. If planted in the right location, they are wonderful specimens in the landscape. The last photo in the sequence is another Silver Maple of similar age and size, less than 100 yards from the one being taken down. Hopefully its location, on the large lawn of a church, far from the building and far enough back from the sidewalk, will protect it from a similar fate. (Side note, you can see the Moses Cleaveland white oak from my very first post in the background of the last photo.)

10/17/2020

One of my favorite urban nature walks is along the Scranton Flats and Centennial Lake Link trails in The Flats. There is, however, precious little shade along most of the loop, so when my pup Victoria needs a break, I am grateful for this American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) on the lawn in front of Fire Station 21.

Sycamores are a common sight on urban streets, in parks, and in riparian and woodland habitats. They are fast-growing, long-lived, and can reach truly majestic proportions, frequently displaying multiple trunks, and broad, sweeping crowns. Their exfoliating bark reveals the mottled silver-white and green wood underneath in a striking manner. Those same attractive features, however, coupled with the “monkey balls” they drop in the fall, make them a pain for homeowners, as they create a year-round mess, and the root system required to support their impressive size tends to heave up sidewalks and driveways.

Fun fact: sycamores harbor a fungus that eventually eats up much of their heartwood. This doesn’t kill the tree, but renders much of it hollow. This provides valuable space for cavity-nesting birds and mammals, and convenient nooks for squirrels to cache their winter nut supplies.

Trees of Cle

07/20/2022

06/17/2021

02/01/2021

01/29/2021

01/03/2021

12/22/2020

11/22/2020

11/21/2020

11/05/2020

10/29/2020

10/17/2020

10/17/2020

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share