...met at 9:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish. We walked for 1 1/2 hours, covering 1 mile of the Beltline, ending at Ponce City Market.
"The Tourists"...
...shouting out to this week's tour group, including 5 young ladies on a "girls weekend". Thanks for thinking of Trees Atlanta and the Beltline!
Thanks for a great tour!
Map of the week...
As we reached the Beltline's intersection with Ralph McGill Blvd, we talked about the property west of the trail being incorporated in 1904 as part of the city limit expansion to include what is now Piedmont Park. Here is an earlier map of the park during the 1895 Cotton States Exhibition.
"Cotton States Exhibition, 1895"
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.
The Bur Oak - on the north side of Tim Frank's permanent art installation at the intersection with Angier Springs - is one of two North American oak species along the Beltline Eastside trail NOT native to Georgia. Its name comes from the fringed cup around its acorn. It is a member of the white oak group, having rounded, lobed leaves.
Quercus macrocarpa
Bur Oak
"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.
Q1: (Upon seeing evidence of early leaf drop and struggling trees during this unusually hot and dry September) Is that cedar tree dying?
A1: Good news! Those copper-colored conifers you see along the Beltline are examples of deciduous conifers; needled trees that lose their leaves each winter, so they are perfectly healthy! Now for the "a little more research" news...while I know that there are excellent examples of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) growing on the shores of Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park, as well as specimen along the Eastside Trail just south of the intersection with Monroe, I didn't look closely enough to see if this particular tree near Freedom Parkway was indeed a bald cypress or the taller, more pyramidal dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides).
Here's a video that will hopefully help me ID them better next tour (dawn = opposite branches/leaflets, bald = alternating branches/leaflets)! Thanks for the challenge! <link>
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