This Week's Tour...
...met at 9:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish (R.I.P...soon to reopen as "Painted Park"!). 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 tourists, including my mom!!!!
Map of the week...
...we spoke about the how the Beltline Eastside trail continues south of the tour on the far side of Hulsey yards along the decommissioned Atlanta and West Point Railroad corridor. Here's a map of the entire route - from Atlanta down to West Point - and a photo of the AWP depot still standing where the Beltline crosses Memorial Drive.
Tree of the week...
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.
The American sycamore tree can often be easily distinguished from other trees by its mottled bark which flakes off in large irregular masses, leaving the surface mottled and gray, greenish-white and brown. The bark of all trees has to yield to a growing trunk by stretching, splitting, or infilling. The sycamore shows the process more openly than many other trees. The explanation is found in the rigid texture of the bark tissue which lacks the elasticity of the bark of some other trees, so it is incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath, so the tree sloughs it off..
"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.
