This Week's Tour......met at 9:00AM Saturday in front of Inman Perk coffeeshop (240 North Highland Ave NE).
"The Tourists"...
What a great group of Atlantans..and repeat tour takers! I hope I earned the privilege of your time….again!
Pic of the week...
...is just more street art on the Freedom Parkway overpass.
Tree of the week...
...is an Atlanta native not on the Eastside trail (yet!), but being from the PNW, I love a connection.
American hophornbeam! Okay, you can’t brew an IPA from these flowers, but they sure look hoppy. And I was today years old when I found out those “hops” are the result of the flower developing into a “nutlet” surrounded by a papery sac called “involucre”.
American Hophornbeam
"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.
Prunus serotina
Q: We see non-native, fruiting cherry trees along the Beltline (not planted by Trees Atlanta); are there any species of cherry tree native to the eastern U.S.?
A: Sort of! Folks from the western U.S. might be familiar with "Rainier" cherries (Prunus avium), "a premium type of cherry...sweet with a thin skin and thick creamy-yellow flesh." It is a cultivar that is grafted to rootstock of the wild Prunus avium, native to Eurasia.
So the long answer is: there isn't a cherry similar to "Rainier" that is native to Atlanta, but being a grafted cultivar, "Rainier" itself isn't native to anywhere! But there is a type of "cherry" native to our region; Prunus serotina. But - and this is an even BIGGER BUT - despite its common name, it is not very closely related to commonly cultivated cherries. It does fruit, it does support hundreds of native species, and it can be VERY invasive...so be very careful when introducing a native "cherry" to our ecosystem
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