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Community Corner

Knowing Your Trees

Is it true there's only so much information your brain can store?

I admit it, I don't know my trees. A  pine may be a pine, but is it mugo, white, black or pitch? Then there's junipers, tupelo, beech, elm, oaks, maples. Fruit trees? There seems to be no end to the subject.

After 20 years working in the horticulture industry, I should know more than I do. I'm proficient in perennials, true, but throw in an evergreen or fruit tree question and I'm in over my head.

No matter how many times I crack a book, I still can't keep the info there. Even basic plant biology eludes me. Pistils? Stamens? I should have paid attention in grade-school.  Add to the mix the whole idea of gender: some plants are male, some are female, others are hermaphroditic.  

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The mechanics of botany underlies horticulture; trees are but one avenue. For me, the map is erased in crucial areas, like an arboretum missing some vital plant ID markers.

I'm aware that there are several methods of identifying trees. Guidebooks have identification keys based on such traits as leaf shape or configuration of needles to arrive at an answer.  The internet has resources  and there's even an app called Leafsnap that identifies a leaf from a picture the user takes. The Arnold Arboretum offers a seminars, such as identifying trees by their bark. 

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How much of this information would actually find a permanent home in my memory? I can't hazard a guess. Does knowing which oak tree I have in my yard take away from my enjoyment?

A walk through Arnold Arboretum or Spohr Gardens shouldn't feel like a botanical quiz. I need to cut myself some slack and get back to why I love the green world in the first place.

Still, I'll always envy C.L. Fornari, writer and the host of a Cape Cod radio call-in show. She answers questions from lawns to vegetables to trees with easy, well-explained replies. In her shoes, I'd be speechless, anxiously waiting for the next question. Please don't ask me a tomato question or heaven forbid, a question on fruit trees. 

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