Tree of the Month May/June 2018
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

When I was a little girl, like many who grew up in communities east of the Mississippi River, I lived on a street lined with American Elms. Although it is against every piece of advise we now share, to line streets with the exact same species, I can’t help but think back in wonder at those amazing cathedral like arches that lined so many American City streets in the last century. It is a memory held by so many of us over the age of 50 that it is little wonder that so much hybridizing has been done with the American Elm.

Tree of the Month October/November 2017
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Baldcypress, contrary to what most Chicagoans realize, is a native Illinois tree. Although it is found naturally growing more readily in the southern parts of our state it can survive and thrive in the Chicago area. It loves wet boggy like soil conditions and its wood is wonderfully resistant to both rot and insects.

Probably one of the most distinctive characteristics of this beautiful and majestic tree is the fact that it is a needle bearing, cone producing deciduous tree that drops its leaves in the fall after a brilliant show of autumn color. Another unusual identification feature is its propensity to grow “knees” under its branch spread sticking up out of the ground looking much like supporting buttresses. 

August/September 2017 Tree of the Month
photos and text by: Lesley Bruce Smith

The unusual leaves of the Ginkgo tree are both lovely and familiar due to it’s many unique traits.  It’s leaves are unlike those of any other existing tree, although fossil records are plentiful of this ancient tree, which even predates the conifers, of which they share many important characteristics.  The Ginkgo biloba is also known as the Maidenhair Tree because its leaves are similar in shape to the fronds of the maidenhair fern. 

Burr Oak Quercus macrocarpa

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Certified Master Arborist

The Burr Oak, or Quercus macrocarpa, is one of our absolute favorite trees.  It’s magnificent stature is a real stand out in the native Illinois prairie. It has a really thick, sometimes several inches, tough craggy bark that just can’t be mistaken for any other species and that same bark makes it able to survive the prairie fires that raged across the Illinois plains in earlier days.

Prunus serotina  | Also called Wild Cherry or Rum Cherry

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Certified Master Arborist

A large shade tree in our area of 60 feet tall, Black Cherry can grow to 100 feet where its “feet” are not standing in our heavy, clay, Illinois soil. Actually almost every tree species except Willow and Cottonwood grow 30% taller east of Lake Michigan due to the well drained, loose soil that accommodates tree roots so much better than prairie soil.

Tree of the Month - April 2017

by: ISA Certified Arborist Master Arborist, Gilbert A Smith and Certified Arborist, Lesley Bruce Smith

Right now every plant feels like it is flowering and the trees are at full flower strength too, Spring frolicking isn’t just for the birds and the bees. Much of that chartreuse green we see on the trees all over is not the expected new green leaves, so much as the tree flowers. There are, of course, the beautiful showy flowers of the Magnolias, Crabs, Redbuds, and Callery Pears that we love. But the less showy flowers that are bright green and sometimes less vibrant hues of pink or yellow are also in abundance this time of year. 

Tree of the Month - March 2017
by Gilbert A Smith, ISA Certified Master Arborist

I’m speaking with one of the oldest and wisest residents of Lake County Illinois. She lives in Deerfield beside the play ground on Carlisle Avenue and has stood in that place for more than 200 years. The trail marker tree was a sapling in the late 1700’s when she was selected to be a guide for the Potawatomi Indians.

Gil:  I’ve been coming here to visit you for more than 30years and you never seem to change. Why are you still here when most of the other trees in the area are less than half your age?

September 2016 Tree of the Month and Backyard Wisdom (combined)

Willow  name

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA certified Master Arborist

Mrs. Willow lives in the Chicago Botanic Gardens, dipping her roots into the waters of the Great Basin.  

Eastern Redcedar •  Juniperus chinensis

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA certified Master Arborist

You may remember me saying in the past that there were no native evergreens in Northeast Illinois when European settlers arrived. If there were a native evergreen it would be the Redcedar. It’s really not a Cedar, it is a Juniper but it looked like a European Cedar tree in the 1500’s when explorers first named it. It’s also not a native. An inhabitant of the toughest places in the eastern forest it can’t stand prairie fires set by Mother Nature or the Native Americans. As soon as farmers plowed the prairie and suppressed fires, the Redcedar headed West of Lake Michigan. 

American Hop Hornbeam, Ironwood, Leverwood
Ostrya virginiana  

by: Gilbert A Smith ISA Board Certified Master Arborist

Ironwood is one of my favorite trees because it is a native understory in the forests all around us. It has been here longer than most of our common street trees like Honeylocust, Norway Maple or Magnolia yet no one knows it. It is a nice small tree, (30 feet by 20 feet) and unlike most trees it is shade tolerant which makes it desirable in a mature landscape. Its bark and leaves look deceptively like American Elm so it blends in and you may not even know you're looking at it.

Larch or Tamarack •  Larix laricina

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA certified Master Arborist

The scrappy Larch Tree has lived in Illinois since the glaciers retreated 6000 years ago. Like a living museum a small remnant of plants survive in Volo Bog about 40 miles NW of Chicago. You’ll find the Larch trees on an island of peaty soil floating on the surface of the bog.  If you're there on a stormy day you can actually feel the whole land mass move or “quake” because it’s floating.

January 2016 Tree of the Month and Backyard Wisdom (combined)

Black Locust  Robinia pseudoaccacia

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA certified Master Arborist

In the early 1900’s unscrupulous land speculators sold property in the great plains claiming buyers could “strike it rich” farming the vast grasslands. Originally plains looked green and promising in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas because although the annual rainfall was only 10 inches the prairie grasses were well adapted.  Like all grasses, when the rain stops, they simply go dormant and when the drought ends they green up. (Note, this is the same today with our lawn grasses so we really do not need to water as much as we do.)  The native grasses were tough and the thick roots that were so hard to till, held the soil in place. The modern sod busting plow and tractor, they thought, were just the tools to exploit this treasure. Hundreds of thousands headed west to make their fortune.

Tree of the Month - Catalpa • Catalpa speciosa

October/November 2016

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Master Arborist

In the Park in Glenview where I grew up, my father grew up and my grandfather raised his family stands an ancient weatherworn Catalpa tree. The leaves are giant “elephant ears” that sway in the slightest breeze.

The huge Pinky-white flowers cover this 60 foot tree even at the top in May/ June. It is one of the few large shade trees with showy, sweet smelling flowers.

The long, thin, cylindrical, fruit pods hanging down within reach can be popped into a child’s mouth as a pretend cigar. That’s where this tree gets one of its common names, Indian Cigar Tree.

Tree of the Month
Silver Maple, Acer saccharinum

by Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

The Silver Maple is one of those trees that gets a lot of bad press. It is not one of our favorites because it has a history of poor structure and due to it’s fast growth habit is considered to be a weak tree. But like any tree planted in the right location and given the necessary growth requirements it has much to commend it.  Personally, I love the view of a big Silver Maple on a windy day. That’s when we can see and appreciate the lovely silver greygreen undersides of the leaves contrasted against the dark green on the topsides. I’ve lived across the street from one for over two decades.

Tree of the Month
Eastern Cottonwood • Polulus deltoides

A tree memory submitted by Nancy Anderson, Interior Designer, a gifted and creative designer, and a kindred spirit. nancyandersondesign@comcast.net

Behind our backyard, a few feet out into the nature preserve, stands a 60’ Cottonwood tree. Yes, I know that Cottonwoods are kind of considered big weeds, have soft wood, and make a mess. But this one is particularly dear to me. For the 20 years that we've lived here, we've seen it grow from a little twig into a large fine tree that provides shade, perches for more kinds of birds that I can count, and most of all, holds wonderful memories.

Lesley takes a licking and keeps on ticking
On May 18th Gil and I went out for a bike ride. At the end of our street I had a really serious accident that sent me catapulting over my handlebars and landing 12 ft away on a concrete sidewalk. The result was a broken left arm and a bruised, displaced and extremely painful right clavicle. Thankfully I was wearing my helmet, which I always do, or I probably wouldn't be able to write this. All this to tell you that it has slowed me down a bit. The remaining staff stand at the ready to serve you and I will be back in the quick as soon as I can!! - Lesley

Tree of the Month
Mulberry • Morus alba

A memory shared my Mike Kaniok, a compassionate and caring financial planner with Edward Jones  • mike.kaniok@edwardjones.com

When I was a little kid, all the way up to about 13 years of age, we lived across the street from my grandparents' house. In their back yard was a large Mulberry tree.
 
I loved that tree. We spent all summer every year climbing that tree. We would eat mulberries until we were sick. My grandmother would place a large sheet under the tree and we would shake the branches so mulberries would fall and she could use them to bake us a pie.

Crabapple, malus

by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Photos by Lesley Bruce Smith

Crab trees are to the Chicago area what Southern Magnolias are to the State of Georgia, one of our most ubiquitous flowering trees. The amazing show of spring color that the Crab trees in the midwest display are among our most treasured garden treats. The Crabapple trees and all species of the rose family, of which they are a part, are the most cultivated tree species in the horticulturist’s palette. We have over 500 different varieties of Crab trees and that doesn’t even include all the Malus species that include the eating apples we have cultivated. But who can blame us, for the riotous spring explosion after our long hard winters and the long history of their use as food.

Tuliptree • Liriodendrum tulipifera

photos and text by: Lesley Bruce Smith

The Liriodendrum tulipifera was named by Linnaeus, the father of our binomial naming system, and it is a lovely name that means “lily tree bearing tulips”. It is a name that fits it perfectly. The Tuliptree is one of those trees that has many common names, Yellow Poplar, Tulip Poplar and was called Canoe Wood Tree by the native people of Eastern America where this tree originates. All these names point to some characteristic of the tree that was appreciated. The tulip references the beautiful pale yellow flowers that come out in our area in about June.

by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Weeping Willows are one of those tree species that have captured the imagination of artists down through the centuries. This is a tree native to China, yet Linnaeus named the Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica to honor the willows mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrews, exiled to Babylon:  “wept when we remembered Zion (and) we hanged our harps upon the willow in the midst thereof”.

Red Oak, Quercus rubra

text and photos by:
Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA certified arborist

The Red Oak is one of our more common and beautiful native trees in the Oak family. Although susceptible to Oak wilt, a fungal pathogen that is potentially fatal, the Red Oak species are an important part of our urban forests. I love their fall color especially. Yet they have much to commend them all through the year. They have a long history of ethnobotany, the scientific study of the relationship between the use of plants by people. The Iroquois people had an interesting use of Red Oaks for healing ruptured navels. Callus bark or the rounded healing growth that appears when a tree is wounded would be scraped off the tree. This was then dried and powdered into a fine dust and then probably made into a paste and applied to the navel to assist in healing.