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Four in a million trees - Million Trees NYC

First, a quote from the MillionTreesNYC website about the tree planting campaign:

MillionTreesNYC, one of the 127 PlaNYC initiatives, is a citywide, public-private program with an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the City's five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest—our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land—by an astounding 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees.

We've been eyeing four trees on West Broadway (not to be confused with the western section of Broadway) planted as part of the city's million tree-planting campaign. The trees are a mix of pin (Quercus palustris) and red (Q. rubra) oaks which can attain mature heights of up to 75 feet (with a 40 foot canopy) and 90 feet, respectively. Note the gardens planted in the tree basins. The garden in the second photograph has not thrived.

Comments

Any tips for keying out Red v. Pin Oaks? (Besides the name tags?!)
Georgia said…
Xris: yes.

Of the trees featured in the photos, only the fourth one is a red oak (Q. rubra). (Note: pin and red oaks are part of the Red or Black Oak group vs. the White Oak group. Red/Black Oaks tend to have bristles at the end of their lobes while the lobes of White Oaks are rounded).

Back to pin vs. red oaks. The sinuses (the U or C shape part of the leaf) of a pin oak 9Q. palustris) tend to be deeper and narrower than those of a red oak (Q. rubra).

Also, if the trees have not been pruned, the lower branches of a pin oak tend to point downward (the top 1/3 tend to point upward and the middle third, outward).
Karen said…
Hm, I wonder if the reason for the un-thriving garden is sitting right next to it in your photo... especially after the initial quote about keeping animal waste away from the trees, gotta wonder. The little fences are cute, and do seem to protect the trees/gardens pretty well at least where you show them. 4 million, that's a lot of trees! Hope you get there.
Georgia said…
Karen: good observation. The block is the site of a weekend art sale and I would guess that the dog is a regular at that spot.

By the way, 278,882 trees of the 1,000,000 tree goal have been planted according to the counter at http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/home/home.shtml.