Monday, November 14, 2011

High Rock Park


If you click over to the Prospect Park Litter Mob blog, you'll find a beautiful slideshow of our visit to High Rock Park. The fall colours were stunning and very heavy on the yellows. I love the beech forest - it has become one of my favourite spots in New York City.

And here is the Frenchman's take on High Rock Park.

I need help with the id for this small tree or shrub above. It must be hawthorn, Crataegus, sp - but what? At first the leaves and form struck me as a dead ringer for serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) and I was confused - those berries were eaten last June. The tree had multiple stems, smooth bark and was rounded, about 10 feet high and across.

So...?

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful. I know what it's like to stand under a yellow Beech canopy. The light becomes magical.

    I have no idea for the tree ID. Sorry.

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  3. I thought it might be spicebush, but the berries are a little different.

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  4. Hey Becky - nice guess but not spicebush, as you note. I'm pretty sure it's a hawthorn of some sort, and someone else suggested maybe C. crus-galli?

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  5. Possibly Korean mountain ash, Sorbus alnifolia. I had a hard time identifying this tree in my local cemetery because the fruit looks like crataegus. If it was C. crus-galli, you should have seen really lethal thorns on the branches.

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  6. well...hunh. Nothing jumping out at me even with Dirr's help. Wild or planted? Thorns? Habitat? There is a thornless crusgalli, but the leaves are a skosh more rounded on the end. Most interesting.

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