Category Archives: Schenley Park

Pittsburgh Parks Listening Tour, Now Through April

February 9, 2019Books & Events, Schenley ParkKate St. John

Schenley Park, Panther Hollow lake, April 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

If you live in the City of Pittsburgh and visit our parks you’ll want to participate in this survey, available now through April 2019.

Pittsburgh has 165 parks sprinkled throughout our neighborhoods from small playgrounds to regional parks — Schenley, Frick, Riverview, Highland and the future Hays Woods. The City’s goal is to have well maintained parks within a 10-minute walk of every resident.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that infrastructure is crumbling in many of them. The park system gets big donations for capital improvements (bricks & mortar) but not for maintenance, so we have new buildings like the Frick Environmental Center but deteriorating playgrounds, landscape and trails. How do we fix that inequity and how much will it cost?

The City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy have teamed up for the Parks Listening Tour, a citywide initiative to hear what neighbors love about our parks and what they would love to improve.

The Listening Tour includes meetings in every neighborhood and online tools. Attend a meeting to find out more or go online to view the presentation and take the survey. Click here for the schedule and online tools.

This is your chance to speak up for the parks. Your comments will shape their future.

(acknowledgements: text and tour logo from the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, photo of Schenley Park by Kate St. John)

The Shapes of Trees: Tuliptree

December 20, 2018Schenley Park, Trees, Winter Weeds & TreesKate St. John

Tuliptree in winter, Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)

The Shapes of Trees continues today with the tuliptree or yellow-poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera.

Tuliptrees are the tallest eastern hardwood, 70 to 190 feet tall at maturity. They’re characterized by straight branch-less trunks for most of their height because they jettison their lower branches as they grow. The crowns have arching branches and up-swept twigs(*). On mature trees some branches are bent or zigzag, but they are never as gnarly as black locusts.

The photos below show their typical shape as seen from the side and below. Notice that the trunk is straight and limbless.

Tuliptrees in winter (photos from Bugwood.org: 1609187 by John Ruter, Univ. GA, UGA1118275 by Brian Lockhart, USDA Forest Service)

Younger trees have tapered tops like candle flames.

Young tuliptree with characteristic candle flame shape (photo by Kate St. John)

In early winter tuliptrees are still dotted with clustered samaras that look like pale wooden flowers, but you have to use binoculars to see them.

If you’re lucky to find a twig at eye level you can easily identify the tree by its large smooth end bud, shaped like a duck’s bill.

Tuliptree twig with duckbill bud (photo by Kate St. John)

But the mature trees have no low hanging twigs so you’ll have to use other clues.

Learn how to identify tuliptrees in winter and see photos of the bark, buds and samaras in this vintage article: Winter Trees: Tuliptree.

(*) Quoted from The Sibley Guide to Trees, page 100.

(first photo and bud photo by Kate St. John. Tuliptrees in winter from Bugwood.org: 1609187 by John Ruter, Univ. GA, UGA1118275 by Brian Lockhart, USDA Forest Service. Click on these links to see the originals)

The Shapes of Trees: Black Locust

December 13, 2018Schenley Park, Winter Weeds & TreesKate St. John

Silhouettes of two black locusts in Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)

Now that the leaves have fallen we can see the skeletal shapes of trees. Did you know it’s possible to identify them by shape?

Seven years ago I wrote a series on identifying trees by their buds and bark but I didn’t mention shape except for this gnarly twisted tree, the black locust.

Black locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia) are easy to find in Pittsburgh because we’re within their native range and they grow well in disturbed soil. They’re often described as brittle and invasive but that’s because of what we did to them.

Native range of black locust (map from Wikimedia Commons)

Because their hard wood is very durable and prized for furniture, flooring and fence posts, we planted black locusts around the world. Outside their range the trees became invasive. Meanwhile their natural enemy, the locust borer (Megacyllene robiniae), followed them wherever they went.

Locust borer larvae drill holes in the heartwood and weaken the tree. Before 1900 the bugs were in balance but that year the locust borer population exploded everywhere. Since then black locusts are usually infected and brittle so the trees rarely reach full size before they blow down.

Black locust damaged by locust borer (photo by James Solomon, USDA Forest Service, via Bugwood.org)

But they do retain their distinctive shape. Here’s another example.

Gnarled black locust tree (photo by Kate St. John)

On Throw Back Thursday, learn more cool facts about black locusts and how to identify them in this vintage article: Winter Trees: Black Locust. Then take a walk outdoors to find their distinctive gnarly shapes.

In the next few months I’ll add more Shapes of Trees as I encounter them outdoors.

(photos by Kate St. John; map from Wikimedia Commons. click on the caption to see the original)

Tiny Opals

November 29, 2018Schenley Park, Trees, Winter Weeds & TreesKate St. John

*Hackberry fruits (photo by Paul Wray, Iowa State University, bugwood.org)*

This month I read Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and learned that she made an amazing discovery in 1998 during research for her doctoral dissertation: Inside common hackberry fruit is a small hard pit with a lattice made of opal.

Hackberry fruits, pictured at top, are drupes similar to cherries and peaches with fleshy fruit surrounding a central pit. The fruit is thin and the pits are large so we rarely eat hackberries but birds love them.

The pits in cherries and peaches are made of wood (or something like it) but hackberry pits are made of stone: calcium carbonate inside a lattice framework. When Hope Jahren used Xray diffraction on the crushed lattice material its composition came up “opal.”

When I found this out I searched for the pits under hackberry trees in Schenley Park. At this time of year the fleshy purple fruit is gone, only the white pits remain. Here’s what I found, one whole, one opened. The exterior is a network of tiny raised lines.

*Opal is in these hackberry pits (photo by Kate St. John)*

The pits don’t look like opal and probably never will. You’d have to use acid to remove the calcium carbonate (the white stuff of seashells) and then examine the remaining latticework under a microscope. There’s a tiny bit of opal in there.

And so I wonder: How does a tree put opal in its drupes? I don’t know, but here are the raw materials:

[The rock] Opal is formed from a solution of silicon dioxide and water. As water runs down through the earth, it picks up silica from sandstone, and carries this silica-rich solution into cracks and voids, caused by natural faults or decomposing fossils. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind a silica deposit. This cycle repeats over very long periods of time, and eventually opal is formed.
From Opals Down Under

Trees take up water that contains dissolved minerals including the building blocks of opal.

Miraculously, the hackberry tree pulls out what it needs and makes an opal latticework inside its drupes.

Learn how to identify hackberry trees in winter at Winter Trees; Hackberry. Then search the leaf litter for tiny opals.

For further reading see : Hackberry: A Gem of a Weed

(photo credits: hackberry fruits by Paul Wray, Iowa State University, bugwood.org, hackberry pits by Kate St. John)

Snow On Leaves

November 17, 2018Schenley Park, Trees, Weather & SkyKate St. John

On Thursday it rained. Then it sleeted. Then it snowed in the wee hours of Friday morning, especially north of Pittsburgh.

In the old days most of the trees would be bare by now, but this year many still have leaves.

Ice and snow made the leaves heavy and some of the trees came down, hitting power lines as they fell. By Friday morning KDKA reported that 65,000 households north and east of the city were without electricity. No power, no heat, and for those with well water, no water. It may take until Sunday evening to get all of the power restored..

The City is warmer than surrounding counties so Schenley Park had snow on the leaves, but no ice.

Here’s what my favorite hillside looked like yesterday. 50% of the trees still have leaves.

*Only half of the trees are bare, Schenley Park, 16 Nov 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)*

The power failures wouldn’t have been so bad if most of the trees had been bare.

(photos by Kate St. John)

When Will Most Of The Trees Be Bare?

November 6, 2018Phenology, Schenley Park, TreesKate St. John

Leafless bur oak, Schenley Park, 4 Nov 2011 (photo by Kate St. John)

Every year I record the date when most of the trees are bare on my favorite hillside in Schenley Park — the hill at the end of the Greenfield Bridge.

In 2008 the leaves were gone by 2 November. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy stripped them from the trees by 4 November.

Last year the changes happened much later. In 2017, the leaves were still green in late October and more than half were still on the trees on 27 November. Here’s a 2017 slideshow of autumn trees on that hillside.

This year is similar to last so I wonder … When will most of the trees be bare? November 15? 20? 30? Later?

Let me know how the trees look where you live and vote for the date “When Most of the Trees Will Be Bare” by leaving a comment below.

HINT! Two factors that affect leaf loss on this hillside: (1) More than half of the trees are oaks; oaks drop their leaves later than maples. (2) This city location is warmer than surrounding counties.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Fall Color At Last

November 4, 2018Phenology, Schenley Park, TreesKate St. John

*Schenley Park as seen from the Greenfield Bridge, 31 Oct 2018 (photo by Kate. St. John)*

Last week the leaves finally changed color in Pittsburgh. Here are some scenes from Schenley Park on Halloween.

*Bottlebrush buckeyes, yellow and green, near Panther Hollow Lake (photo by Kate St. John)*

(photos by Kate St. John)

Jack O’Lanterns

October 31, 2018Plants & Fungi, Schenley ParkKate St. John

Happy Halloween! It’s the day for pumpkin Jack O’ Lanterns. Did you know there’s a mushroom by the same name?

On my bird walk in late September we found these jack o’ lantern mushrooms near the Schenley Park golf course.

*Jack O’Lantern mushroom, Schenley Park, 30 Sept 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)*

Jack O’ Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens) are common mushrooms east of the Rocky Mountains and are often found in urban settings. Typical of their species, these were sprouting from an old stump. Though they resemble edible chanterelles, jack o’ lanterns are poisonous and cause vomiting, cramps and diarrhea.

Reference guides say that jack o’ lantern’s gills glow in the dark but this must be hard to see. The Mushroom Expert says he’s wasted three hours of his life trying to see them glow without any success.

We found these mushrooms on 30 September and took a lot of photos. There were so many mushrooms!

On 1 October I walked past the stump and the mushrooms were gone. Someone must have thought they were chanterelles, got greedy, took them all … and got sick.

Now that’s scary!

p.s. It’s illegal to remove mushrooms from City parks, even for personal use. Check the Western PA Mushroom Club’s Mushroom Picking Rules & Regulations in PA for places where it’s allowed.

(pumpkin photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original. mushroom photo by Kate St. John)

The Same Invasive

October 28, 2018Plants & Fungi, Schenley ParkKate St. John

*Porcelain-berry, intricate leaves, October 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)*

There are many varieties of porcelain-berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) in the Pittsburgh area. Most have maple-shaped leaves (below), but I occasionally find the intricate leaves showcased above.

*Porcelain-berry, maple-shaped leaves, October 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)*

No matter the variety, you can identify them in October by their porcelain-like berries.

*Porcelain berry (photo by Jonathan Nadle)*

Unfortunately, Ampelopsis is invasive. When you see Pittsburgh hillsides engulfed like this, it’s probably porcelain-berry. This hill is along Pocusset in Schenley Park.