The Urban Pantheist

This is my favorite picture from today's Urban Nature Walk in Forest Park, a huge city park in the third largest city in Massachusetts, Springfield. I grew up two towns away from here, but had never explored it quite like this. Here's my favorite picture from the walk, from about halfway through. But let's see how we got there!

( lots and lots of photos )

A great walk! If you'd like to get in on the action go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/68443835849/

Photo by urbpan. Location: The Riverway, Boston.

Urban species #313: American beech Fagus grandifola

American beech is much more rare in cities than its European cousin. It is much less tolerant of the stresses of urban life, but can survive for many decades if well-placed. The woodier parts of the Emerald Necklace in Boston contain several scattered American beeches, in between hundreds of European beeches and grand red oaks. Century-old trees, surrounded by dozens of saplings that have sprung from their roots, stand in the thicker margins of the park, far from the road traffic that would compress the soil and starve their roots. The young trees hold on to their dry golden leaves well into winter, providing the bare landscape with patches of foliage. The fruit of beech trees, the beech nut, is an important winter food for many animals, including squirrels, wild turkeys, and others.


Photo of same American beech tree, with suckers (sons of beeches!), taken back in February, by urbpan, for the entry on European beech.