Beloved Trees 2.0
Beloved Trees is about our human love of trees and the memories they elicit. Each musician is playing music that represents a specific tree. As you encounter different musicians in the park, click on the instrument names below to participate:
Have you ever measured your life against the growth of a tree? My Dad planted a blue spruce in our yard when I was born. By the time I was 13, it was over 20 feet tall.
Text: Evergreen conifer. Waxy blue-green leaves, needle-like, arranged radially on the stem. Shallow roots can still withstand high winds. Reaching up to seventy-five feet in the wild. Provides food and shelter for many species of bird. Evergreen conifer.
Have you ever used a tree’s leaves, nuts, seeds, or twigs for something special? I was mildly obsessed with acorn caps growing up (they make great doll hats), but there weren’t many oak trees in my hometown. I was always on the lookout for oaks, and I’m still happy whenever I see one!
Text: Spiralling leaves, lobed. Acorns green ripen in autumn to golden brown. Gnarled, broad trunk. Spreading crown. Can live for centuries and grow to breadths exceeding forty feet circumference. A majestic, hardwood tree. Spiralling leaves, lobed.
What is the most interesting animal you’ve ever seen in a tree? My child hood home in Western Colorado was near a park with massive cottonwoods. Once we saw four baby owls in one of them!
Text: Diamond-shaped leaves, cottony down bears seeds great distances through the air. Fissured bark, a poplar species. One of the largest trees, up to thirteen feet diameter, fifty to one hundred feet tall.
Have you ever felt sad about the loss of a tree? When I was a teen we had a big maple in poor health. My love for the tree was tinged with anxiety about losing it.
Text: Angular notches between five broad leaf lobes. Winged seeds. Green leaves, downy silver undersides. Grey bark curling. Shimmering silver when the wind stirs. May grow to one hundred feet. Trunk may have large cavities, a home for squirrels.
Have you ever played in a treehouse? When I was a kid my father built me an epic treehouse high up in a big crabapple tree. Every spring I’d lie under its pink canopy of blossoms.
Text: Rose-colored five-petal blossoms, honey scented. One-inch globular apples, hard and bitter. Blooms in May, ripening in October. Purple-tinged green ovate leaves. Reddish-brown bark, fissured with narrow scales. Yellow sapwood, buds bright red. A small tree with a broad crown, rose colored in May.
