Report: Heritage Tree Tour

Emily is famous for her Heritage Tree Tours and she submitted this report on her most recent one:

Sunday afternoon 7 others joined me for a ride down the Springwater on the Willamette to Sellwood to look at Heritage Trees. I was impressed that of these 7, five of them were women. At the end of the trail we picked up 3 more, to bring our total to 10, 7 of them women.

In Sellwood our tour focused on two things: the Oregon White Oak and the Walnut Family. We looked at 4 different Oregon White Oaks which gave us an excellent opportunity to observe those common identifying characteristics, while also seeing the differences that location and environment can create.

[Photo by Dat Nguyen]

We saw three members of the Walnut family (Juglandaceae) Butternut, Mockernut Hickory and English Walnut.

We also had an excellent opprotunity to see the differences between the American Chestnut and the Horsechestnut. Especially since this pair of American Chestnuts are the only specimens of any size in the City, although there are others in the Metro area.
We saw a Tupelo, from which bees create the prized Tupelo Honey and a classic placement of a Copper Beech in the corner of a corner lot.

Just take a look sometime and notice how many of the big old Copper Beeches you see that are planted like this in Portland. I can think of at least 3 not including this one.

We arrived back at our starting point with plenty of time to get food before the Mobile Dance Party started directly across the river.