Rare trees

Tree # 72 Allegheny chinkapin

Some trees are rarely seen in Memphis. I was almost stopped in my tracks last Thursday when driving home by an alternate route due to traffic on Sam Cooper. We came east on Walnut Grove. Just east of LaVerne on the south side there was a novel looking tree in bloom. I had never seen one like it before. Consulting my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees, I concluded it was an Allegheny chinkapin, a member of the beech family. 

Feathery catkins erupt all over this tree May 31, 2014

 Here are some closups of the leaves and flowers.

The trunk of the tree, with deeply furrowed bark (May 31, 2014)

This is clearly not a beech as beeches have smooth gray bark, a favorite surface on which young lovers often carve their initials. The scientific name is Castanea pumila, in the same genus as the American chestnut. American beech trees are a subject for a later entry. There is a trail leading down to the Mississippi River in Meeman-Shelby State Park (just north of Memphis) that passes through a veritable American beech forest. 

Tree #73 Kousa dogwood

At the entrance to Elmwood Cemetery to the right after you cross the old bridge, I found a late blooming dogwood. We talked about dogwoods earlier since they are a spring tree. 

Kousa dogwood at Elmwood Cemetery May 25, 2014

The typical dogwoods Cornus florida are long since finished blooming, while this tree is at its peak in late May. The flowers of Cornus kousa (actually white bracts below the true flowers) appear after the leaves. This is the reverse of Cornus florida, where the flowers come out first. Elmwood Cemetery is simultaneously the Carlisle S. Page Arboretum, a level II arboretum, so specified in 1997 by the Tennessee Department of Urban Forestry. This and many other trees are labeled, making identification by the viewer unnecessary.