The Vollintine Evergreen Greenline

The Vollintine Evergreen Greenline runs along Mignon between McLean and Evergreen in my neighborhood. It continues east to Rhodes College at University Ave at Jackson. Going west it runs toward The Crosstown Concourse building. It is a favorite jogging path and dog walking route.

Greenline entrance Nov. 5, 2016 University and Jackson

The section near Mignon has many plaques naming some of the trees. I met a man named Scott walking his two terriers (they looked like wire fox terriers) who said the tree names were a project headed up by Mike Kirby and Mary Wilder both of Idlewild that runs into the greenline. I am posting a few of these labeled trees and one unknown tree that I will try to identify.

Tree # 105 Mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa)

The bole of a split trunk along with the sign

Mockernut hickory trunk and leaves

The leaves are pinnately compound with opposite leaflets on a stem. This is also seen in other members of the family like walnuts, pecans and butternut. The hickory nut is edible.

Tree # 106 White fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus)

The fringe tree has clusters of leaves that resemble the smoketree.
Please see the link to that entry. However, these two trees are in different families. The fringe tree is in the same family as the ash trees shown here (The olive family).

This was taken in cloud cover. Earlier in the morning the sun was behind the leaves really lighting them up.

A shot from the street

A more complete view, Nov. 5, 2016

 Tree # 107 White ash (Fraxinus americana)

A pleasing fall view of this white ash

 Tree # 108 Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)

Whole tree from Mignon

Seed clusters similar to maple seeds

 

V & E greenline bench with the Choo Choo logo.

The greenline used to be a railroad that went to the old Sears Crosstown distribution center. The Crosstown building is being revived as a new exciting medical, commercial and residential site with 1,000,000 sq. ft. of space. Church Health will be on the first three floors and upper levels will have "parcels" for residential living. My daughter will be moving in to one of these. 

Tree # 109 Silver maple (acer saccharinum)

A large trunk with roots spreading out above the ground

A very attractive tree somewhat hidden along the greenline

Tree # 109b probable silver maple (second example)

Rough scaly somewhat orange bark

The double trunk lifts two parallel massive trees to the sky.

Because this tree is in the woods it is a bit hard to get a leaf shot. Here is one in a sky background.

The leaf shown here has very deeply dividing lobes with three main lobes and two shallow ones at the base. This is most like a silver maple leaf.

The bugs have been busy chewing these leaves

Tree #110 Red mulberry (Morus rubra)

Across the trail from the mockernut hickory there are two mulberry trees. There are three species of mulberrys that these two trees could be. Paper mulberry, white mulberry and red mulberry. The red mulberry is native to this region and the Choctaw indians used the bark to make woven cloaks. One distinquishing character is the upper surface of the leaves. Paper and red mulberry are rough above due to hairs on the surface. White mulberry is green shiny above without the hairs. That matches the second tree which we predict is a white mulberry. This current tree has the rough leaf surface so it could be paper or red mulberry. These can be identified by the fruit. Paper mulberry has a spherical fruit while white mulberry has a cylindrical fruit. No fruit was available to examine, but it seems more likely that this is a native tree, the red mulberry. 

The whole tree with large leaves quite apparent

The bark on the red mulberry is much rougher than the bark on the white mulberry.

The leaves are large and very rough on the top, some have two or three lobes.

 

Another view of the same tree

Tree #111 White mulberry (Morus alba)

The leaves are much smaller on this tree compared to the red mulberry and the bark is smoother. The trees are only about 8 feet apart and they do spread from the roots, so at first I thought they might be a clone pair. However, there are significant differences between them. I do not think they are the same species.
 

 

Shiny green leaves are smooth on the top and smaller than red mulberry leaves.

The bark is smoother on this tree than the red mulberry

Mulberry by van Gogh, I am curious about the stone at the base. Is it a gravestone?

Please see this LINK to learn more about the van Gogh painting (1889). It was a tree in the garden at the asylum he went to after cutting off his ear. It was painted less than a year before he died.

The neighborhood is anticipating the opening of the Crosstown Concourse in early 2017. Some people will be able to walk to work there on the greenline. For now it is a sleepy trail most of the time and a place for a leisurely stroll with our Schnauzer Rosie.