Walking Tour

A Short Guided Tour of Trees and Bushes on the Green and Blue Trail

There are at least 35 species of native and alien trees and bushes in the Hermitage Natural Area.

A quick walk on the Green trail of 0.25 miles round trip from the parking lot will show you 18 of them. Many of the native trees in this area are "Keystone species" important for holding together the web of animal species. They include top ten trees: #1 oaks (6 species of both white and red), #2 cherries, #3 willows (just planted), #5 populus (bigtooth aspen) #8 maples (2 species), and american holly. Keystone shrubs: #2 black raspberry, and flowers: #1 goldenrod, #6 sedges, ? ragwort. Adding a detour onto the 0.1 mi round trip will add another 9. Let's take a tour!
With the labels on one of each of the trees listed below, and the description below you should be able to identify them. Additionally, with this table you can see the iNaturalist listing and a map showing the location. Each of the trees was identified and then the picture uploaded into the iNaturalist database. The thousands of people around the world who use this citizen-science program thus make it possible to learn the distribution of plants you'll see in maps linked below

Let's start in in the center of the parking lot turn-around:

Red maple (67' h) It is approximately 95 year old assuming it's the sapling on the left in the 1936 picture of the Hermitage. It is approximately __ feet tall, based on a simple non-instrumental measurement (the "standard stick method" according to wikipedia). Note that the bark is quite rough. This is quite different from the

smooth bark of younger red maples you'll see further along the trail. Like humans! I guess it's similar to the difference between and 70-90 year old human and a 16 year old. One distinguishing characteristic is the leaf shape. Note the usual five pointed lobes, with the two lobes closes to the stem much smaller, and the base of the leaf curved. According to Tallamy, it's a beneficial tree--#8 in his top 10, providing food for > 200 species of moths. It flowers early in the year providing essential food.

A tall hackberry is back towards the entrance to the area. This may or may not be the same as the mature tree in the 1936 picture. It may or may not have been planted for it's shade for the house. It was recently covered by thick ivy vines.

The white mulberry is native to China but seen commonly in most of the U. S. based on iNaturalist observations

Flowering Dogwood

Northern White Cedar

The black locust Rapidly growingThey are common in this area, and considered invasive in Europe

The Black Cherry is one of the most common trees in this part of property, #2 in Tallamy's list of the top ten in terms of ecological value. It supports > 150 species of lepidoptera, and has great habitat value.

Silver Maple

The silver maple is found in eastern and central North America. It is one of the most common trees in the U.S. There are 2 (3?) on this walk.

Detour to Black CherryNormally, the spring blossoms and early season fruit of this tree are too high to be readily seen. But when this tree fell down, some of the roots remained viable, a vertical branch started growing and is now flowering at eye level. Blossoms and fruit appeared this spring. After protecting with netting we were able to sample them. The fruit were small but tasty, with a flavor reminiscent of black cherry soda of my youth.

Green Ash

Tree of Heaven

The Pin oak in the meadow to the left of the trail is growing rapidly: it was about 7 ft. tall in 2016 when the area was cleared, and had to be flagged to protect it from the bush hog. The distinguishing ch

Sassafras

Winterberry Holly Winterberry bush is a species of holly native to the eastern U.S. and Canada.

Sweet Cherry Prunus avium. This tree is an import from ?China, and is presumably a volunteer. Based on its height (~ft) it probably .... not long after farming ceased here.

White Oak This little specimen has grown only a foot or so in three years, perhaps because of the shade. The species in #1 in Tallamy's list of The white oak is widely distributed in the eastern U.S.

Southern Arrowwood

American Holly

Northern Spicebush Black Tupelog

Southern red oak The southern red oak is widely distributed to the eastern and south-central U.S. -- from Philadelphia to Georgia and west.

Black Tupelo

End of Blue Trail Japanese Angelica

Silky dogwood

Norway Maple

Blackhaw Viburnum

Osage Orange

Eastern Redbud
Crabapple (Malus sp)