Paulownia tomentosa

I missed the thousandth anniversary of the world's first novel in 2008. Better late than never, I am making amends by observing the thousand and first. The Tale of Genji, which depicts the cloistered world of the imperial Japanese aristocracy of a millennium ago, is thought to have been written in about 1008. An abiding presence in the novel is the empress tree, Paulownia tomentosa. The delicate lavender hue of the Paulownia flower is the color of romantic attachment throughout the tale. That color is murasaki, the first name of Genji's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Genji's adoptive daughter (and concubine!) is also called Murasaki. Genji's mother, who dies shortly after Genji's birth, is the Lady of the Paulownia Court. Genji carries on a romantic affair with his stepmother, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Lady of the Paulownia Court.

A tree with the aristocratic associations(1) and exquisitely beautiful blooms of Paulownia might be expected to keep only the best company. Sadly, the tree's star has fallen. In Plainfield Paulownias are most likely to be found in the neglected precincts of the railroad tracks, keeping company with disreputable black locusts (http://plainfieldtrees.blogspot.com/2007/05/black-locust-robinia-pseudoacacia.html). You can see the two species commingling in the wooded strip of land that borders the tracks along South Second Street. America doesn't share Japan's enthusiasm for Paulownia. Despite the beauty of its blooms, Paulownia is regarded as a weed in this country.

I'm glad to report that Plainfield has at least a few beautiful and well cared-for Paulownias. One is in the front yard of 1038 Central Avenue, pictured below. I despaired of finding a photogenic Paulownia in town until Hugh Goodspeed directed me to the Central Avenue tree. (If you visit to have a look, don't miss the white oak only yards away, one of the grandest white oaks in the area. It is pictured at the end of this posting.)

Pictured below is another large Paulownia on Leland Avenue in front of Stillman Gardens.

Jo-Ann Bandomer pointed out this tree to me last spring. She sent an email describing it as looking like a tree-form wisteria. A Paulownia in bloom could easily be mistaken for a wisteria. The huge flowers, which appear before the leaves, are of the same general shape and color as wisteria blooms. Once the leaves appear, the resemblance to wisteria is lost. The large, heart-shaped leaves of Paulownias closely resemble the leaves of catalpas (http://plainfieldtrees.blogspot.com/2007/06/catalpa.html).

Paulownia is not often planted in the United States except on tree farms. It's considered messy, prone to splitting, and invasive.(2) We grow the tree on farms to export its wood to Japan. The wood is highly prized in Japan for its light weight, easy workability, and resistance to rot. It is also said to be fire-resistant. Paulownia wood is a traditional material for the fabrication of chests in which to store kimonos. Several sources relate that it was once customary in Japan and China to plant a Paulownia on the birth of a daughter. The tree would grow fast enough to provide wood for a dowry chest at her marriage. The wood is also used for traditional musical instruments and clogs.

The Japanese still value Paulownias for their beauty, not just as sources of wood. The Paulownia tree is honored by depiction of its flower on the seal of the Japanese prime minister. It would be hard to imagine a flower as the symbol of any American government office. What might Dick Cheney's flower have been?

Schooled by samurai movies, Americans think of the Japanese masculine ideal as silent, loyal, duty-bound, fearless, and skilled at swordplay. The Tale of Genji reflects a different pole of Japanese culture. Genji's era preceded the one depicted in samurai films, and the milieu is the court, not the battlefield. The masculine ideal in Genji's world bears little resemblance to the hero of the samurai film. Not hesitant to shed a tear in contemplation of a beautiful view, he seeks to impress the ladies by the skill with which he mixes the colors of his robes and by the cleverness of his poetry. He prides himself on his ability to blend scents for his own personal perfume. He knows nothing of the world outside the hothouse environment of Kyoto and is afraid to leave central Kyoto at night for fear of highwaymen.(3)

I'm on the lookout for another tree to celebrate an anniversary. This year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. Does anyone know of a photogenic Scotch pine?

White oak 1038 Central Avenue

(1) Not only Japanese royalty, Russian as well. The tree was given its Latin name Paulownia to honor Russian Princess Anna Pavlovna.

(2) Paulownia has earned a place on the Plant Conservation Alliance's Alien Plant Working Group Least Wanted List. http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/pato1.htm

(3) The World of the Shining Prince, Ivan Morris, Kodansha International 1994, p. 145.

Copyright Gregory Palermo

Red oaks

It's not a matter of black and white! The two young oaks pictured above are a white oak and a black oak growing in the woods in Edgartown Massachusetts. To label them black and white seems like quite an exaggeration, but the trees are so called because of their bark color. (The lightest flecks on both trees are lichens, not bark.)

The complex oak genus has hundreds of species. Many of the species complicate life for classifiers by cross-breeding with each other. Botanists divide the oaks into two groups: the white oak group and the red/black oak group.

The majestic northern red oak, one of the two headliners of the red/black oak group, is New Jersey's state tree. Plainfield is blessed to have many beautiful examples. Red oaks are the fastest growing of the native oaks. We shouldn't be surprised that red oaks are some of the largest trees in Plainfield.

There is a very fine red oak at 916 West Eighth Street, pictured above. How to recognize it as a red oak, Quercus rubra? First, you can put it in the red/black oak group by observing that the lobes of the leaves end in points, (bristle tips). The leaf lobes of the white oak group, by contrast, are rounded. The photograph below shows a red oak leaf on the left and a white oak leaf on the right. The bark color also helps in assigning a group.(1)

That's a start, but how do we know that it's a red oak, and not another member of the red/black group? How do we distinguish it from a pin, scarlet, or black oak? Like red oaks, all those other three species have lobed leaves with bristle tips, and all can be found in the Plainfield area. Red oak leaves are easily distinguished from pin (Quercus palustris) or scarlet (Quercus coccinea) oak leaves because the red oak leaves are much larger. Their lobes are also much less deeply cut. The large acorn and the leaf on the right in the photograph below are from a red oak. The leaf on the left is from a pin oak.

Black oaks (Quercus velutina) can be more difficult to distinguish from red oaks. Black oaks have large leaves, but the leaves are more leathery and lustrous than red oak leaves. Unfortunately, they interbreed quite readily with red oaks, so it's hard to know sometimes whether or not you're really looking at a black oak. (2) Other features of the trees can help with speciation. Red oaks have much larger acorns than black oaks. Red oak acorns have a distinctive look, with a very shallow, saucer-like cap. Mature red oak bark is described as resembling interweaving ski tracks.

Another very handsome, mature red oak is at Stelle Avenue near Central. This magnificent street tree was the subject of some concern two or three years ago when the owner of the adjacent Coriell mansion proposed to restore the semicircular driveway that had once opened onto Stelle Avenue. The driveway was to encircle the red oak. Because the house was being converted to a B & B, the fire department wanted the driveway to be wide enough to accommodate fire trucks. The Historic Preservation Commission intervened to have the driveway narrowed so as to limit damage to the tree's roots.

The handsome red oak at the corner of 1300 Prospect Avenue at the corner of Hillside has a vase-like shape reminiscent of that of an American elm.

The massive red oak at 947 Fernwood pictured below was given special recognition as a specimen tree by Mayor Robinson-Briggs at this past April's Arbor Day celebration.

Another very fine red oak is at 912 Central Avenue. I measured its circumference today at 17 feet at breast height.

(1) Bark color is not necessarily a reliable indicator. Chestnut oak (Quercus prinus or Quercus montana), a member of the white oak group, has bark that is quite dark gray, an exception to the general rule that trees of the white oak group have light-colored bark. The chestnut oak pictured below is on Park Avenue near Randolph Road, across the street from Muhlenberg Hospital. See the January 13, 2008 posting of Plainfield Trees for additional differences between oaks of the white and red/black groups.

(2) The Trees of Pennsylvania and the Northeast, Charles Fergus, Stackpole Books 2002, p. 113.

Copyright Gregory Palermo

White oak

Is this the tree that launched a thousand ships? It is indeed. White oak, an American native, reached the pinnacle of its maritime glory during the War of 1812. The white oak planks of the U.S.S. Constitution repelled British cannonballs so well that the ship became known as "Old Ironsides". After a few encounters with the Constitution and its sister ship, the British admiralty forbade its frigates from engaging the American 44-gun frigates in single combat.

William Bryant Logan relates the story of the U.S.S. Constitution in his 2005 book Oak: The Frame of Civilization.(1) Mr. Logan claims a central role for oak (not just white oak) in human development. He reviews evidence that early man was dependent on acorns as a staple food and presents a map showing the distribution of oak trees to be conterminous with the locations of settled civilizations in the northern hemisphere. You already knew, no doubt, that oak made durable furniture, sturdy ships, and watertight barrels. Did you also know that oak galls made ink and that oak tannins tanned leather? Did you know that oak was used in shipbuilding even before it helped Jason and the Argonauts find the golden fleece? Mr. Logan lays out all these details of mankind's reliance on oak in his informative book.

Oak is a complicated genus. There are as few as 250 or as many as 600 species of oak, depending on whose classification you accept. To complicate life, many oak species interbreed with one another. Oaks are conventionally divided into two groups: the white oak group with white oak as its most typical species, and the red oak group with red oak as its exemplar. The white oak group has leaves and leaf lobes that are rounded. The red oak group has leaves and lobes that end in points with bristle tips.

Acorns of the white oak group mature in one growing season; the reds require two seasons. White oak group acorns have a lower tannin content than the reds. The tannin content difference represents divergent survival "strategies". Tannins protect acorns by imparting a bitter taste and by interfering with animals' protein digestion. Squirrels are quite tuned into differences in tannin content. They eat white oak acorns immediately and bury reds. With less tannin protection, acorns of the white oak group are obliged to begin to grow shortly after contacting the ground in the fall. If the squirrels don't eat the white oak acorns immediately, it's too late. The squirrels can permit the very tannic and slower-to-sprout acorns of the red oak group to marinate underground during the winter.(2) People can eat acorns any time they care to do so by leeching out the tannins with water. Recipes abound on the Internet.

The grand white oak at 1310 Central Avenue pictured in leaf at the top of the page and leafless below is 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Surely well over a century old. Sadly, one sees limbs lopped at the property line on the left side. (There ought to be a law.) The tree illustrates the characteristic white oak habit and the vast spread of a mature white oak's limbs. The spread limits the species' use as a curbside planting.

Another fine white oak is at 705 Ravine Road.

Most white oaks are easily recognizable in the winter by their blotchy bark. The blotchiness is caused by an apparently harmless fungal infestation.

Xavier Canela sends word from Spain that he has a blog about the trees of Barcelona: http://arbresdebarcelona.blogspot.com/ The blog is in Catalan. If you can read one of the Romance languages, you can understand it without much difficulty. One of his posts regards Pinus pinea, the source of most of the pine nuts on the market and probably best known as the pines of Rome. (The pines of Rome, it turns out, are natives of Iberia.)

.

(1) Oak: The Frame of Civilization, William Bryant Logan, W.W. Norton and Company 2005, pp. 230-249.

(2) A Field Guide to Eastern Forests, John Kricher and Gordon Morrison, Houghton Mifflin 1998, p. 84.

Copyright Gregory Palermo