Coming Soon: Wednesday Street Tree

A new weekly post to look out for.

Welcome to Wednesday Street Tree

Wednesday Street Tree is a new post that will be regularly winging its way to you midweek, starting on Wednesday 4th September. Every post will be about a street tree; not a tree in a park, woodland or great estate, but a humble tree that grows on the pavement.

More Trees, But Different

Wednesday Street Tree posts will differ from my regular weekend post featuring a Great Urban Tree from Britain and Ireland. While I will illustrate the post with a photo of an individual tree, it will be a specimen of its type, and the post will focus on the story of the species rather than the story of the individual tree, and it will offer tips for how you can identify the featured species.

Why Street Trees?

I think street trees are particularly interesting because they are the trees that many of us encounter everyday. For urban dwellers, they are the trees that give character to towns and cities, making them liveable and botanically interesting. I believe many people would like to know more about them and what those tree species are that grow on our streets.

You may have noticed that there are many, many different types. In London, I think there must be 500 or so different species and cultivars growing on the frontline. Some are very common and easy to recognise, others are less common, and some are downright rare: trees you would normally expect to see in a botanical collection like Kew.

Seasonal

Each Wednesday Street Tree will be right up to date. It will discuss things that are happening right now. For instance, the featured species might be in flower, or, if it’s the autumn, its leaves could be colouring brilliantly. During the winter I might look at another feature that can help in identification like bark, buds or branch structure.

Over time, the same species may well be featured more than once, perhaps a species has great autumn leaf colour and striking spring flowers. Both these aspects will be worth a shout out I think.

See for yourself

Like my weekly Great Urban Tree post, I’ll tell you exactly where you can see the Wednesday Street Tree I write about.

Most of the trees will be in London, but, if I find myself in, say, Birmingham, Boston, Bogotá, Brazzaville or Brisbane, I will not waste an opportunity to post street trees from other cities and climates too. Don’t be surprised if you become familiar with a few north London neighbourhoods though…

So, What’s That Tree?

The tree illustrating this post is a crêpe myrtle (crape myrtle to some), or Lagerstroemia indica, of the white flowering ‘Nivea’ cultivar. It’s a rare sight on London’s streets, but is increasing. It doesn’t flower too well here, this is one I photographed in 2022 when we had a very hot summer, but I haven’t seen any flowering this year – yet, at least. They usually flower in August, but I have seen them bloom in September, so there’s still time.

Where Can I See This One?

Find it on Claremont Square, London N1 9LS
Google Maps | TreeTalk | W3W

TreeTalk?

Oh, if my Wednesday Street Tree is in London, chances are it will feature on the TreeTalk map. TreeTalk displays over 800,000 public trees, it gets its data from London’s local authorities who are responsible for planting and managing public trees. It’s an amazing resource for tree-curious Londoners, but in a few cases, they may not be quite up to date (like this Crêpe myrtle in Islington which is listed as ‘Not Yet Identified’, but that’s why you will need to read Wednesday Street Tree).