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by Andy Mead Our Tree of the Month for August is a pin oak (Quercus palustris) on Kilrush Drive in Cardinal Valley. We’re featuring it to encourage people to not plant this species and to understand why this once wildly planted and appreciated tree is not a wise choice. The tree appears to be healthy but could be showing signs of leaf scorch. In many cases, Lexington has had bad experiences with pin oaks. Pin oak at Kilrush Food Forest. Photo by Andy Mead. If you have a pin

By Andy Mead This black cherry (Prunus serotina) is off Wilson Downing Road, between Southern Middle School and Southern Elementary School, near the entrance to the city’s Meadowbrook Golf Course. Native black cherry tree between Southern Middle and Southern Elementary Schools' campuses. Photo by Andy Mead. The deciduous species, also known as wild black cherry or rum cherry, can be found from southeastern Canada through the eastern United States to eastern Texas. There are d

The June Tree of the Month is the oldest cross-dated documented tree in Kentucky, and it lives in a corner of Fayette County. We know its age because its rings have been counted and their pattern of thick and thin rings matched to nearby trees of the same species. It is so old that it has a name: Woody C. Guthtree, and a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/woody.guthtree/. The “C” stands for chinkapin because the tree is a chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii). This year

By Andy Mead The May Tree of the Month isn’t a particular species, but it is often the first thing people see as they approach our homes. We’re talking about street trees. Lexington has more than 53,000 of them, mostly maples, oaks, dogwoods and sycamores. Three blackgum trees (Nyssa sylvatica) line a Lexington street. By Andy Mead The street tree you choose may be large, medium or small, depending on your location and the crucial factor of the presence or absence of overhead

By Andy Mead The Marybeth McAlister Memorial Bur Oak. Our Tree of the Month for March is the bur oak, which is Lexington’s official tree. This article will begin with one particular bur oak, which is informally known as The Marybeth McAlister Memorial Bur Oak. The tree is in my back yard. Marybeth McAlister was my wife. Several months after she died in early 2014, my friend Rob Pokorney planted a tiny tree that he had sprouted from an acorn. Rob said the acorn had good genes;

By Andy Mead Our tree of the month feature for February takes us 30 miles out of Lexington to visit an Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) at Old Fort Harrod in Harrodsburg in Mercer County. The species is native to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, but apparently was planted at the fort around the time the frontier outpost was built in 1774. The Fort Harrod osage orange in all its glory. The sign informing Fort Harrod visitors of the tree's record setting measurements and ineligibil

The January Tree of the Month is a genus of six evergreens in the cypress family called Chamaecyparis, or False Cypress. The species are native to the North American coasts and temperate East Asia. The genus name combines the Greek words chamai, for "dwarf or low to the ground" and kuparissos, for "cypress.” They are medium to large trees that reach 50 to 90 feet in landscape settings. Their vertical growth habit means they often are used as screens or windbreaks or grouped