New London's tree walk draws a large audience
New London — Most people don’t equate downtown New London with trees, but Sue Greenleaf of Noank gained a new appreciation for the Zelkovas growing in the urban landscape on Saturday.
“Now when I drive to New London to go to work, I’m going to be noticing more,” she said. “I’m going to be noticing the trees by the courthouse.”
Nearly 60 people attended the “New London Tree Walk from A to Z” on Saturday, strolling along Huntington Street and through Williams Memorial Park.
Maggie Redfern, assistant director the Connecticut College Arboretum, gave the tour and pointed out the Zelkova trees in front of the New London Superior Court building. Landscape architects like these cousins of the elm because of their uniform size, low maintenance and absence of fruit that could litter the sidewalk.
The tour began outside New London Public Library, at the flowering Pear Tree by the front door. The Friends of New London Public Library planted 40 flowering pears and 12 crabapple trees in 1996. Half remain.
At 345 State St., Redfern stopped at the city’s only horse chestnut, a tree native to Greece and showing tiny yellow blossoms.
“Can you imagine a full moon night?” she asked, and the group around her looked up through the canopy.
If you pick up a blossom and look closely, you'll see a small blotch on the flower, she said. After the flower's been pollinated, the blotch turns from yellow to red, signaling to bees they should move on to the next flower.
Ken Morris of Waterford went on the walk to learn more about what's available here, as he recently moved to the area. He expected a small group.
“I’m just blown away,” he said. “When do you get 80 people on a tree walk?”
At Williams Memorial Park, Redfern offered a bit of history. The park was a cemetery at one time, established in 1793. After more people moved in and wanted to build houses around it, the bodies were exhumed, the cemetery moved and a park established in its place.
Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect who co-designed New York City’s Central Park, laid out Williams Memorial Park.
Redfern stopped at the ginkgo trees with their fan-shaped leaves, pointed to a grove of Japanese cypress with cinnamon-colored bark, then moved on to the Norway maples. “The idea of wandering through nature is kind of being evoked here,” she said.
Her audience admired a large European beech tree with a trunk that resembles "elephant legs," she said.
Cathy McDonald of New London said she listened to a poetry reading Friday night, and the tree walk on Saturday almost seemed like a continuation of that.
“We have so many things that are open to us,” she said. “We have so much in this area that I don’t think people tap into.”
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