Our Environment: "The Scented City" by Scott Turner
Scott Turner, Environmental Columnist
Our Environment: "The Scented City" by Scott Turner
Primarily used as a street tree, littleleaf linden grows in sun or partial shade, and across a range of soil types. It usually produces a dense, pyramidal crown, and is relatively tolerant of heat. So, you find the tree planted and growing quite well on many of the city’s streets.
In the second half of June, littleleaf linden produces pleasant-smelling creamy-colored flowers that dangle in clusters from slender branches over sidewalks and streets. A tan leaf-like wing is attached to the nectar- and pollen-rich blossoms, which attract bees and other pollinating insects. Linden honey is known for its light color, woody scent and somewhat sedative properties.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMaybe it’s the extensive rainfall, but linden branches seem lower than ever to the pavement this year, allowing for easy sniffing of the blooms. Also, the flower fragrance seems extra strong in the humid air. Walking through the city, I smell that sweet scent block after block.
Japanese honeysuckle flowers emit an enchanting smell. That scent is most prominent in the evening, wafting from white tubular blossoms that protrude from vines wrapped around telephone poles, street signs and sometimes trees.
Honeysuckle is often invasive. So, while its intoxicating aroma seems lovely on a summer’s eve, the plant may be aggressive in its spread through gardens and along sunny streets.
Besides flowers for sniffing, the season’s first berries are ready for picking on Providence streets. Along with American Robins, Cedar Waxwings and other types of birds, I’ve been munching on the fruit of shadbush. A waxwing, notes the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers.” The waxwing’s call is a whistle, produced even when they’re beside you, plucking fruit from tree branches.
This year, abundant rainfall has led cedar-apple rust to flourish on shadbush. A fungal pathogen causes the rust, which produces orange-brown leaf spots and grotesque-looking fruit, covered in horn-like protrusions.
Mulberry is the other fruit that I am currently sharing with birds and other creatures. For whatever reason, mulberries ripened two- to three-weeks earlier than usual this year in Providence.
Two types of mulberry grow in gardens and untended sites. Red mulberry is a native tree rich in juicy red-to-black fruit. Also around is white mulberry, which became naturalized after importation from Asia for silkworm cultivation. White mulberry fruit are usually white or pink, but sometimes purple or black. The fruit of red mulberry is more succulent than that of white mulberry.
If you can’t make time to smell the littleleaf linden than try to catch the tree in autumn. Its flowers become what horticulturalists call “five-sided nutlets,” which hang in clusters, with the leafy bracts, acting like wings for the ripened fruit in the breezes of fall.
While you’re at it, look for the milkweed. The flowers will have morphed into brown pods, splitting open to scatter downy-winged seeds into the chilly wind.
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