Hessel Park Tree Review (Part 3)

I would like to welcome everyone back for our third and final installment of the Hessel Park Tree Review series. This has been a wild ride for all of us, I'm sure. Hessel covers so much area and has so many trees, that even this three part series doesn't include an exhaustive list of tree species there. I've had fun, but, to be honest, a chunky, bearded guy taking pictures of trees, sifting through the grass for seeds, and jumping up and down to grab branches for close leaf inspection, all the while dragging around a manic dog on a leash, can draw quite a bit of unwanted attention. I'll be happy to return to the anonymity of the sparsely populated Mattis Park.

I'm going to go on a limb with this first tree and call it a White Ash (Fraxinus americanus). White Ashes and Green Ashes are nearly identical and difficult to distinguish. The Green Ash, though, usually grows in swamps and wet river bottoms, so I opted for the high ground loving White Ash.

In Norse Mythology, a giant ash, Yggdrasil, holds the world in its branches. The Irish believed that the shadow of an ash would kill crops. Today, we use White Ash wood for baseball bats, tool handles, and lobster cages.

You'll notice an ugly little mass hanging beneath the compound pinnate leaves. These aren't flowers or fruit, but flower galls. A tiny mite (Eriophyes fraxinivorous) eats the male flowers (see what they did with the scientific name?) of the ash tree. The ash tree responds to this attack with excessive tissue growth around the site (almost as if the tree tries to swallow the mites) causing the flowers to look deformed and disorganized. It looks ugly, but it doesn't hurt the tree.

A few of the trees in this area drop these black berries all over the place that stain the sidewalk and stick to your shoes. You probably know these annoying little fruits as elderberries.

The American Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) only grows into a large shrub, but is closely related to this, the European Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). You can also call it an Elder tree, but don't confuse it with a Box Elder (Acer negundo). See the scientific name? The Box Elder, actually a maple, has simple palmate leaves and drops samaras rather than berries. The Elderberry has compound pinnate leaves with 5 to 9 leaflets.

The Italians use the flowers of the Elderberry to make their liqueur, Sambuca, and Americans have long used the berries to make jams, jellies, and wine. This tree also has many medicinal properties. Native Americans used parts of the tree to treat colds, coughs, and upper respiratory infections. A recent study has determined that Elderberry extract aids flu recovery. You can buy herbal tea made from the flowers that alleviates sore throat and colds.

Also, back when people still rode horses, they tied branches to the horses manes. The pungent smelling leaves repel flies.

Along with the Sweetgum, the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is one of my favorite trees here. You can find these all over town, easily identifiable by their unique simple pinnate leaves. I thought the name came from the fact that the leaves have tulip shapes, but apparently, the flowers also resemble tulips in the spring.

Widespread on the East Coast, Native Americans used Tulip Tree trunks for dugout canoes. The wood, resistant to termites, has been a preferred lumber for framing barns. Also, because of smooth finish, our colonial ancestors used this tree to make organ pipes.

In Southern Appalachia, bee keepers follow a tradition that originated with Native American tribes: collecting honey made from Tulip Tree nectar. This produces a monofloral honey, that is, the bees only harvest nectar from a single type of flower. Tulip Tree honey, dark amber with a strong flavor, isn't very popular as a table honey. You'll never see it in a little plastic bear, but it is widely used in baking.

Also, a 133 foot Tulip Tree grows in Queens, the oldest living thing in the New York metropolitan area. Over 400 years old, this tree stood in the same spot when Washington's Continental Army locked horns with the British in the nearby Battle of Long Island.

Every part of the Canadian Yew (Taxus canadensis) contains taxane (a toxic chemical), from the roots to the flat fir-like needles.

All your cells have these little train tracks crisscrossing their interiors called microtubules. During an average cell day, packages of food, waste, and other materials shuttle up and down these microtubles. During Mitosis, a cell shuts down its normal operations and devotes all its energy into dividing. Where you had a one cell a few minutes ago, you now have two, one old and one new. Your hair and skin do this nonstop all day long. Before dividing, a cell has to make replicas of all its machinery (called organelles) and its DNA and line them up on opposite ends of the cell. The cell uses the microtubule highways to move the organelles to one side or the other. Taxanes work by chopping microtubules into pieces, derailing mitosis completely. If cells can't divide, and thereby reproduce, the tissue withers and dies.

Scientists started researching the use of taxanes to fight breast and lung cancer in 1960s. They now produce taxanes commercially under the name Paclitaxel (Taxol) or Docetaxel (Taxotere). Chemotherapy targets any cells that divide rapidly, which is why it also causes hair loss.

The Canadian Yew grows into a small shrubby tree. I've also seen it used around town as decorative bushes and hedges. Native Americans used it topically and in steam baths to alleviate rheumatism. Yews have a strong, springy wood, that the British used to make longbows. The use of Yew bows assured the British victory over the French in the Battle of Agincourt.

Parting Shot
So, remember what I said about microtubules? The shuttled packages (called vesicles) are carried by a type of protein called a kinesin, or a motor protein. Here's where it gets weird. The kinesin locks onto the vesicle, and then walks (with two little feet) along the length of the microtubule.

Watch this animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-uuk4Pr2i8

And if you think that's too weird to be true. Here's a slideshow of electron micrographs of an actual kinesin walking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkrgQlh_Bts