The Friends of Mt. Tabor Park has a new version, really two, of Notable Trees of Mt. Tabor Park. There is a PDF version that can be used online or printed on 8.5” x 11” or 11” x 17” paper, as well as an interactive ArcGIS version that is perfect when strolling in the park with a smartphone in hand. Both are available at taborfriends.org/tree-guide.
The new guide represents over 400 hours of work by a team of dedicated volunteers over two and a half years. For its creation, the team conducted an exhaustive search of the park and located all but one of the trees from the Portland Plant list and many trees native to other parts of the State of Oregon. Visitors can use these examples to assess the suitability of trees they may be interested in adding to their landscape.
While focusing on native trees, the guide still celebrates some truly spectacular examples of exotic trees. Mt. Tabor is home to two City of Portland Heritage Trees: the giant sequoia (#30) and a bigleaf linden (#24). Visitors to the newly accessible southern end of the park will see an enormous Himalayan spruce (#43) and a strawberry tree (#39), which is a close relative of our Pacific madrone (#42).
Not exactly a tree, #49 is a living stump. These oddities are above-ground evidence of the underground connections formed between trees. The roots of neighboring trees may graft together. If the crown of one breaks off in a storm or is felled with a saw, the adjacent tree can provide the damaged tree with enough resources to grow bark over the top of its stump in exchange for continuing access to the toppled tree’s roots.
If you are in the park enjoying the trees and notice that much work remains to clear the park of invasive plants, consider joining a Friends of Mt. Tabor Weed Warrior work party.
14 Bigleaf Maple. Photo by Friends of Mt. Tabor Park.
