Tree of the Week: Chokecherry

By: Mark Halpin, Forestry Manager Chokecherry, bitter cherry, bitter berry, bird cherry – none of the common names assigned to Prunus virginiana make it sound like something you’d want to […]

Tree of the Week: Flowering Dogwood

Legendary plantsman Michael Dirr calls Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, “the aristocrat of native flowering trees”, and who could disagree? The white flowers (pink on some cultivars) are not actually […]

Tree of the Week: Redbud

Flowering dogwood might be our state tree, but Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is our most reliably beautiful flowering tree. It’s ubiquitous both as a cultivated plant and as a volunteer […]

Tree of the Week: Serviceberry

Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp., in our region typically A. canadensis, A. arborea and A. x grandiflora) has easily climbed its way to the top of nearly every list you’ll see of […]

Tree of the Week: Yoshino Cherry

For over 1000 years, the people of Japan have observed the spring tradition of hanami, “flower viewing,” which does not just refer to any old flower. The sakura, the illustrious […]

Tree of the Week: Lacebark Pine

Missouri is not a great place to grow needled evergreens. We have only two natives of this description, shortleaf pine and eastern red cedar, that favor the rocky hills of […]

Tree of the Week: Callery Pear

#treeoftheweek is #callerypear Each April, like a spring snow storm, a thick blanket of brilliant white flowers covers the trees lining many of Missouri’s major highways, and each spring it […]