The original trees of The Hammer For 20 years, I’ve admired our natural woods. Here are a few of my favourites
This Arbour Day, today, I’ll be 20 years in Hamilton. In the spring of 1997, I came to the city fresh out of college to begin a summer job as a student gardener at Royal Botanical Gardens. I was a real keener, soaking up everything I could about the botany of Southern Ontario. It was the study of trees that got me hooked on plants, and trees remain my primary fascination today, especially original trees.
Original trees are remnants of the natural habitats that used to occur in our cities, now stranded amid the urban and suburban neighbourhoods that have been built up around them over the last 200 years. They’re the oldest living things in our streets and, in many neighbourhoods, the last voices of our natural heritage.
Naturally, the original trees in our streets are the same species that were found in our pre-settlement forests — sugar maple, red maple, white pine, red oak, white oak, bur oak, black oak, black cherry, white ash, and shagbark hickory among others.
I’ve spent the last 20 years observing the original trees of the Hammer and thought I’d share a dozen of my favourites. Many of the trees occur on private property so please be respectful while viewing them. Bruce Park Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
One of my favourite original bur oaks is found on a residential property in the southwest corner of Bruce Park at Brucedale Avenue East and East 6th Street — a graceful, open-grown tree with gnarly bark. Durand Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata)
This original shagbark hickory occurs on Ravenscliffe Avenue in the lower city (just look for the tree with the long, shaggy bark). Shagbark hickory is a slow-grower so I’d put this original beauty at 150-200 years old. Westcliffe Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum)
Some of my favourite original sugar maples are on Scenic Drive in the Westcliffe neighbourhood. Check out the sugar maple pair that grow on either side of West 34th at Scenic Drive. Strathcona Bitternut Hickory (Carya cordiformis)
This arboreal oldie is butted up against the curb on Margaret Street in between the roar of traffic along King and Main streets. Here, it’s probably lived 200 winters, watching as the city was slowly built around it. Westdale Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
This monster black oak at Paisley Avenue North and Haddon Avenue North was once part of the open, grassy savannas that once stretched through the western lower city at the time of settlement. Ancaster White Oak (Quercus alba)
This large, open-grown white oak is on Lloymin Avenue at Wade Road in the Oak Hill neighbourhood of Ancaster. Oak Knoll Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
There are many handsome original trees on Oak Knoll Drive in Westdale including one mature sassafras near the western intersection of Dalewood Crescent. Highway 8 Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)
On tough sites, chinquapin oak can look like bonsais, but give them rich, welldrained soils and they can grow large like this lovely original tree at Fisher’s Mill Park on King Street West in Dundas. Glenview West Black Maple (Acer nigrum)
This picturesque black maple is on King Street East between Summerhill and Glencairn in the Glenview West neighbourhood of east Hamilton. Prairie Mountain Hill’s Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis)
One of the only places to view Hill’s oak in the city is at Upper Wellington and Dragoon Drive. Look for the oak with the small, pointed leaves and deep sinuses standing beside the fence of the old pioneer cemetery. Dundas Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
This well-known behemoth is located on Cross Street near the intersection at Melville. The range of tuliptree stretches to Florida, but Dundas is the northern terminus of this classic Carolinian tree. Stinson Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
This red oak is located in front of the apartments on West Avenue South at Hunter Street East, just east of the downtown. Its trunk is a metre-wide pillar that rises 12 metres before branching into a large spreading crown.
Hope you enjoyed this little tour of the original trees of Hamilton. And I hope they inspire you to plant a native tree for Hamiltonians to enjoy a couple centuries from now. Planting a native tree is the best thing we can do to help our local pollinators and the City of Hamilton’s free tree program offers many native tree choices.
In the meantime, I wanna tip a pint to this incredible landscape at the Head of Lake Ontario. Its natural history and original trees have been fascinating me for 20 years. Here’s looking forward to 20 more. Cheers.