LOOK INSIDE: Of Limbs, Leaves, and Hope

Benjamin Franklin Parkway

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Table of Contents Introduction Places of Reflection Amid Infrastructure Rooms with a View Standing Tall Plantae

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Of Limbs, Leaves, and Hope represents the unforeseen gain of biophilic

relief from the coronavirus pandemic. Forced to work remotely because of COVID-19, daily walks and bike rides became an essential distraction from hours of uninterrupted screen time. Photography became a pastime, and as weeks turned into months the city began to present itself anew: streets, plazas, parks, church grounds, cemeteries, and untold nooks and crannies not before seen or recorded.

Trees soon began to dominate the compositions, as if beckoning to stand out against the gridiron construction. It was surprising; heretofore the inclination to singly and systematically focus on the green milieu had remained dormant.

And so the project began: to record the presence of trees as foreground actors of the everyday urban landscape. Beginning in the spring of 2020, hundreds of photographs were taken, often times of the same tree at different times of the day, under varying light conditions, and through the seasons. A sense of intimacy developed: of seeing how a plant breathes-in the city over time, silently, exhaling in return nurturing permanence and resilience.

Baobab at Fairchild Tropical Garden Photo Credit: Alejandra Bunster

It brings to mind the African Baobab.

Adansonia digitata is an extraordinary species. The tree’s massive trunk functions like a cistern, storing water and drawing elephants to chew on it during Sub-Saharan dry spells.

Warthogs and monkeys eat its fruit, and bats suck on the fruit's nectar.

Birds nest on its branches and its canopy is home to reptiles and insects galore. 1 Rightly, the species is called the “tree of life”—an ecosystem all to itself.

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The collection of plants that constitutes an urban forest, with canopy trees front and center, can be viewed in a similar way: like a protean organism providing an essential service to all who amble within.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there are approximately 2.9 million trees in Philadelphia, a little less than two per resident. From sequestering carbon to saving energy, their contribution as urban infrastructure has been well documented. 2 Yet the urban forest's greatest value may be biophilic; that is, the stirring link it provides to all forms of life. Communing with nature lifts and heals the spirit, especially in times of stress, such as people have experienced from the onset of the pandemic.

The photographs in this book are shared to inspire reverence for the forest in which we live, whether planted or naturally occurring. People are largely absent from the compositions; this is indicative of the chase for canopy effect, to be sure, but also of the emptiness the pandemic caused early on throughout the city. Black and white best seemed to capture the health-induced retrenchment. The medium also reveals the power of trees, like Baobabs, to command the landscape and embrace normality like lifeaffirming sentinels.

Most of the images are of single species. In some cases, multiple trees occupy the view. These are identified by their position within the frame: Left (L); Right (R); Front (F); and Back (B). The absence of positional definition indicates the occurrence within the frame of a single species.

The stated locations are approximate but easy for the curious to find. It does not escape notice that many of the locations on city streets bear the names of trees.

IG

1. https://www.nomadicexperience.com/baobab-iconic-tree-of-africa/ 2. https:// www.itreetools.org/documents/337/ PhiladelphiaUrbanForest.pdf

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White ash / Laurel Hill Cemetery

11.9.21 / 9a

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Places of Reflection Churches and cemeteries are fertile ground for personal reflection— and for the urban forest to grow and thrive. So, too, are park buffers, where in springtime at FDR Park the arched branch of an old wetland tree can frame the light beyond, or where in early Fall at Bartram’s Garden trees can shade a seemingly exultant congregation of woodland shrubs.

The cherry allée at the Fairmount Park Horticultural Center, where the rows of trees resemble a church nave, affords a similar reflective pause. Sometimes the spiritual lift comes from a single specimen, such as the Penn Treaty Elm at the University of Pennsylvania, a tree that in both age and Gothic detail seems to surpass the nearby Furness Library (a secular place of worship, if there ever was one). In Philadelphia, nature invariably accompanies holy architecture, augmenting hope and faith in the eternal.

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Equal in length to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the allée’s annual burst of white draws people from near and far. No one hurries, no one acts the stranger.

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Yoshino cherry / Fairmount Park Horticultural Center

4.07.21 / 5p

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Honey locust / Park Towne Place and 22nd Street 4.07.21 / 6p

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American basswood (F) American holly (B) / Rittenhouse Square

11.29.20 / 9a

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Red oak (front and back) / South Concourse and Lansdowne Drive, Fairmount Park 10.06.20 / 5p

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Symbiosis, Roxy Paine, artist / Pennsylvania Avenue and Green Street

1.06.21 / 10a

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What is art but life by another name, and what are trees but an extension of art: imagined, seen, and heard like towers of reliance for all things human?

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Color Under the Canopy, Janell Wysock, artist / Sister Cities Park, Logan Circle

10.06.20 / 11a

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PLANTAE

In Order of Appearance White ash, Fraxius americana Alder, Alnus serrulata Yoshino cherry, Prunus yedoensis London planetree, Platanus acerifolia Chinese elm, Ulmus parviflora Dogwood, Cornus florida Ginkgo, Ginkoo biloba White spruce, Picea glauca American yew, Taxus canadensis Cucumber magnolia, Magnolia acuminata White oak, Quercus alba Saucer magnolia, Magnolia soulangeana Eastern white pine, Pinus strobus Kentucky coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioicus Honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos American elm, Ulmus americana Tulip poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera Black cherry, Prunus serotina Eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis River birch, Betula nigra Callery pear, Pyrus calleryana Weeping Willow, Salix babilonica Red maple, Acer rubrum Willow oak, Quercus phellos Pin oak, Quercus palustris Horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum Ailanthus, Ailanthus altissima Serviceberry (Shad), Amelamchier Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua Crepe-myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana Crabapple, Malus sp.

Hackberry, Celtis occidentalis Amur maackia, Maackia amurensis Japanese maple, Acer palmatum

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Weeping cherry, Prunus pendula Yellowwood, Cladrastis kentukea Japanese zelkova, Zelkova serrata Littleleaf linden, Tilia cordata Red oak, Quercus rubra Black oak, Quercus velutina Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens Red pine, Pinus resinosa Sassafras, Sassafras albidum American basswood, Tilia americana American holly, Ilex opaca European hornbeam, Carpinus betulus fastigiata NOTES 1. Plant identification is limited to genus and species.

2. Callery pear (page 33), and Ailanthus (page 48) are invasive and should not be planted.

Portrait Geography. Map from Google Earth

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Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa is a landscape architect and longstanding resident of Spruce Hill, a West Philadelphia neighborhood. The geography of the photography was limited to a reasonable range from home by foot or bicycle, namely Falls Bridge to the north, the Navy Yard to the south, Penn's Landing to the east, and Cobbs Creek to the west. By force of proximity and the imperative to walk the dog, many of the images were obtained close to home. All are product of an iphone, taken at the dates and times indicated (to the nearest hour).

It is hoped that this collection of photographs inspires collective work to grow the urban forest in every part of the city. Comments are welcome at ignaciobunster@gmail.com.

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Yoshino cherry (F) European hornbeam (B) / Author’s backyard

11.26.20 / 9a

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