Book highlights notable North Shore trees | SILive.com

  

Trees on Monroe Avenue are featured in a new book, "Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City" by Leslie Day. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - NORTH SHORE - Trees that you may pass every day on this side of Staten Island are stars in a stunning new book, "Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City," by Leslie Day, with 50 illustrated color plates by Trudy Smoke.

Elegantly written and informative, the 289-page book includes a wealth of beautiful color photographs. It's a valuable companion for anyone who admires the magnificent beauty of trees but finds identification of many of them difficult or confusing.

New York City is an "urban forest," home to over 600,000 street trees, the author tells us. The purpose of her guide book is to help readers "identify and enjoy the trees you see every day when you travel through the five boroughs."

The book focuses on 50 species of trees – from the Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) to the Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) – and provides information about identifying characteristics, including height, crown shape, bark, twigs, winter leaf buds, leaves, flowers, and fruit. For each species, the guide provides a specific location in each of the five boroughs where the tree can be seen.

Locations of North Shore trees included in the guide book:

* Tompkinsville: Monroe Avenue

No. 37: Downy Serviceberry; No. 43: Callery pear; No. 107: Purple leaf plum, and No. 121: American elm.

* St. George:

219 Curtis Pl.: Northern Catalpa; 75 Fort Pl.: Tulip tree; 78 Fort Pl.: Schubert Chokecherry; 78 Fort Pl.: Japanese tree lilac;125 St. Mark's Pl.: Chinese Elm; 45 Fort Hill Circle: Ginkgo Biloba, and 45 Belmont Pl.: Green ash.

* West Brighton: 1150 Clove Rd: Kentucky Coffeetree.

* Castleton Corners: 4 Knox Pl.: Japanese Zelkova and Japanese Pagoda tree.

"Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City" by Leslie Day. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

In celebration of trees  
 
Meet Leslie Day and Trudy Smoke at St. George Day, the Earth Day and Arts Festival in Tompkinsville Park on April 21, from noon to 8 p.m., where autographed copies of their book will be sold.

The festival includes tree give-aways, and a Great Tree Walk through neighboring streets, starting at 3 p.m. and led by arborist and New Brighton resident John Kilcullen.

Ms. Day holds a doctorate in science education from Teachers College at Columbia University, and teaches environmental science and biology at The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, N.J.

She developed the City Naturalists Summer Institute with the Central Park Conservancy.

Her first book, "Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City," was published in 2007 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Illustrator Ms. Smoke earned a Ph.D. from New York University and is a professor of English at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She studied botanical illustration at the New York Botanical Garden, and is also an accomplished writer and photographer.

The two women – best friends since their teens – share a love of nature and beauty.