Let there be trees!

[muckefuck]

I got a surprise on Monday night as I was heading for class (by way of a phở restaurant in an attempt to stave off a cold): Trees! While I was at work, a two-block stretch of Argyle had been assaulted by a Streets & San crew, who had cut about twenty 2' x 2' sections out of the sidewalks at regular intervals and planted them with saplings. I took a sampling of tags and found that they seemed to be an assortment of:

• Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, a.k.a. "maidenhair tree")
• Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa, a.k.a. "cigartree")
• Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus, another tree with big seed pods)
• Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos, a.k.a. "pod tree" if you're juniperesque)
• And something called a "Chicago Blue Black Locust" (some local varietal of Robinia pseudoacacia?)

We'll see how they do; it's a heavily-trafficked area not known for its hospitality towards living things. Also, the plants got in the ground just before the first freeze; there was snow on the ground today--snow! Only a dusting, but a rather surprising sight all the same.