Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I Heart (Dogwood?) Trees

I've lived in Indiana for 5 1/2 years now and all this time I thought the state tree was the Dogwood. I have no idea why I thought this except for the reason that they are EXTREMELY popular trees here. Think....every street. Earlier this week I stopped by a friend's house and they had a dogwood tree in their front yard. I've been carrying my camera around with me lately to capture any signs of spring that I can, so I politely informed her before leaving that I would be taking some pictures of her tree. She probably thought I was nuts, but...who cares.

After some early morning research, I have discovered that the beloved dogwood tree is not the state tree. It turns out that our state tree is actually the tulip tree....also known as the yellow poplar.

Psshh! Whatever. The dogwood tree is prettier.

UPDATE: I've been informed that these may not actually be dogwood trees. I was under the impression (via the sacred internet) that there were several types of dogwood trees and that this was one. However, upon even MORE internet searching, these do appear to possibly be Bradford Pear Trees. Does anyone know for sure??

wm e DSC_0385

wm e DSC_0382

3 comments:

The Hillebrands said...

We have two of those in our yard and always called them Bradford Pear Trees. But I wouldn't say we really "know" for sure. Beautiful pics!

Anonymous said...

ask your friend who wrote that it is a pear if she gets pears on it in the summer/fall

Sarah said...

That is in fact a Bradford Pear tree. A dogwood tree looks similar, but the white flower only has four petals and the inside is yellow, fuzzy and flat. (My dad "hearts" trees, so we had a lot of trees in our yard when I was little.)