The Trees - from Boise to San Antonio

As I've mentioned in earlier blogs, including my initial blog back in March, I was raised in Idaho's capital city of Boise. My original hometown got its name thanks to a French-Canadian explorer, Captain Bonneville, who was leading a party across the dry semi-desert north of the Snake River, a thirst-spawning region indeed. Then they came to the top of a crest looking down on the tree-lined Boise River, and Capt. Bonneville excitedly cried out "Les bois! Les bois! Voyez les bois!" or "The Trees! See the trees!" - a sign of flowing water close at hand for drinking. (Hence, I learned a bit of French long before I began my years of study and teaching of español.) So from my early childhood trees have played a major role in my life. I'm hardly a "tree-hugger" if such means a nature-worshiper. And yet I mourn whenever I see a vacant spot where a once-large, healthy tree used to give shade.

In Boise and environs there are plenty of species of shade trees and other trees. There are lots of ponderosa pines (this is just one of the pine's names) in the nearby mountains, maples (I don't know if they're indigenous, but I suspect not), weeping willows (another I suspect isn't indigenous, but there was a huge one in our front yard when I was a little boy), Douglas firs (popular, if I remember correctly, for Christmas trees, and we would go into the mountains to harvest one each year for the holiday), etc. Among other trees I remember well from my Boise boyhood (in addition to the above-mentioned) are a cottonwood (an indigenous species?) I would pass on my way from elementary school to my grandmother's house, and an apricot tree in our back yard when I was in high school. I delighted to got out back and pick an apricot off that tree when the fruit was in season; apricots remain my favorite of all fruits!

But. . . I'm no longer in the "City of Trees", as Boise is nicknamed. Haven't even visited in many years. I'm living in the "River City", to give one of San Antonio's nicknames (also "The Alamo City" or "The Mission City"). And yet, these two cities dear to my heart share this, both sit at the northern edge of a stream-scant flat semi-desert with a river flowing thru the heart of the original city - a tree-lined stream with abundant water. And both cities share their names with the rivers which are their raison d'etre. (Some more French, which I used also in an earlier blog, meaning "reason for being" or "reason for existence".)

Trees! South Texas, which received over-average rainfall from the middle of my first year here (A.D. 2002) to early last year (A.D. 2005) had been suffering a drought since (see my "Wildflowers" posting of April). But since the start of May we've been blessed with some good rainfall. En'uf to green the grass, prompt the flowers to perk up their blooms and return the flowery color to S.A., and livening the green leaves of the many trees here. Here is a list of some of the native trees I especially appreciate in S.A., and the surrounding area, including the Hill Country:

Pecan. This, the State Tree of Texas, gives its name to the Nueces River south of here (the south and southwest boundary of Spanish and Mexican Texas). In my first residence here the courtyard of the former motel featured very mature pecans; in the summer evenings I delighted to go out and lie in a lounge chair listening to KKYX-AM 680 broadcasts of the S.A. Missions Texas League baseball games and gaze up at the twisted branches of those towering pecans. Thru those writhing branches the sky would fade from sunset into star-spangled night. Beautiful!

Cypress. I suspect these are a different species from the cypress I was acquainted with during my year of residence in Tallahasseee, which had prominent "knees" sticking up out of the water beside or in which they grew. But whatever specific of cypress these are, there are plenty along the San Antonio, the Guadalupe, the Medina and other rivers flowing abundantly from the springs of the Hill Country and the Balcones Escarpment.

Live oak (encino in Spanish). These carry small dark green oval leaves (rather than the typical oak-leaf shape, but these DO bear acorns) all thru the winter and lose the old ones just before the new leaves sprout in spring. They are especially plentiful in parts of San Antonio adjacent to the Balcones Escarpment and the Hill Country. In fact, some book I read about San Antonio pushed the tree as THE tree of S.A.

Palm. I'm not sure that palm trees are indigenous to the immediate San Antonio area, but they definitely are native to the lower Rio Grand Valley to the south. In fact, the first name Spanish explorers gave that river was Río de las Palmas. And there are certainly numerous palms around here! Plus fairly old neighborhoods with names like "Las Palmas" or "Palm Heights". When palm trees are properly cared for, they have a distinctive beauty that compensates for their not being a very shady tree.

Hackberry. Well, I'm not sure I "appreciate" THIS tree! I had considered that a large tree near my room at La Fiesta Apartments was a weeping willow. But then I remarked about a very similar tree in the yard of a fellow church member, and was informed that the tree wasn't a willow but rather a hackberry! The main difference that I can detect between a hackberry and a weeping willow is that the former has multiple trunks of large size growing up out of the ground (a willow tends to have a single trunk). From what the church brother said, I get the impression that the hackberry is a difficult tree to kill off. The next tree has a similar reputation.

Mesquite. This small tree (some would classify it as a shrub due to its multiple trunks) strikes me as an attractive and emblematic plant of the South Texas area, at least in the spring. Then its new leaves of pale green in bipolar pinnate shape look very delicate - a natural lace if you will - against the ragged, rugged, deeply-scored dark brown and usually very twisted trunks and branches.

Huisache. Smaller than the mesquite and more definitely a candidate for classification as a shrub. Indeed, every element and proportion of the huisache seems to mark it as a shrunk version of the mesquite. However, it bears bright goldenrod-yellow balls of flowers which at once distinguish it (for me) from the other.

Mountain laurel. This is another plant that I might have classified as a shrub, but I recently saw a photo of the largest (oldest?) laurel in the city, and it definitely looked like a tree, size-wise. There is a beautiful Mexican song called "Los Laureles" about these laurels, which are very beautiful and fragrant with blossoms in early spring. I only wish the laurels bloomed for a longer season, as do the myrtles (which are still in bloom thru'out the summer).

Trees! I delight in trees, and I remember the poet's words, that "only God can make a tree." And what a work any and every shade or fruit tree is! Thank you, Lord and Creator!