Trees in New York City

Even in a big city like New York, trees are all around us. They are planted along streets and in parks and botanic gardens. They make our neighborhoods more pleasant and help us connect with nature, but they are also an important part of the urban landscape and help the environment in ways that may surprise you.

Trees provide oxygen and trap pollutants in the air, which makes it easier for us to breathe. They provide food and shelter for wildlife, and cool the air in the summer. Their roots even absorb rainwater during heavy storms, which helps prevent the sewer system from flooding.

Compared with forest trees, city trees must be able to endure a lot of stress. A lot of thought goes into choosing and planting city trees. The trees you see here are common in city parks and playgrounds, botanic gardens, and along city streets. Get to know them a little better by learning about their ecology and botany.

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Leaves are wide and simple shaped.
Fruits are bristly, brown balls that hang in pairs from a long stalk.
The flowers are tiny catkins—yellowish green on a male tree and reddish green on a female tree.

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Prunus ‘Shogetsu’ flowers—full, double-flowered white blossoms
Prunus ‘Spire’—single-blossoms appear to form a soft pink cloud
Prunus pendula ‘Pendula Rosea’—delicate pink flowers that dangle from the weeping branches.
Cherry bark is smooth and shiny with bumpy stripes called lenticels.
Cherry trees have pale green or reddish, spoon-shaped single leaves.

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The ginkgo leaf is shaped like a fan divided into two parts.
The fleshy ginkgo seed contains a large, hard whitish inner part.
Both male and female ginkgos make flowers. The male flower is a long, yellowish catkin (above) and the female flower is a tiny egg-shaped one.

Saucer magnolias (Magnolia × soulangeana) are grown for their beautiful spring flowers, which appear before their leaves. You will see them in many parks and botanic gardens.

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Saucer magnolias have simple, dull-green leaves.
Flower buds are large and fuzzy.
Fruit is divided into tiny sections called carpels that split open when ripe and release bright red seeds.
Large pink and white flowers appear in early spring, before new leaves.

The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a popular street tree because it needs little care. For one thing, when its thin leaves fall to the ground, they shrivel up and blow away—no need to rake. Its name comes from the sweet, honey-like pulp inside its long, curled seedpods.

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Honey locust trees have compound leaves made of many small leaflets.
Mature trees have sharp, three-pointed thorns growing from the bark.
The twisty seedpod is reddish brown and about 8 inches long or longer. Seeds are flat and oval.
Flowers are small and hard to see, but fragrant and full of nectar that attracts bees in May and June.

See if you can find any of these trees in your own neighborhood. Look for clues like leaves, bark, flowers, and fruit to help determine their identity.