I don't think serendipity is actually the right word for this situation, but let's just go with serendipity, because right when I needed it, I found a lovely, historic, COVID-friendly stroll that assisted me in learning some botanical and common names of several trees.
Last winter (January-May) I was enrolled in a Plant ID class over at Solano Community College (Hort 006). When classes were shut down in March, we took a couple of weeks off, and then classes met (re-ZOOMED!) online. Our teacher HAD been walking us around neighborhoods sharing elaborate stories about each tree and plant, while lovingly pointing out special, unique characteristics, then patiently spelling the botanical name and giving us some hints about how to learn them. Wow. Each new family, genus, and species was a challenge to learn, but classmates would whisper or shout inventive and hilarious strategies, like “Poison oak's family? (Toxicodendron diversilobum) Just picture a girl named Ana in an itchy cardigan sweater…Anacardiaceae, and then she eats cashew.” That kind of thing.
With online classes there were no more walks, no more collaborative brainstorming; mostly just lists of very long botanical names to memorize. Around the same time, my gym closed, and I started going to Mare Island to walk – it is like an abandoned movie set over there, and practically the only other people you see are the gardeners and arborists!
One day, I was briskly walking Admiral's Row while memorizing flashcards of botanical plant names, and this is (finally) where the serendipity comes in, I noticed that a tree, a huge old historic tree, one that I actually had written on a flashcard to learn, was labeled “Monterey Pine Pinus Radiata, Native of Coast of California, Brought to Mare Island 1858”. I looked around and saw Plant Identification Labels on other trees.
I did a little research online because the two museums that I might have visited (The Mare Island Museum and the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum) are currently closed.
On The Mare Island Museum Facebook page, I found a photo of a brochure from 1995 of Alden Park Tree Tour with a map and list of 35 trees. This walk starts at the Administration Building on 8th Street between Walnut Avenue and Railroad Ave. The building is flanked by two Bunya Bunya trees brought to Mare Island in the 1880s! From there the entire walk is flat, less than a mile long and you stroll in along the picturesque Admiral's Row. Because the tour was 25 years ago, some of the trees are no longer there, but I was able to find most of them! I have provided a photo of the brochure, but you can Google “Alden Park Tree Tour” and select the Facebook link that says Blow up this brochure to take the Alden Park Tree Tour. Or use this link:
https://www.facebook.com/MareIslandMuseum/photos/pcb.545682932239665/545682678906357/?type=3
According to Mare Island Cultural Landscape Report Final Overview prepared for Lennar in 2015 by Denise Bradley:
- 1854 written records of Commodore Farragut suggest that native vegetation on Mare Island included buckeye, toyon, California live oak and tule grass.
- In 1858 Alameda County shipped California walnut trees to Mare Island as a gift.
- In 1869 James Alden became commodore. Unlike previous commodore who thought the climate was too windy for tall trees, he arranged for a schooner full of trees, including pine, poplar, locust, almond, apple, olive, bay elm, eucalyptus, apricot, fig and willow to be shipped. He started a tradition of ships bound for Mare Island bringing plants.
Photos:
- Map of the Alden Park Tree Tour
- List of Trees on the Tree Tour
- Author in front of the Bunya Bunya Tree
- Quarters A on Admiral Row
- Mare Island Administration Building flanked by Bunya Bunya trees brought to Mare Island in the 1880s.