Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) in fall colors. The tree is not technically native to our area: it originally comes from the eastern side of the Appalachians. But it has established itself here as part of our ecosystem, and it is a welcome immigrant. No other tree gives us such a spectacular variety of fall colors on the same individual. This young tree was growing by a railroad on the South Side.
A carefully orchestrated symphony of textures.
A tree seldom gets a good chance to spread out and be itself this way, but this splendid oak has been allowed to dominate the old St. Clair Cemetery, a burying-ground in Mount Lebanon where many of the early settlers of the South Hills are buried.
You can find more of the St. Clair Cemetery in Father Pitt’s Pittsburgh Cemeteries.
The forest reclaims a fallen tree in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon.
The base of a tree against a sidewalk in Schenley Farms.
Every once in a great while, old Pa Pitt attempts something artistic. In this case, he was deliberately imitating with his camera the effect of a painting in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Biches dans une forêt de sapins by Gustave Doré (better known these days for his book illustrations). Obviously the landscape of this hillside in Frick Park is very different from the stream valley in Doré’s painting, but old Pa Pitt was pleased with the effect of the light and the colors.
In Mount Lebanon Cemetery.
A winter view of St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, featuring a fine silhouette of a tree. Below, more church and less tree.
