Happy Arbor Day. I think this is a tulip tree, from the shape of its leaves. I've got a baby one of these growing in my backyard; I wonder if the park would like to adopt it.
I cycled around the park yesterday as well as today, but last night I had no opportunity for contemplation or picture-taking; I was being coached by my very patient TNT coach on how to get on and off my bike, among other things, in anticipation of a very big ride tomorrow up the Palisades for which I feel very unready, in spite of months of cycling. I would like to just keep riding around Prospect Park forever; I know every hill and curve, and there is no wild open-road traffic. Wish me luck.
Tonight, as I did one warm-up loop at sundown, I realized just how many fears I've been battling over just how many aspects of this park/cycling/century ride thing, and how deep it all goes, right down into my idea of who I am. I may need to be somebody else for awhile, based on nothing; I may just make it up. Meanwhile, the sweetspire (I think that's what this lovely thing is) blooms in the understory on the East Drive, and this path winds away into the woods. 
Yes, it's a tuliptree all right. Liriodendron tulipifera, also known as "yellow-poplar" further south. Wonderful trees, real racers, shooting up for the sun, one of the tallest species on the east coast. Your young one should have enormous leaves, greedy for the light. When you're biking up that long slow grind on the Drive, look to the top of the tuliptree at the north end of Nellie's Lawn. It's called Elizabeth's Tulip Tree and often has a red-tailed hawk in it.
Posted by: Thew | April 26, 2008 at 12:24 PM