I forget how I purchased this. I think it was on Amazon but, as of this writing, there are no more copies available.

What is this, exactly?

It’s so simple it’s crazy. It’s one long typewritten list of trees, their names, their addresses, and then sometimes a short description, like “This tree has six trunks” or “This is an evergreen cultivar.”

But then, every two pages or so, there is some extraordinary description, like “This tree has three trunks and is a beautiful specimen” or “A mature Planetree is very imposing.”

And then, out of nowhere, you’ll come across a tantalizing riddle like “This is the most overwhelming tree in the Philadelphia area” or “This is a very awe-inspiring tree.”

It’s so very sad then that many of these trees are gone, or are extremely hard to find. I am guessing that when this list was compiled in 1967, and then again in 1969, the trees were already very old and perhaps over-extended. Discovering this list around 2010, I knew I had very little chance of finding these notable trees.

I went looking for some anyway. I picked about a dozen or so and spent the day cruising around Philly, mostly in the Germantown and Chestnut Hill area, but no luck. I found nary a one.

Strangely, this list does not include trees typically found on other lists of notable Philly trees. Missing from this 22-page pamphlet is the old beech tree in the Andorra section of Fairmount Park, the ginkgo at Bartram’s Garden, and the Chinese scholar tree on Hobson Street.

Feb. 2024