Once a girl asked me to meet her under the “pepper tree” in Dolores Park. This sounded like a solid plan, compared to my usual method of sending a million vague texts back and forth on arrival.
Once I got to the park, I realized there were a lot of trees in the park and I didn’t have the faintest idea what a “pepper tree” looks like. Hell, I didn’t even know pepper came from trees. Then I leaned against a palm tree in frustration and wondered, “is a palm tree really a tree or is it just an oversized monocot?”
It turned out that the pepper tree is located near the tracks on fruit shelf section of the park. I was late, and by then my date had found another guy to hang out with who had an adorable dog. My fate was sealed.
On the bright side, if you take this bi-lingual tree tour put on by Friends of the Urban Forest, you’ll never have to go through what I did:
Join us on Sunday July 11 for a free two-hour tour of the beautiful trees in and around Dolores Park. Chris Ingram, owner of Mr. Prune Tree Care, will lead this bilingual (English/Spanish) tour. Chris is an ISA Certified Arborist as well as a pruning and horticulture instructor throughout the Bay Area. Meet at the J Muni stop at the lower corner of the park at Church and 18th streets. The tour starts at 11:00 a.m.
[thanks Alexis for the tip, photo by Noah Berger]
Yay for trees. Double yay for FUF, whose neighborhood planting netted me a Cow Itch tree that’s super sweet, even though it’s not too keen on actually growing.
That sounds really interesting and I’d love to go… but during the world cup final? Really?
That’s actually a California Pepper tree (Schinus molle), not a true pepper tree (Piper nigrum). However, it’s fruit are often sold as ‘pink peppercorns’ and can serve alongside black pepper!
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