TREES AND SHRUBS OF ED COLLETT PARK, FORT WORTH

Ed Collett Park is essentially a sports park, with a baseball/soccer field occupying most of it. It’s along the north side of West Vickery Blvd., just west of the Hulen Street bridge over the Trinity River and railroad yard. MAP. The deep drainage course that marks the back side of the park runs from Lake Como to the Trinity River, apparently handling local area runoff and intermittent overflow from the lake. Photos.

Lined along the Vickery roadside is a mix of species, with some of the trees probably persisting as natives, others obviously planted –– cedar elms, hackberries, Shumard oaks. Behind the baseball field is a nice grove of cedar elms. At the east end of the park, where it narrows to a point, a shady picnic table sits within a little grove of native trees, including bur oaks, hackberries, Shumard oaks, and pecans, all of varying size.

On the other side of the drainage, in the narrow strip between it and the houses, are lots of chinaberry, white mulberry, hackberry, glossy privet, with a few willows. Across from the picnic grove is a thicket of yellow bamboo, a woody grass native to eastern Asia. Yellow, alluding to the color of the cane stems –– it’s also known as ‘golden’ bamboo, but this seems to exaggerate both its value and color. Yellow bamboo spreads by underground stems (rhizomes) and like here at Collett Park, usually forms very dense stands. Since it very rarely flowers to make seeds, it either gets its start from plantings (grown as an ornamental) or from fragments of the rhizomes that break off and are taken further on by water or otherwise.

TREES

Ailanthus altissima Tree of heaven Non-native, naturalized

Bumelia lanuginosa Chittamwood, gum bumelia Native here, naturally occurring

Carya illinoiensis Pecan Native here, naturally occurring

Celtis laevigata Hackberry Native here, naturally occurring

Melia azederach Chinaberry Non-native, naturalized

Morus alba White mulberry Non-native, naturalized

Quercus macrocarpa Bur oak Native here, naturally occurring

Quercus shumardii Shumard oak Native here, naturally occurring

Salix nigra Black willow Native here, naturally occurring

Ulmus crassifolia Cedar elm Native here, naturally occurring

SHRUBS

Ligustrum lucidum Glossy privet Non-native, naturalized

Phyllostachys aurea Yellow bamboo Non-native, naturalized