The Manchurian Pear?

Do you know HOW HARD it is to identify a tree by its leaf?

1. The Gardening Book Index. Flipping useless. That's because if you don't know the proper name of the tree ( and of course you don't !) you have Buckley's chance of finding it in the index.

2. The Gardening Book. You could flick through the book looking at every picture. Hah! Have you forgotten that pictures of trees in gardening books are all out of focus and small?

3. The Internet. Oh yes. The internet. Try googling 'identification of leaves'. You will find an Easy Leaf Identifier. It will ask: Is your leaf simple or compound? Simple. OK. Is your leaf lobed or unlobed? Lobed. Then it is probably a mulberry or sassafras. What? But it can't be! Oh, but you didn't read the part where it says this only identifies North American Natives. Bah! Useless!

4. The Local Council Website. This looks promising. The Burnside Council has a list of all the different types of street trees, and you can click on them for further information. First, you eliminate all the ones you know. Then, aha! it might be a Chinese Pistachio! You click on it. The Chinese Pistachio grows to ten metres and has brilliant autumn foliage. There is a faint picture behind the information. The leaf doesn't look right though. Well, maybe it's a Manchurian Pear. This is what you have always suspected anyway. You click on the Manchurian Pear. It grows to ten metres and has brilliant autumn foliage. You look hard at the faint picture. It is, unhelpfully, exactly the same! The penny-pinchers! Can't even afford a proper picture. No joy there.

5. Your Friend's Place. You suddenly remember, as you are leaving your friend's house one morning, that the street tree outside her house is the very one you are trying to identify. You know however that she won't be able to tell you name of the tree, because her language skills aren't up to it, unless it is Chinese. You think to yourself, but if it is a Manchurian Pear, it IS Chinese! And then you remember that you always get into a muddle when you think something is Chinese, and she doesn't.

6. A Certain Piece of Paper Possibly in a Folder in Your Friend's House. As you are driving home a memory returns to you of a certain information sheet your friend received last year from the Campbelltown Council, telling her about her new street tree, its name and characteristics, and asking her to keep an eye on it and water it every now and then, in the summer months. And you remember that your friend showed you the information sheet and asked you to explain it to her, and you did. Which means you did know the name of the tree, once.

7. Your Memory. And you FORGOT!

Something To Do

Your front garden looks very tidy, said Pliny the Elder, walking up the path.

Yes, I've pulled up all this grass, I said.

You deserve a grass crown, said Pliny, smiling.

What's that? I asked.

Oh, we used to award them to generals who had accomplished great deeds, said Pliny. And we didn't award them lightly.

Will you make me one? I asked.

Oh no, I am far too busy, said Pliny.

Why, what are you doing?

I'm continuing my investigations, said Pliny mysteriously.

Into the bicycles on Dover Street?

Yes, and I believe I am close to solving the puzzle, he said, looking up and down the road to see if anyone was eavesdropping.

How? I asked.

By the use of the street directory, google maps and the internet, not to mention some very tedious footwork and a great deal of standing, or perhaps I should say lurking, behind trees under cover of night.

Oh Pliny, how thrilling! And will you tell me what you know so far?

No, said Pliny.

Not even a clue? I said pleadingly.

Well, said Pliny, relenting. I believe it has something to do with the New Life Community Church.