Have you been to Central Park lately? There was this light flowery smell in the humid air even before I got inside the park this morning. The scent continued throughout the walk in the park and I couldn’t identify it. The smell was so pleasant and made the walk even more enjoyable than it already was.

This tree by the 7th Avenue exit sidewalk had an overgrown branch for weeks. I guess someone finally trimmed it so people don’t have to lower their heads to pass. Anyway, as I am about to exit the park, I looked up and saw this tree and discovered the nice smell is coming from its little flowers. The flowers are clusters growing from the middle of a leaf. Very strange. I saw the same flower/leaf over the weekend by the waters in Baltimore. The flowers there had fallen out of the trees and were perfumeless, dead and dry. It is amazing that the climate and plant flowering patterns can be so different between 2 cities that are less than 200 miles apart.

I had to identify this tree so I took a sample and googled around for a while. It wasn’t an easy search but I finally identified it as a linden tree (Tilia cordata)!

I should have been a botanist.