Redbud

Here's a redbud's journey from winter to bloom:

The day I took the full bloom photo in the cemetery, I came home to a bouquet left by a friend that had redbud flowers in it! 

Pine

I went to the cemetery on March 22, a snowy day, and saw this beautiful pine.

Its roots have started engulfing monuments.

It's a 5-needle pine, meaning the needles grow in bundles of five.

My guess was Pinus strobus, eastern white pine, but partly because that's one of the few pines I know. 

I later found out that there are only five native evergreens in Iowa: eastern white pine, redcedar, balsam fir, common juniper, and yew. 

That doesn't necessarily mean this is an eastern white pine; people plant non-natives all the time. I could not find a cone to confirm.

White Bronze Lily of the Valley

Zinc Monuments

Zinc monuments are rare as they were made only during a couple decades starting in the 1870s.

Oakland Cemtery has quite a few of them. They are hollow inside; some say bootleggers stored booze inside of them. This monument is missing its top:

Holding my phone above it, I snapped a photo of the inside.

These monuments are also known as "white bronze" monuments even though they are mostly zinc (there is a small amount of tin in them too). I imagine the naming was a marketing move. With time, the monuments can take on a bluish hue. 

Over time, the detailing holds up a lot better than in marble:

Here is a large family zinc monument with individual monuments made out of zinc for each family member.

Read more about zinc cemetery monuments here.

Arborvitae

This allee of arborvitae (which means "tree of life") is near an entrance off Ronalds Street. 

 

Its botanical name is Thuja occidentalis. You might recall peeling strips of bark from it in your youth. It's the string cheese of the forest. 

The leaves form scales that envelop the bottom of each newer leaf. There's some fruit from last year on the tree. It's green at first and forms into a woody cone as it dries.

Almost all of these arborvitae have split trunks.

Lichen