THIS Applebee Catalpa in Long Branch is deemed a Heritage Tree, one of four in the area. Courtesy photo.
A fourth Heritage Tree has been designated in tree-loving Long Branch by Forests Ontario.
The newest Heritage Tree is a 125-year-old ‘grand lady” called the Applebee Catalpa, according to Long Branch Historian Bill Zufelt.
‘The tree is a ‘real show stopper’ and getting better with age too,” said Zufelt.
He said the 70- foot high Northern Catalpa is located on lands that once belonged to Moses Applebee the first Ward 1 Councillor for the Township of Etobicoke. The Applebee family immigrated from Yorkshire, England in the early 1800s.
AREA Historian Bill Zufelt.
“They were one of the first pioneers to make roots along the Ontario Lakeshore in Etobicoke,” Zufelt explained.
In 1851, Applebee was elected as the first Ward 1 Councillor for the Township of Etobicoke. The family became prominent citizens and business owners.
The tree is located at the south west corner of Twenty Third Street and Iris Road. It will be ‘a headliner’ in the upcoming Long Branch Garden Tour on June 25.
He said Long Branch is home of a ‘Fab Four’ of heritage trees, which are dubbed Big Red, Titan, Stop26 and the Applebbee Catalpa Heritages Trees.
Northern Catalpas and their southern cousins have long been revered for their sweet aromatic fragrance and the bountiful trumpeting white with purple and yellow striped floral plumage.
The heartwood from the Northern Catalpa has been used for everything from structural timbers, furniture, millwork to the delicate tone-wood brilliance in guitars.
There are less than 100 heritage trees in Canada and lesser than a dozen in Toronto. A few of the trees go back in history to before Confederation.