Finding Tilia

This project explores mapping all trees in Denver, and highlighting the Tilia species. The explanation for the significance of this can be found in my As the Leaves Settle project.

In trying to find various species of linden tree for filming, photography, or just to smell the fragrant blossoms in spring, I have actually turned to the internet to discover where to find the most in public places. This is why I chose to highlight Tilia trees in Denver parks on the Carto map, as well as screenshots within this image gallery. This will likely become a tool I use for filming locations throughout my thesis development this year.

The dots on the map correspond to the linden species, and the size of each icon correspond to the reported tree diameter (with larger icons being larger trees). The “map key” button navigates to a PDF that explains this more visually. When clicking on one of the icons, the tree species common name, scientific name, size, and location are listed. I decided to remove the streets because I think the patterns that trees paint describe the city in their own way. If you are familiar enough with Denver’s topography, you might be able to pick out specific parks or major roads simply based on the way the trees are situated.

I am fascinated by trees visually because of the patterns they make with their root structures, branches, bark texture, and leaf clusters, and I think this data map mimics some of that visual intrigue.

The map was created with to tool Carto. This dataset is courtesy of the City of Denver and can be found at the following link:

https://www.denvergov.org/opendata/dataset/city-and-county-of-denver-tree-inventory