Trip report by Nina Shoroplova

Botany committee members Nina Shoroplova and Lesley Douglas led a Nature Vancouver walk through Tatlow Park and Volunteer Park in Kitsilano, Vancouver, on sunny August 15. There are several weeping katsuras, Cercidiphyllum japonicum Weeping Group, in Tatlow so we went inside and there was room for all twenty of us!

Tatlow began as a park in 1907 and was named in 1911 for “The Honourable R.G. Tatlow, Minister of Finance, and a former Park Commissioner who had served on its first Board in 1888 and thereafter for 18 consecutive years, with 9 of those years as Chairman” (https://www.heritagesitefinder.ca). Robert Garnett Tatlow fell from his horse and died in April 1911 and his tremendous service was commemorated by this park.

As is often the case in an older park, there is an enormous English yew, Taxus baccata, that is impossible to age.

Grouped with the conifers, the female reproductive organ of a yew is a seed covered with red flesh that is known as an aril. The aril is the only edible part of the yew; every bit of the rest is poisonous. Indeed, yews have a long history of being planted in church grounds in Great Britain. There is a great article about that here: https://britainsbestguides.org/blogs/why-do-so-many-english-churchyards-have-yews/

Originally called First Creek, Tatlow Creek was soon covered by park, paths, and a road. In 2024, the daylighting of this Creek was completed. Lesley explained some of the process.

Tatlow Creek then crosses under the narrow route that is Point Grey Road, winds its way around a black poplar, some western redcedars, and black locusts,  and ends up above English Bay, too high for fish to jump but still a valuable creek.