MORENCI — Morenci resident David Green was walking through the town’s Oak Grove Cemetery last winter when he thought to himself, “There must be 20 different species of trees in this place.”

He discovered that his estimate was low, and now he’s ready to lead the public on a tree walk to show what he’s found. The walk will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15.

“I decided to make a map to point out one location of each species,” Green said. 

He cleaned up a Google Maps image of the cemetery, drew in the roads and started adding what came to mind from memory — more than a dozen, even without any of the oaks, maples and conifers.

“There are several that just stick in my head such as the little cluster of sassafras, the gingko, the tuliptree, the big dogwood and the witch hazel.”

Then he went on a walk for a closer look and his map started filling up. He was soon hoping to get to 30 species, but after additional walks, he thinks 40 is more like it.

“Our cemetery is like a very rich woods,” he said. “I’m really impressed with the diversity.”

There are a couple of asterisks to his work, Green said.

“A lot of the trees aren’t in the mowed part of the cemetery,” he explained. “Many are on the land at the edge of the graveyard.”

The sassafras are a couple of feet over the edge. The redbud and wahoo can be seen by looking down the south hill toward the creek. That’s the same with pawpaw and bladdernut over on the west boundary.

Green adds another asterisk to the word “tree,” noting that some of the specimens on his map are considered shrubs. Wahoo, winged euonymus and northern spicebush, for example, aren’t likely to appear in a tree identification book, but botanists don’t all agree on the definition of a shrub. If it’s a woody plant, it’s on the tour, he said, as long as he is able to identify it.

The cemetery has been hit hard by storms in recent years and many trees have fallen or been cut after damage. 

“Some areas were starting to look more like Oak Meadows rather than Oak Grove,” Green said. 

The city council has directed money for replanting and a large donation covered the planting of several trees. 

“If the new trees survive, it will make a big difference in how the cemetery looks in a few years,” Green said. “There are now three additional species that I hope will make it — elm, black gum and a Japanese maple.”

Green knows of several trees that he needs to pin down for identification.

“I’m not so good at buds and bud scars for identifying a tree,” he said. “It’s driving me a little nuts waiting for leaves to come out.”

If another walk is scheduled a year from now, he knows the list will be even longer than it is now.

To join the tour, take the first cemetery entrance — the one closest to town—  and drive on either road until it turns. Take a left and meet at the short drive that ends at a pile of dirt.

The walk measures about 1.25 miles in length, plus there will be a short extension afterward for those willing to tackle some rougher terrain to see pawpaw, bladdernut, wahoo and more.

The cemetery walk is planned in conjunction with Stair District Library’s celebration of the City of Morenci’s downtown tree planting grant.