Completely Arbortrary – Details, episodes & analysis

It’s beginning to look a lot like… an invasive pokey nightmare, with the English holly (Ilex aquafolium). Learn all about dioeciousness, and what makes this hot new sexual fad so successful!

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Just another arborvitae, the Leyland cypress (Cupressus × leylandii et al) has to be one of the most deplorable species we’ve investigated on Completely Arbortrary. Learn all about this tree’s poorest qualities, then join us for a segment of Slang Game!

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

About 1600 years ago, a group of refugees settled on a mucky swath of land that would one day be known as Venice. What followed is one of the greatest marvels of human engineering: a city built entirely on trees in water. Enter European alder (Alnus glutinosa), an ordinary tree with an extraordinary role in history.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week we talked about a tree that has a unique--and deadly--relationship with birds. This week, the script is flipped and we hear about a bird that uses a tree to accomplish it gruesome agenda: the thorn mimosa (Vachellia nilotica).

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when a temporary tattoo becomes permanent, and makes you permanently DEAD?! We find out in our most macabre episode yet coving the bird-catcher tree (Pisonia grandis). Join us this week as discuss this tree's unique means of spreading its seeds, and the dark repercussions.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present to you a case for and against the sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). A tree that is lauded by some and loathed by others, we take sides and present the merits and demerits of the subject tree and leave it for you to decide its fate. Which side will you choose?

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Due to a host of circumstances, our regularly scheduled programming has been postponed to next week! HOWEVER, we're taking this opportunity to tell you all about our Patreon revamp! And to share a Patreon episode - What is Phenology! We hope you enjoy it and we'll see you next week with the Sweetgum!

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Close your eyes and imagine a maple leaf. What is it that defines the quintessential maple leaf? Well today, we chat about the bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and dive into how that standard image of a maple leaf is as accurate as you may think. Then we chat about the biggest news of the day with another edition of the Fungal Associated Press.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A tree that has made no enemies, a tree that doesn't rock the boat, today's tree is the Canadian serviceberry, also knowns as the shad-blow, the shadbush, the bilberry, the juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis). This episode we have a classic fireside chat about this tree that has something for everyone, and on top of that we collaborated with Amanda Spinosa on a delicious recipe to show off the fruit of this wacky little tree.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alex and Casey go on a walkabout in the Overlook neighborhood of Portland to gander at some of the city's most gorgeous arboreal specimens.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

Support the pod and become a Treemium Member

Follow along on Instagram

Find Arbortrary merch on our store

Find additional reading on our website

Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.