10 of Toronto’s most breathtaking trees — our ravine queens and urban legends

Toronto is home to 10.2 million trees, from pin-straight saplings to middle-age maples, looming backyard oaks to lushly wooded parklands.

Many of the city’s biggest and tallest trees live incognito in the ribbons of forest that surround Toronto’s network of rivers and ravines.

Eric Davies, an ecologist pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Forestry, has been hunting these giants, all native tree species that grow here naturally. He believes many are remnants of the area’s original wooded landscape.

When he finds a standout tree, Davies maps its location and records its dimensions, including its height, the size of its canopy and the diameter of its trunk. Without taking a core from the tree’s trunk — a delicate and time-consuming task he plans to undertake for the second phase of his ongoing project — Davies can’t say for sure each tree’s age. However, he is confident some of the 905 trees in his data set are upwards of 200 years old, and a few even older.

By mapping these significant ravine trees, Davies is creating a permanent record of Toronto’s ecological past. He also sees them as a critical source of seeds that will produce trees just as healthy and hardy as their parents, which have proven their ability to withstand ice storms, droughts, disease and the pressures from an increasingly urbanized environment.

Davies, who has shared his data set exclusively with the Star, believes planting these hyperlocal trees is the best way to grow and preserve our urban forest.

Read More: Saving Toronto’s ‘Mona Lisa’ trees

Here are five of his favourite trees growing in Toronto’s ravines, each impressive in its own way.

City dwellers

They are few and far between, but big, spectacular trees continue to thrive in Toronto’s urban landscape, standing tall on street corners and shading neighbourhood streets.

Some were planted a century ago. Others, much older, could be vestiges of the area’s natural landscape. Each is likely well-loved by those who live near them.

In 2009, Forests Ontario and the Ontario Urban Forest Council launched a Heritage Tree Program as a way to officially recognize the “social, cultural, historical and ecological value of trees.” So far, via a nomination and evaluation process, 32 Toronto trees have received heritage tree designation.

While many of Toronto’s biggest trees flourish in backyards, parks and natural areas, more than 300 exceptionally large trees grow in the tight quarters of the municipal road allowances. Like all trees, this small but impressive sample of the some 600,000 city-owned street trees clean and cool the air, reduce flood risk, lower stress and, with their verdant greenness, boost happiness.

Here are five big, beautiful trees easily found along Toronto streets.