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Yes, new logo is a really big deal here

The area known as Lealman has a bona fide symbol now, even if the tree type is a bit fuzzy.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published August 24, 2005

LEALMAN - For years this unincorporated area has struggled to be acknowledged as a community. There have been signs of progress, including an exit off Interstate 275.

Now area activists, in the form of the Lealman Community Association, have their first logo, just as neighboring cities do.

The association logo is a shady oak next to a bridge over a creek. Created in part to commemorate the new park along Joe's Creek, it will make its debut on yellow polo shirts Sept. 24, the day the park is scheduled to be officially opened.

Ray Neri, head of the community association, said the group had a logo contest, but the one that most people liked was too detailed to be easily reproduced. After a few revisions, the group came up with the final version.

But a closer look at the logo raises a question:

What kind of oak is that?

A first glance at the leaves - deeply lobed - makes the tree appear to be a Quercus alba, more commonly known as a white oak. The problem is, white oaks do not naturally grow in this part of Florida, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

But Allen Cordell, an urban horticulturist with the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, said he thinks the tree might be a turkey oak. That tree, he said, has the same general canopy shape as the tree on the logo and the deeply lobed leaves. Turkey oaks do grow in the area.

"I think that would come closest to it," Cordell said.

The discussion may be academic, Cordell said, because "it's an artist's rendering. It may not be botanically accurate."

Neri hadn't given the issue much thought.

"There's different kinds of oaks?" he asked. "It's not a live oak. It's the other kind. It's the kind we've got all over the place. It's the kind that makes acorns."

Neri paused during the telephone interview to ask his wife, Laura. She said it's a laurel oak. That was enough for Neri, who said, "Laura . . . knows everything."

Neri added, "This is a very strange conversation. Call it a Lealman oak . . . We just call them Lealman oaks here because Lealman is full of them."

And that's the point, Neri said. It's a symbol. A symbol of the trees in the area. A symbol of the people and the diversity of the area.

The tree was not meant to look like any specific tree, he said, just as the bridge and creek were not meant to look like a specific bridge or creek.

"Tell them rivers don't look like that either. Bridges aren't built like that either," he said. "Holy mackerel."

Staff writer Jean Heller contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 24, 2005, 01:15:20]