Exploding trees have taken the country by storm. Let’s separate fact from fiction.

Ever seen a tree that looks like its leaves have sprouted warts or are suffering from a really bad rash? Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of plant oddities known as galls.

There are a number of local fall forecast resources that will point you in the direction of peak color.

Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable; it’s the top cause of weather-related fatalities nationwide.

Chicago is cleaning up Friday after powerful thunderstorms tore through the city Thursday evening, bringing down hundreds of trees, leaving some without power, and even delaying the most highly anticipated concert event of the year.

The Chicago Park District is undertaking an inventory of its trees — counting their numbers and recording their health — in order to develop a management plan.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County has mapped the largest specimen of each tree species identified in the preserves and has made it easier for people to find these “champions.”

The 53-foot Colorado blue spruce was planted in Logan Square 50 years ago and represents a bit of neighborhood history.

This weekend’s picks of outdoor adventures will take you on a time-traveling tour of the region's natural history — from 400-million-year-old rock to an Ice Age “mountain” to more recent remnants of the Atomic Age.

“This has been kind of an extreme and somewhat stressful year for a lot of plants,” said Tom Tiddens, supervisor of plant health care at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Chicago received 9,000 reports of tree emergencies following July’s tornadoes, and a whopping 6,500 of those involved entire trees felled.

Chicago’s trees bore the brunt of damage caused by back-to-back storms July 14-15, which spawned a total of five tornadoes in the city.

Chicago’s tree canopy is in decline and ranks far below the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also indicates a disparity in trees on the city’s South and West sides. The local conservation organization Openlands has been working to reverse these trends.

The Chicago Park District also received nearly $1.5 million to conduct an inventory. Morton Arboretum's Chicago Region Trees Initiative is administering the grants on behalf of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The Cherry Blossom trees in Jackson Park won’t reach peak bloom this year, the Chicago Park District said.

Young trees could be vulnerable to damage from the emergence of millions of periodical cicadas in Illinois this spring. Here are tips on how to protect your trees.