Douglas Justice's November, 2016 blog at November in the Garden 2016 | UBC Botanical Garden goes beyond autumn colours. The first group he discusses, though, are indeed trees that hold their outstanding colour a good long time - Liquidambar, the sweet gums. The ones we see around town are Liquidambar styraciflua. Here are two with very different shapes, one with very few leaves and the other with all its leaves but no fruits. They hold on to their fruits forever - the third photo shows fruits from this year and last year. The fourth photo shows winged stems on a younger one in the Carolinian garden. Here is Liquidambar acalycina, in the Asian Garden. And Liquidambar formosana on Marine Drive. No fruits on this. Maybe someone else can get the leaves in focus.
The next section of the November in the garden blog is also about trees commonly called gums - Eucalyptus. These are evergreen, so no autumn colours in the leaves, but they are remarkably colourful. The star of the show is probably the Eucalpytus coccifera, with its stunning white trunk, and nice shape too. These young Eucalyptus pauciflora have white trunks too. The first one seems to be more red, but maybe the white is developing. The last two photos are of E. pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei, with red veins and leaf margins.
I had to ask if this was one tree or two. It's one, Eucalyptus parvula. The thinner trunks show shorter and fatter juvenile leaves, and they have an opposite leaf arrangement. No flowers or fruits yet. The leaves on the older branches are mostly alternate on the branch, and there are flower buds and fruits.
Still on Eucalypts, here are two young Eucalyptus neglecta, with red winged stems. And a very handsome young Eucalyptus rubida, common name Candlebark, with red branches against its white trunk.
The last section of the November in the garden blog mentions trees exhibiting marescence, meaning that the leaves turn brown but stay on the trees. Here is Quercus alba. And Quercus garryana. These 'Tai-haku' ornamental cherries were not mentioned in the blog at all, but the sign does call attention to the fall colours in the garden, and these are looking beautiful.
