The day was so grey yesterday, the only things we could see were what was yellow. Here's Acer elegantulum, and I lied, because what I really noticed first was the green bark. All of these seemed to have green bark. Acer sp. stachyophyllum ssp. stachyophyllum, which I don't see on my plants list. Acer forrestii Acer pectinatum ssp. taronense (no green bark on this) The Meliosma oldhamii var. oldhamii leaves stand out so nicely in yellow. Some of the Magnolia campbellii ssp. campbellii 'Ethel Hillier' leaves are yellow, and they're mostly not nearly this large (left two photos). Same story for the Magnolia sargentiana leaves on the right- the other leaves were all a lot smaller than this one. Speaking of leaves and yellow, I couldn't understand what distinguished the Liriodendron chinense (first photo) from L. tulipifera (second photo). What I'd read about a size difference was certainly not convincing. The third photo shows the L. chinense leaf on top. Douglas Justice told us that the deeper shoulders were not a reliable indicator - we should be looking at the almost straight edge at the tip of L. chinense vs. the curved edge of L. tulipifera. One more, not yellow at all. Andy Hill showed us to this Machilus viridis, a Lauraceae, on Nadia's list to find. It's nice looking, no? Nadia wondered why it's not planted more around town. The several hundred seedlings under the tree might be a clue to the reason.
I fear I'm far from convinced by that; compare the lower leaf with a curved apical edge in this pic, which is definite L. chinense from the all-green flowers (no orange patch as in L. tulipifera). I'm not aware of any wholly reliable leaf differences.
Michael, if you're talking about the leaf at the very bottom, it's on its side, with the apical edge (thanks for that term) to the right, and that's even convex-curved. The leaves above the flower and to the right of it have apical edges that I'm guessing are unlike what L. tulipifera would do. That being said, your implication that I'm going to get confused is no doubt correct. Fortunately, there might only be one L. chinense in town without a label.
There will be lots of plants in the Lam garden - and other UBC collections - that are not apparent "around town". Down here we have multiple large independent garden centers that bring in thousands of kinds of plants and sell them locally, for them to seemingly disappear into the landscape without a trace. By now I could possibly list hundreds of kinds of trees alone that I have seen at local retailers over the years, without me being able to cite a single private property where the same kind is open to public view. And I pay more attention, spend more time looking than most people.
I came across this posting for an unrelated reason. Now I think I should mention here that I did finally figure out that the leaf backs are good distinguishing features. I posted photos to demonstrate that at Liriodendron tulipifera vs. L. chinense | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
