I am so impressed that Pl@ntNet seems to have nailed the ID on this, that I have to post it for that alone. It rated its accuracy at 62%. I was thinking a columnar mango, based on the droopy leaves, but it's not even in the same family. Pl@ntNet found it named as Polyalthia longifolia. That is a synonym for Monoon longifolium, false Ashoka, or Mast tree. Presumably, this is M. longifolium var. pendula. Annonaceae family. Another synonym is Polyalthia longifolia 'Temple Pillar'. From India, Sri Lanka. This planting is in front of an apartment building in Chinatown. There seem to be fewer flowers around this year, except for Bougainvillea. But the Delonix regia, royal poinciana or flamboyant trees, on the last mauka (toward the mountains) block of River Street in Chinatown, have their reliable few flowers. This tree in the Bignoniaceae family has knock-your-socks-off colour and it's huge. It's at Foster Botanical Gardens, which is renovating the site to be ADA compliant, and there was no way to get close enough to try to get the name, if there even was a label. Of course, the gate staff had no idea (one said gold tree). I'm guessing Handroanthus, used to be Tabebuia. Maybe H. chrysantha; there is one of those on the other side of the garden. But there also exists H. chrysotrichus (Golden Trumpet Tree).
Seems like last time I was over there some years ago I saw quite a few of the Polyalthia here and there in landscaping. And of course the oddness of it might make it comparatively easy for the software to recognize. Regarding the response you got of "gold tree" there is also a specimen so designated on this map (below) - no doubt the person you asked thought they were giving you a perfectly adequate answer. As in there would only be one kind with that common name. FosterMAP.gif (4338×3341) (honolulu.gov) After I typed the preceding I did some looking on the web, during which I was offered the string "gold tree hawaii". The adoption of which produced a search result beginning with a link to this article giving a couple botanical names in the 6th paragraph: starbulletin.com | Features | /2007/01/29/ Finally checking Plants of the World Online I see that the team there has a third epithet they are giving preference to: Roseodendron donnell-smithii (Rose) Miranda | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science
But they do have "gold trumpet tree" near the entrance, no way for me to tell if those are the same without labels. I'm always so confused about where I am when I'm there, and having so many paths closed off made it even harder for me. I am very happy to have this map., Thank you. I think I can print it in the lobby. The one they give out now only as 21 trees named and described. At least I can go back to see if the flowers on the ground have minute hairs (Handroanthus) or not (Tabebuia), though I don't know if there are any yellow-flowered Bignoniaceae trees that are now still Tabebuia. I see from the map that they have a red saraca tree, which is the real Ashoka tree. It took at least five minutes for Pl@ntNet to do the search, maybe longer. I did several other things while I was waiting. It seemed reasonable enough that I decided it wasn't stuck in a loop somewhere - I figured it must have a LOT of green leaves in its database, even with the occasional new red leaf.
The Star-Bulletin article I linked to says primavera = gold tree within Hawaii. Not golden trumpet tree, but gold tree without "trumpet". That gold tree actually has a specific application there. The Kew site accepts 74 species of Tabebuia. Including T. aurea - so there is at least one yellow-flowered kind: Tabebuia Gomes ex DC. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science
Thanks for mentioning that again. I got so excited by the map that I didn't get back to the rest! My brain seems to be on vacation too, just when I need it. In the Star Bulletin article, she gives the name Tabebuia donnell-smithii and says it can be found at Foster BG. So that would be the one, and there are articles on Roseodendron donnell-smithii: Common forest trees of Hawaii, native and introduced - this University of Hawai'i at Manoa, College of Tropical Agriculture, page is quite detailed. The Star Bulletin article by Shirley Gerum also lists labelled trees at Queen's Medical Center. I've never been there, will go there now!
Table of "exceptional trees" in Honolulu (below). Got to host document originally by clicking on EXCEPTIONAL TREES tab on the Foster site. ROH_Chapter_41a1-25.pdf (honolulu.gov)
Ron, thanks for that link, and for the easy way to get there. I used to bring a printout of it with me, but my packing list has a note to not pack plant books (since I don't check any luggage), so I didn't even open my box of notes and books this time. I must not understand Queen's Medical Centre. It has a great big sign, and I walked all around it and the neighbouring blocks, but I saw no labelled trees at all and no yellow flowers. I did see a group of trees that could have been the same, but they seemed unlikely to be ones that would have been the labelled trees, and they had no flowers. So I gave up and headed for The Bus and came upon this pair at Honolulu Hale, City Hall. I think there are minute hairs on the flowers. I've named these Roseodendron, but these ones that are in bloom now would seem to be way out of season according to to this paragraph from The Star Bulletin article, though that was for one specific individual: But the woman in the shop at Foster (not a botanist) who told me the gold tree name said they're in bloom now all over the city.
The vivid intensity of this showy, rainforest, canopy tree bedazzles folks in late winter or early spring before its leaves emerge. (The starkness of all of those flowers absent of leaves is, in itself, something most interesting to see.) And, sometimes, just to surprise us, it will flower, unexpectedly, at other times of the year gracing us with another display of these stunning masses of three to eleven centimeters wide, somewhat bell shaped, blossoms. Primavera Tree- I Planted Roots in Mexico – Manzanillo Sun
For a change of colour, I mentioned above the Bougainvillea are providing most of the flower colour now. Here are a few photos from two locations. I have no species or cultivar names. At The Queen's Medical Center And across the road at the back of the building. Bougainvillea is often used for hillside plantings like this, looking very natural, but I assume it's been planted to appear that way. These are planted at the back and side of a restaurant on a very commercial street that leads to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. On the same street, in front of a modern office building, are this pair of Ixora. I used as a kind of mnemonic a "rule" that Ixora have four petals, forming an X, and that would distinguish them from Pentas, which have five petals, as the name suggests. The problem is that first of all, the X has nothing to do with the name Ixora, and both species have flowers with the wrong number of petals. Anyway, now that I've looked them up for the zillionth time, the flowers look quite different, and the leaves seem a lot smaller than for Pentas. Not that I've found any Pentas to post, but I follow someone who's always posting them, and I'm pretty sure they're around here.
Back to a different yellow for a sec - I saw this Uncarina gradidieri at Kapi'olani Community College yesterday. This one is on a plaza surrounded by buildings. When I first saw it nine years ago, there was part of a hand-scratched label. It's in the rather small Pedaliaceae family, along with nothing I've ever heard of. There are two new ones in the cactus garden on that site. One is to the left of the white shed; the other is to the right of the path that's to the right of the shed. On the plaza next to the Uncarina is Duranta erecta, Verbenaceae family. It's considered invasive in Hawai'i., is generally rather weedy-looking.
Here is another yellow fruited plant - Guaiacum sanctum, two Lignum-Vitae trees at Ala Moana Park. The fruits are small, but they open to show shiny red seeds, so they're showy. The fruits on this tree below are sort of flat, with a wing surrounding the seed. I posted it on Flickr for ID, with the only suggestion being that it's possibly a Terminalia, but no guess on the species. There are two of these trees at Ala Moana Park, in slightly different locations, and I totally missed noticing the fruits on the first one, as they are so close in colour to the limey leaf colour. The upright spurs holding the leaves seem very distinctive.
Thanks for looking at this, and for the link. I'm not seeing anything there saying they'll be happy to ID their trees for me.
For questions or concerns regarding trees, call us at (808) 971-7151 and leave a voicemail OR email duf@honolulu.gov.
Here are two Monoon longifolium at U of Hawai'i Manoa campus, no labels, but they are on the campus map at this location with this name. Here are a few from the Manoa campus. These Colvillea racemosa, Coville's Glory, caught my eye as the bus passed by. It took me a while to find them. Not far from the Colville's Glory is this teak, Tectona grandis, with some branches low enough to capture the fruits. These infructescences are huge, maybe 30-35cm across. These trees are unmistakeable from a distance, even for me. Thunbergia grandiflora are used around town in situations like this, where they can drape over some feature. Erythrina crista-galli trees can take on some interesting shapes. These trees are so similarly shaped, you'd think they were the same individual, but they're two trees. Here's another flower photo from one in Waikiki at Ft. DeRussy Park.
Euphorbia leucocephala Ten years ago, I photographed this hedge on Kaua'i, and I was pretty comfortable calling it Euphorbia leucocephala. It was uniformly covered in flowers, and it is obvious that like with many (all??) Euphorbia flowers, the actual flowers are tiny, but they are easily visible, yellow dots surrounded by petals, nestled among white bracts. This week I saw this tree-like plant, with flowers arranged in ball-like inflorescences, and so many white bracts that I looked for a long time to find that there really are flowers in there, green dots this time. You can see them in the 4th photo, in line with the uppermost leaves on either side of the flowers. Pl@ntNet gives it a 53% likelihood that it's E. leucocephala. I can't find anything else that really matches, though I remember a few years ago coming across a webpage with flowers that I thought looked indistinguishable from these, with a different name. Of course I can't find that now. There is a cultivar called 'Snowflake'. Maybe one or both of these are a cultivar, which would explain the difference in appearance.
Thanks re: snowflake as a common name. I saw a lot of that name in single quotes, but now I do see that it's a common name. Re: Today this page comes up, Snowflake Euphorbia (Euphorbia leucocephala) in the Euphorbias Database - Garden.org, which notes: "In the genus Euphorbia, the flowers are reduced in size and aggregated into a cluster of flowers called a cyathium (plural cyathia). This feature is present in every species of the genus Euphorbia but nowhere else in the plant kingdom." There is a photo gallery at the bottom of that page that has one photo that looks similar to the one I posted.
Incorrect plant name orthography is rampant on the web. In addition to existing widespread lack of understanding of how to present long-established core terms like genus and cultivar presumably significant additional befuddlement has been produced by all of the marketing oriented combinations nurseries and other entities with a commerical interest have been generating for awhile now. With perhaps one of the longest strings of horticultural product promotional terms I have seen listed being the Flutterby Grande™ Sweet Marmalade Nectar Bush, Sweet Nectar Bush Temptations™ Apricot Grand given on this page (below) for the 'Podaras #2' PP22068 butterfly bush. Results for buddleja - Page 3 | Wholesale Nursery Supplies & Plant growers in Oregon | Nursery Guide Note that in the preceding example only the 'Podaras #2' is the cultivar name. As indicated by it being contained within single quotes. With the only botanical word being present the genus name Buddleja. The nature of which I am indicating here through the use of both capitalization and italics. Also the PP before the associated row of numbers stands for Plant Patent, as in United States Plant Patent. This comes right after the cultivar name because in such an instance the cultivar is a patented invention in the United States. Plant Patent numbers can be used to quickly zero in on detailed histories and descriptions of patented cultivars on the web. Canada has the Canadian Ornamental Plant Foundation system where involvement is indicated by COPF being attached to plant names. In the United Kingdom the one-size-fits all abbreviation PBR is given to show that Plant Breeder's Rights are being claimed.
I was asking a general nomenclature question - if there is a cultivar name, is it then correct to not use a species name?