Hello everyone! When I was in Courtenay, BC in July, I spotted a fruit tree in a private orchard of apples, pears, quince, and figs. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is. I have provided a picture of the foliage and fruit. Any ideas?
Ok, that was my first guess, and everything checks out except one detail. What threw me was that the vast majority of the odd-pinnately compound leaves only had 3 leaflets. Doesn't the English Walnut have 5 - 9 leaflets? Are there other variations?
Three leaflets is unusual in Persian Walnut (it isn't native to England, that's a misnomer!), but not unheard of. I'd guess yours is a cultivar where three leaflets happens to predominate.
Well, if the tree is only to be named after where it originates natively then we'll have to call it "South east Europe through the Himalayas and north Burma to south west China walnut". I speak English, but I'm not from there either. Must I instead be called "an American speaker"?
A botanically-trained friend of mine has the habit of "correcting" pronunciations uttered in their presence so that they are (according to them) those of the original language. Are we all supposed to learn the pronunciations of every language in which a plant name has been coined before using them? While I find it interesting myself (and might even be subject to similar inclinations) habitually interjecting how it is pronounced by the Japanese or the French serves mostly to disrupt the flow of the discussion, even irritate the speaker for the sake of a side issue.
Ditto, I tell clients that as long as I can understand the generalities of the plant name its fine by me. clehmahtis? clemaytis? clematiss? who knows, I try not to get too caught up in it.
