At the garden today, I ran into a man reading from a page that turned out to be Douglas Justice's "May in the Garden" blog article, which he'd printed from May in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden. How cool was that? I showed him some Styrax trees, and then I realized that when the article came out, most of those trees were not yet in bloom. I had taken photos of the buds, planning to go back to photograph the flowers, and then forgot. So there I was today, and they're all in bloom. Except for the Meliodendron xylocarpum, which was already finished at the beginning of the month. Here were some fruits beginning, but we didn't find any even this far along today. I can only do 10 photos per posting, so I'll post different species in different postings, buds from May 3 and flowers from today, though I don't have matching sets for all. For instance, I only have today's flowers for this Styrax confusus, which my new friends said they noticed on the way into the garden. And I only have bud photos from May 3 for Styrax faberi, though I posted flower photos at June 27 - Today's features, and more, in the Asian Garden from July 25 in 2012. I said I thought the flowers looked similar to S. confusus, but noted that the leaves were different. I have room for another photo: it seems the Segway tours have started up for the summer.
Styrax japonicus These photos are from May 3 And these from yesterday, not the same tree as above, and maybe from more than one tree yesterday. This one says Styrax japonicus - pink flowered selection. The name wasn't very convincing yesterday. This is Styrax japonicus 'Fargesi'.
Styrax japonicus 'Emerald Pagoda', with a pink ribbon on the label Does the pink ribbon mean that the ID is up for review? These flowers at 4 to 4.5cm are relatively huge for Styrax. In bloom May 30. At the other end of the size spectrum, this Styracaceae, Sinojackia rehderiana, has tiny flowers, maybe around 2cm if they were to open flat, that look otherwise like Styrax. This was in bloom on May 3. Here is a Styrax, species not determined, buds from May 3. Nice leaves.
Pterostyrax hispidus The first photo in the blog article is of this. On May 3, these were just flower buds. At the end of May, it's in full bloom. You can see last year's fruits in the third photo. Douglas's blog photo is worth seeing, is way better than these. Styrax obassia I'm sorry I didn't think to look for this yesterday. These are buds from May 3. They were just about to open - maybe they've finished?
The Garden was redolent with the fragrance of Styrax near the entrance when I left yesterday. I was impressed by the fragrance.
Here are some Styracacea additions, from June 2.We missed the flowers on both of these, but Douglas mentioned them for their fruits, which are coming along nicely. Halesia teptraptera, this year's and last year's fruits. Rehderodendron gongshanense. I posted mature fruits in August 2012 at What tree? Alternate leaves, fruits pecan size and shape. That was a late year, so they should come to full size earlier than that this year. Here is Styrax perkinsiae. And Styrax aff. japonicus right near the parking lot.
I missed the flowers on Styrax obassia. But Styrax faberi is still not in bloom. I wish some of the others that bloom at the same time as each other had features as distinct as all the fuzzy hairs on this one, which will probably be the only Styrax in bloom when it comes out and would be easy to identify anyway. Nadia remembers this as the last to bloom, but she's forgetting that we have to wait until July for Styrax toninkensis. There are photos of the flowers in this posting from July 10, 2015: July in the garden.
