So I was getting accosted by squirrels, so I had to take pictures; these were planted near douglas firs and ferns, and some other plants I couldn't identify. This shrub (?) seems to go only above 5ft (maybe to 6?), but not much more than that. (Yes, that's a squirrel's butt in one of the pictures. Wouldn't leave me alone.) I can't find any plant in my field guide text with similar looking leaves =/ Please help! Thanks! P.S. also tried looking up the kind of plants/trees found in Central Park, but they only list maple groves, cedars, western hemlock and douglas fir. Not very helpful as there are so many more plants than that.
Buds are wrong for Mangnolia. I'm thinking Rhododendron, but not 100% certain on that. Some more pics would help.
Hmmm, well, I don't have another picture since I was being harrassed by squirrels (couldn't stand still without being harrassed) but the branch structure looks a bit like a Pacific rhododendron. I had completely missed the bud at the top! My field guide's sketch looks nothing like it (especially since there's not much to compare to) but googling it helped a lot. Thanks so much! Now, any advice on how to get squirrels to leave you alone so that you could look at plants that A) doesn't make you look insane and B) isn't particularly mean? Heh.
Unfortunately, no, can't have one around my place *sigh* I should just drag someone with a dog along with me next time, heh. Thanks for all the replies!
Central Park has many large old Rhododendrons, mostly planted in "informal" beds which transition betwen grassy area and the adjacent woodland. Since the planted beds in the park also include lots of native plants it isn't surprising that the Rhodos. were at first assumed to be native also.
