Did Douglas Justice really email me to ask for a list of my favourite plants to feature in his September 2020 in the Garden - UBC Botanical Garden blog? Ha! For sure not. But he featured my favourite plants! How fun was this - I got to get excited about lots of leaves and bark this month. I promise that when I'm all finished, there will be a posting of all flowers. There really is still a lot of colour. I'm giving short shrift to Boehmeria platanifolia, false nettle, since I just posted it in an old thread, but here is a photo that shows the "bullate and coarsely serrated leaves", with the ducussate leaf arrangement. Those terms are very clearly explained in the blog, with a link to Garden Explorer with lots of photos. This plant was new to me, is really a preamble to my favourites. The next two were just mentioned as an aid to locate the false nettle, and the Tapiscia sinensis (false pistache) is really my favourite in the spring for its new leaves. Still, a favourite is a favourite. There are the red rachis on the old leaves and green rachis on the younger leaves, and the upright infructescences to like. I didn't even catch on to the "false" theme on the boardwalk until I started writing this, because the next plant is Pseudolarix amabilis - the "false" bit is not in the common name but the botanical name. The common name is golden larch. Time out - can we really talk about textures without looking at these Magnolia sprengeri 'Eric Saville' buds, also next to the boardwalk? The next of my favourites in the blog is Schefflera minutistellata, with the "second-story" leaflet arrangement. These photos are along the boardwalk. And these are from the larger of the same species at the hairpin turn on Straley Trail. Farther into the Asian Garden is Schefflera hoy, which also has a "second-story" leaflet arrangement. There is lots more to come.
Next for me are trees with bark interest. Douglas mentions an Acer davidii, easily seen from Handel-Mazzetti Trail, which I don't think I've seen before. He notes that this specimen is "worth stroking for its incredibly smooth bark". So true. Here is the Acer davidii that I have often seen, with bark so different - worth noting for its varied texture. The bark on this Acer maximowiczii reminds me of these. I always thought this tree with a trunk diameter of around 3cm was planted yesterday, but I looked it up - it was accessioned 20 years ago. [Edited - I have posted a habit photo below in posting #7] Here is totally different patterned smooth-barked tree, a Cornus of some type, outside the Reception Centre. I didn't find a label. My favourite eucalypt is next: Eucalyptus rubida. Unlike that 20 year old Acer maximowiczii that looks like it was planted yesterday, this tree looks all grown up, and it was just a wee thing in 2015 when I first posted it at August 19, 2015 - Blues. I am still fond of it, but has lost its baby fat. I think this is Abies grandis, on Decaisne Trail, not the one on Upper AsianWay that Douglas mentioned, but it looks to me that it could also be 150 years old.
Well, of course there's more. I will start out with a quiz, and the answer will be in this posting, so there won't be a bunch of postings with guesses at the answer, and there is no prize anyway. The question is: which of these three plants demonstrating small leaves creating interesting textures does not belong in a set with the other two? I will offer a hint that one of them was mentioned in Douglas's blog (link to the blog is in the first posting). So that you don't see the answer right away, I will move on to some other plants mentioned in the blog - bamboo. This is Semiarundinaria fastuosa, stately but aggressive. And Fargesia robusta, an important food for the giant panda. I think white culm sheaths was the theme. This textural comparison was not in the blog - two rhododendrons, the first. Rhododendron yuefengense, with very smooth leaves and petioles, nicely highlighted in light pink. And Rhododendron pachytrichum, fuzzy hairs everywhere, including the midvein on the leaf underside and the leaf margins. I know the last two photos are not in focus, but they make the point. Back to our quiz. The middle photo is Picea abies 'Little Gem', from the blog. Douglas was right on with his description of the plant resembling "miniature undulating forest-covered mountains". The third photo is Chamaecyparis thyoides 'Rubicon', not really so mountainous appearing, but still with tiny leaves. I liked the mixture of colours here, some dark green and others appearing dark turquoise. The first one is not a gymnosperm - Dianthus 'Gordie Bentham'.
Here are a few fruits, starting with Kirengeshoma palmata. I know this quite well, can even spell it and pronounce it now, but it can still confuse me. For one thing, the plant on the north side of Upper Asian way is in full flower now, and it is listed by this name in the database. Here is a flower for @pmurphy, who mentioned in her thread that the flowers never seem to open. This was the most open flower. Directly across the path, and in other locations I came across, these are listed in the database as Kirengeshoma palmata Koreana Group. They all have leaves that seems almost twice as large as the one above, and they all have their fruits, flowers long gone. What is confusing me is wondering whether @pmurphy's plant is in this group. I did post flowers from these plants one year at July 25, 2012 - the first five minutes. I photographed the Sambuccus nigra subsp. cerulea because I was wearing matching colours. I think this Phytolacca next to the Pavilion is a hybrid, if I am following correctly what was said in previous postings of it. I posted it as Phytolacca clavigera one year. It's not in the database at all now - maybe the garden folks think if they don't document it, it will go away.
I promised some flowers, so here is my winner for colour this week, Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow' on the entrance plaza; I should have posted the third photo, Euonymus europaeus, with the fruits, but I was thinking of it as a colour match for the Euphorbia. It's in the alpine garden. Also on the entrance plaza, Hesperantha coccinea are still in bloom. These Asclepias tuberosa are in the food garden. Lots of bumble bees on these. I'm going small now - Veronica catarractae 'Delight'. I just saw a few flowers, thought they were so special. But in June, 2013, @Nadia White Rock posted the whole group of them in flower.: June in the garden. While I'm on small, I posted a Begonia grandis near me recently, wondered if the cultivar might be 'Heron's Pirouette'. Here is that cultivar. The ones in the West End were mostly female flowers . All the flowers here were males. Back to the alpine garden, here is Dierama erectum. And Berkheya circiifolia. Whew, I'm done. I have room for this photo of the Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' that was near the Acer davidii, but I forgot to include it as an aside there.
That was September 18. Yesterday, there were fruits on this one too, smaller than the ones on the south side of the path.
I took this Acer maximowiczii habit photo yesterday, but I want to post it here in the same thread as my photos from last month. It's Acer davidii that the bark reminded me of.
@wcutler good morning Wendy, so many people would just walk right past and not give this tree a glance, but not you, Well done !!
On Douglas Justice's members walk this evening, he told me that label is wrong, and it's Acer forrestii, possibly hybridized with something else.
