Douglas Justice's September in the Garden 2024 - UBC Botanical Garden is up, with so many of my favourite trees. You know it's not a a big flower time for trees, with some exceptions, such as the Koelreuteria paniculata that was "removed last year" but is doing well. And the Heptacodium miconioides, seven sons tree, that is blooming right on time. The first tree mentioned is Tapiscia sinensis, which I first became aware of in 2013. The excitement back then was the presence of the stipels on the rachis. Stipels seem to be little stipules. Lots of photos are at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/april-23-2013-just-two-great-trees.78043/. I managed to miss the flowers, but fruits are developing. The spring leaf photo is from my original posting. This is probably tied for my favourite leaves, but in this case, it's the new spring leaves. I posted in another thread photos of Gymnocladus chinensis that I took two months ago. It still looks the same, but it may as well be included here, since it was mentioned in the blog. These were taken this week. That's Rubus lineatus in front of the Gymnocladus. Pseudolarix amabilis is just past the Tapiscia, seen from the boardwalk. Here it was in 2019, with the needle arrangement that helps me recognize these trees, which I didn't see this week. Is that a juvenile leaf arranagement? Still on the boardwalk, here is the trunk of the Lagerstroemia subcostata var. fauriei, Yakushima crepe myrtle. In the next posting, I'll finally get into the garden.
Thanks, Michael. In the older photo, the leaves are in flat whorls strung out along the branch, like little spiders. In this year's photo, the only someewhat spidery-looking leaf arrangements I could find were near the ends of the branches, with the rest strung out singly along the branches.
That's because it is growing vigorously, so all that's easily visible are the long shoots on the outer tips of the branches. The short shoots with whorls of leaves are a bit hidden in the recent photos, but they'll be there. The growth format with long and short shoots is very similar to larch (and cedar), though evolved independently.
OK, in the garden now, I only got to the Asian Garden this time. I recognized the Tetracentron sinense near the path I used to call First Forrest. Now Forrest doesn't come this far. This tree has lots of catkin-like fruit. A little farther along, near the service gate, is another Tetracentron sinense that I've always liked because the leaves are more appealing and yield more satisfying photos. These are my number 1 favourite leaves, maybe somewhat because they remind me of the botanical gardens trip to Ireland where I first saw them. I was a little anxious about this having no fruits, since I'm not sure I have ever really seen the label, but finally I found a few. In the second photo, if you start at the branch that hits the bottom margin in the middle and follow it up to the left, you will come to three catkins, and then one more a few branches up. Between this tree and the service gate was a nice spider web. I don't know what the tree is. This young Acer serrulatum with nice white bark was not in the blog. I thought it would be in the Acer snake-bark section (Macrantha) but it's in the Palmata section. Here is Hovenia dulcis, Japanese raisin tree. I did not see any of the fruits or even figure out where to look for the fleshy wrinkled stems that are the "raisins". Here is Meliosma alba. I found the "light-coloured leaflet backs" a little confusing, and it's not bubble-bursting flower bud season. Still, I think I have the right tree, though I could not get near a label, since the tree was on the other side of the stream.
Here are a few more to finish up. I was chatting with some visitors about trying to find the Euptelea polyandra, but after they'd gone on their way and I pouted for a bit, I decided it must be this, and it has a label. I hope I think to look for it in the spring when it has the petal-less flowers with long, dangling red anthers. The Bretschneidera sinensis may have some new lower branches, but it's still not easy to approach for a good photo of them. They're the compound leaves in the photos. Here is the substantial example of Diospyros lotus, lotus plum, near the entrance to the Asian Garden. Off-topic now, here are Aria aronioides fruits. And some flowers - Eryngium leavenworthii, with such striking grape colouring. It was very attractive to bees. I took lots of photos of the bees, but they didn't show up in a single photo.
Tetracentron sinense for that first tree in post #5 A very unusual species, sometimes put in its own monotypic family Tetracentraceae, or sometimes combined with the very dissimilar Trochodendron in the family Trochodendraceae.
Oh, brilliant, I forgot to type in the name in both paragraphs with photos of that species. Thank you for telling me! I've fixed that now. The photos were named. Douglas mentioned the Trochodendron relative in the blog, and apologized because it's evergreen, in the blog about rare deciduous trees.
