OK, so Portland is a-bloomin'. Anyone want to give me a hand naming the tree that these flowers belong to? (The one with yellow flowers is actually more of a shrub.) I have some guesses, but I'll keep them to myself for the time being. I just find it hard to tell everything apart. Some of the photos below may be of the same type of tree... Any help is much appreciated! Even if you can just break it down into "some type of cherry" vs. "some type of plum" vs. "some type of apple/pear/whatever" would be great. Thanks! As a reward, hopefully you'll enjoy some of the photos. Most of them are in focus... :)
4. Prunus padus. Common name Bird Cherry, or one of its cultivars. 14. Rosa banksiae Lutea. 6. Prunus Shirotae. 11. Prunus Kanzan. (Cherry)
Hm! Amazing beautiful trees and beautiful pics! :) (But I think this thread is hard "Trees In Bloom Test" just like the other "Tests" here: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=189) :)))
Hm, and "some type of apple" for the others!!! :))) (OK, 15. looks more like cherry, so that isn't an apple...)
Don't think 13. is Cydonia oblonga. The leaf in the photo shows teeth, Cydonia leaves are entire, and it has only one flower, not clusters.
Most of these are flowering crabapples, of which there are hundreds of kinds grown in North America. Often fruits (in addition to flowers and leaves) of a particular specimen must be studied before the exact cultivar can be determined - by a specialist such as A.L. Jacobson who is able to sort closely similar kinds out. The crabapple shown right before the bird cherry is 'Van Eseltine'. The double pink Japanese flowering cherry on the left side of the page looks to be 'Kanzan'. The one in the frame to the left of Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' is Malus tschonoskii. The next to the last picture appears to be showing the 'Shogetsu' Japanese flowering cherry.
13. Agree with Ron B , Malus tschonoskii. Kicking myself,only photographing ours recently!! The irregular toothing on the edges of the leaf in nergui77's photos is not so obvious as on our tree.
That's some nice stuff. Someone in NE hired me for an arborist report just over a week ago, to prior to building - thankfully it was just Atlas Cedar, Pink Dogwood and Douglas Fir. Your group of trees would have beat me up pretty good. The crabapples are fairly easy, but you have a couple I'd be scratching my head over.
Wow, thanks for all the replies. So to sum up: 1. Malus ? (hupehensis? prunifolia?) 2. Malus ? (purpurea? 'Liset'?) 3. Malus 'Van Eseltine' (double flowers) 4. Prunus padus 'Watereri' (bird cherry) 5. Malus ? 6. Prunus 'Shirotae' 7. almost Malus transitoria, but the leaves aren't right 8. same as 1? 9. same as 1? 10. same as 2? 11. Prunus Kanzan 12. Malus ? 13. Malus tschonoskii 14. Rosa banksiae Lutea 15. Prunus cerasus? 16. Prunus 'Shogetsu' 17. Malus ? Difficult... but at least they're all pretty!
The crabs except where unusually distinctive and therefore obvious - for instance the pillar apple (Malus tschonoskii) and 'Van Eseltine' require more than the flowers and spring leaves to be positively identified. Among the hundreds of kinds that have been introduced in North America there are numerous similar forms with superficial close resemblances due to shared ancestries. And new ones continue to be raised and put on the market. One or two others you might or might not be able to pin down by picking specimens and taking them around to nurseries and collections, holding them up against labeled flowering examples there. However, this could eat up a lot of time and gas with minimal return, depending on what you happened to find at the facilities visited. And the potential is there for one to look very similar in flower to one you are trying to name, only to turn out to have very different fruits later - if still accessible and able to be checked again at the appropriate time. Should any labeled trees that appear to be the same happen to be encountered (this can include a new street tree planting, where the tags have been left on) this should be followed up with looking at pictures and reading descriptions of that variety. Mis-labeled stock in nurseries and even public collections is not rare. I have seen tons of wrong tags at the Hoyt Arboretum, where as of some years ago anyway plants were being labeled based on where they were on maps rather than what they looked like.
7. nergui77, you thought this might be Malus transitoria, but that the leaves weren't right. I cannot tell you if it is or not, however whilst taking close-up photos of ours today I did notice that the juvenile leaves look nothing like the adult leaves. Hope this helps.
