Most of the leaves on this tree seem to have this edge of green around red, which gives them a folksy sort of design, in my mind. The eucalyptus-like bark is pretty interesting too. I'm so in love with this tree, which is in an apartment planting a couple of blocks from where I live. Sorry about all these photos - the second one is superfluous, but the colour was too good to leave it out.
It is a Stewartia sp. I love the peeling/flaking, beautiful bark that they have, also the fabulous autumn colour. I had no idea that you were able to grow such beautiful street trees over there.This includes the Styrax you posted earlier. In Britain they are generally grown in a more protected environment.
You are lucky - it's that's not easy to come by. Ours is still in a container, but it took a bit of searching to find one. I understand that the problem is that it is difficult to propagate. Rooted cuttings suffer very high winter mortality rate.
A friend once started a quantity of them from seed, still has some of the resulting plants which he grew on to specimen size in fabric containers. In Seattle, common. Seen in yards, cemetaries, school and hospital landscapes - just about everywhere, but few in parks. It is often grown from cuttings and can be bushy or tree-like. --Jacobson, TREES OF SEATTLE - SECOND EDITION Judging from the variation, including hybridity shown by stock at local outlets I have the impression many offered are seedlings.
I have tried germinating the seeds without any success. I should learn more about the conditions required for their germination.
Maybe sterile due to lack of pollination? I'd be very surprised if there was another one within a bee's flight distance.
Private collections here have in the past had one of each of such kinds of trees, rhododendron gardens in particular might have one sourwood, one halesia, one Stewartia pseudocamellia, one S. monadelpha (the hybrid between these two, S. x henryae being rather frequent in some batches of S. pseudocamellia supplied to local outlets) and so on, with masses of rhododendrons between them. Nowadays S. pseudocamellia is in fashion here, as described by Jacobson above there could be plenty of opportunity for cross-pollination in various locations - if, in fact these are self-incompatible.
Michael, You are right. I have scouted our neighbourhood since you made that comment and I can't find any other specimens within a radius of about 2-3 km of our house. That poor lonely tree! I did come across a great genus profile on Stewartia.
Thanks for posting the link to that article, WG. It certainly is interesting, with good photos. Now I'm doubly glad I posted my query.
Re: ID'ed as Stewartia - Pointy nut-looking fruit, green-edged red autumn leaves I'm being bad here, but I can't resist adding two photos from the same Stewartia pseudocamellia as the one I posted last year. The second photo is actually from a second tree, both in front of a condo building a few blocks from me in Vancouver's West End.
