plant naming - wk 6

One of my favourite units popped up again today and it was out into the garden to view/discuss more specimens on our Plant Naming Cert 2 list, this time thinking about the full details that will be need to be compiled for the first 10 plants of our Herbarium assignment, due at the the end of this month! (get moving Emma!)

Acer palmatum detail sheet

The autumn trees are in colour, with some almost about to finish, so that's our main focus today as Marcus leads us around the gardens gazing upwards.

Admiring the beautiful Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens'

One of my favourites - the Taxodium distichum is really starting to come in to colour and much discussion is had on the subtle differences between this tree and the similar Metasequoia glyptostroboides.  

Taxodium distichum Swamp Cypress



Not as much colour on the Metasequoia glyptostroboides Dawn Redwood  - but still a beautiful tree.

The noticeable difference is the leaf type, mostly Paripinnate (even number of leaflets in a parallel pattern) with the Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Metasequoia glyptostroboides Compound Paripinnate Leaf

and mostly Imparipinnate (odd number of leaflets in a mostly alternating pattern, although some can be found in pairs!)

Taxodium distichum's Compound (mostly) Imparipinnate Leaf - although you can see some parallel pairs here.

Other trees of note are the Betulas and the collection of different Birches here at the gardens is quite diverse. The highlight for me (and a favourite of Marcus's) is the beautiful Betula jacquemontii with it's exquisite white papery decorative trunk.

As Marcus points out, this trees reasonably smallish growing habit and obvious beauty makes it ideal for the smaller home garden. I'm having visions of where I can plant it in my largish garden though, as all we stand around admiring it and stroking the trunk like a friendly cat!

 

The silky white papery bark feels so soft.

More plant naming coming up next week. Time to go and study!