It’s almost April, the most prolific month for trees that grow perfect blossoms–“perfect” means they have both male and female reproductive organs in one flower.
The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival has begun with the Big Picnic and the Blossoms After Dark events. Much more to come. Here to enjoy the excitement are
(1) Prunus ‘Snow Goose’; there is a row of them edging Ceperley Meadow, west of the Pitch & Putt in Stanley Park;
(2)
It is official: it’s spring. And yes, it has been raining buckets.
As I go by a mound of fragrant daphne, Daphne odora, I have to go back and smell again. A heady fragrance that is so pleasurable beside an entrance, stairs, a path. The dark-green evergreen leaves are simple, pointed at both ends, but the four-petalled flowers range from pale to deep pink, and they smell wonderful.
In our lane, the magnolias are blooming again: star magnolia (Magnolia stellata)
Is this a London planetree (Platanus x hispanica) that’s been pollarded? It could be. There are two clues: (1) London planetrees are often pollarded; (2) the anti-vermin wrap of metal around the trunk reminds me of the London planetrees in the heronry in Stanley Park that are wrapped to protect the young Great Blue Herons while they are still in their nests.
And yet, the trunk doesn’t look like it is London planetree. I will have to wait until the tree grows leaves to know what it is.
It’s salt! It’s snow! It’s blossoms!
Ornamental plum blossoms in fact.
Here we are in the last week of February and the plum trees on Vancouver’s streets are already speckled with blossoms.
Our winter has been mild. Of the 30,000 members of the Prunus genus on our streets, 11,000 of them are purple plums with various common names such as the Pissard plum and the night purple leaf plum. The majority of these trees are Prunus cerasifera
Winter is a surprisingly good time to identify some deciduous trees. Yes, they are no longer carrying some of their best features for identification–leaves and flowers–yet many of them are bearing fruit, their bark is often recognizable, and even their roots can tell a tale.
And there are other ways.
From a distance, this street tree looks like a tall stick below and a red cloud above.
Getting closer, the redness turns out to be red berries growing separately;