Author: Vancouver
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Douglas-Fir ~ Its Features and Its History
I think of the First Nations myth about a Douglas-fir cone’s bracts resembling the rear end of a hiding mouse. The grooves on Douglas-fir’s bark are deep enough to afford a tiny mammal a place to hide from a forest fire. Indeed this thick, corky covering protects Douglas-firs from fire, while also benefitting their fallen…
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Chinese Windmill Palm
When is a tree not a tree? When it’s a palm, a single-stemmed monocotyledon. Along with every other member of the Arecaceae family of palms, the windmill palm is a monocot; its seeds sprout with only one cotyledon; that is the embryonic leaf that grows before the first true leaf. Which is why it isn’t…
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Ginkgo biloba
The tallest Ginkgo biloba I’ve ever seen is growing in the northwest corner of Paulik Neighbourhood Park at 7620 Heather Street in Richmond. Take a look before its leaves fall overnight; that will be any day now. This tree’s ancient heritage takes us back to China at the time of the dinosaurs. Its species name…
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Identifying a Mystery Tree
The tree’s trunk is braided, fluted, and made of sculptured vertical hills and valleys, some thick. The moment I see the photograph of the unusual trunk of this mystery tree and I notice the email’s subject—“Tree Identifying Help?”—I am hooked. This is a mystery I want to solve. The local gardener who wonders which tree…
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Vancouver’s Blossom Parade in the Rosaceae Family
Forty thousand street trees in the Rosaceae Family romance Vancouverites in a blossom parade every year. Rose family trees provide a sensory gift with their aromatic, delicate, white, pale pink, ruby red, and vivid crimson buds and blossoms and their leaves that range from pale green through to forest green. Like so many others, I…