Tag: Tree ID
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Where Are the Colours?
Where are the colours! They are everywhere.Whether we are looking at fall colours from a distance or close-up, fall’s palette is truly magical, a blend of blue mountains and waters, summer and winter greens, gentle reds, and fading browns. Red sumac leaflets hang down like rows of identical pennants. They are stunning against the ultramarine…
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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…