Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Course by Color

Last weekend I captured some 260 pictures at Longwood Gardens. This left me in a bit of a quandary as to where to begin sharing here at Arboreality.

So, I decided to start at the beginning, and just walk you through the gardens and forests as I did.


Pumpkins adorned the gardens to celebrate the season, and this pumpkin display was just plain awesome. I know that the kids visiting the gardens felt just as I did.



The first tree pictures I took were of the Yew tree, of the family Taxaceae. I believe this to be a common Yew tree (Taxus baccata), but owing to my excitement, I failed to take the time to look at the tag.

Throughout the gardens, the trees, plants, and flowers are marked with tags identifying them by common and scientific names, families, and sometimes other bits of information. Now, if I’d been smart about things, I would have taken a picture of each tag along with each tree to create a sort of catalog.

Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) I was so incredibly smitten with all the green, growing life around me that I often forgot to take the time to look at tags, let alone photograph them.




Which leads us to our first mystery tree from Longwood Gardens, which I’m sure is not a mystery to anyone who took the time to read the tag. Certainly you can see how I was distracted by these spotted, cherry-like fruits!

As always, if you know what we're looking at - don't be shy! Tell us!

12 comments:

  1. The fruits are of the dogwood. I'd love to know that variety, it's lovely.

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  2. wow....like walking in paradise! I love pumpkins and gourds of all types, what a cool photo that is.

    Thanks for sharing, G

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  3. Jennifer Jennifer, thanks! It is indeed a type of dogwood, and my initial guess was a strawberry tree... but it's not quite the same. If we can't figure it out, we'll just have to wait until I return to the gardens, and look at the tag. ;)

    Geraldine Thanks! I thought the pumpkin pile was just the coolest! :D

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  4. Im enjoying the pumpkins as my screensaver of the week...I find a lot of those over here!!! You take some great photos. :)

    BFN, G

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  5. Those spotted fruits are wild-looking, very curious to know exactly what they are. I have two common yews but we never get berries. They must be like hollies-there has to be a male & a female to get berries?

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  6. Geraldine, I'm glad you're enjoying the pictures! Thank you. :)

    Caroline, indeed - according to my Encyclopedia of Trees by David More and John White: " [Yew] Trees are normally dioecious with separate male and female trees, however occasionally a single branch of the opposite sex to the rest of the tree may be randomly produced."

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  7. Lovely guided walk! I've noticed that the berries on yew trees over here are looking particularly fine this year, they're beautiful trees.

    Crafty Green Poet
    (having difficulty signing in on this new Google/Blogger id option)

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  8. Crafty Green Poet, thanks for visiting - sorry about the login troubles... hopefully as Blogger Beta morphs into Blogger full, we'll shake off those login glitches!

    Yes, yews really are amazing, and I was so fortunate to catch this one with berries. We had so much fun at the gardens, that if I hadn't taken pictures I think it would have been one, big, happy, green blur! :)

    PS - If you continue to have login troubles, one option is to select "Other" and just type in your name and web address. It's not as handy as Blogger just recognizing who you are, but it does work. Again, sorry for the login troubles! :)

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  9. HI there jlb
    Thanks for the tip there about the login options. I'm sure it will all work better once the two types of blogger have merged fully. Thanks for visiting my blog too!

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  10. You bet crafty green poet, and thanks for stopping by Arboreality! :)

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  11. That's the Kousa dogwood, Cornus kousa, widely planted as an ornamental, native to Korea.

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