Week 5
Some new leaves from a wild cherry tree.
http://festivalofleaves.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/festival-of-leaves-week-5/
Week 5
Some new leaves from a wild cherry tree.
http://festivalofleaves.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/festival-of-leaves-week-5/
I am a bit early because my Friday is nearly over already
Flamingo tree leaves
They are so beautiful at the moment.
Strikingly unmistakable pink foliage which appears in early spring. It then changes to creamy pink through to deep green through the summer. Fast growing clumping tree requiring hot dry conditions.
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Common name: | Maidenhair tree (living fossil). |
Botanical name: | Ginkgo biloba |
Family: | Ginkgoaceae belong to the class of the Ginkgophytes. This class constituted the link between the ferns and the angiosperms (flowering plants). |
Origin: | The Ginkgo biloba is the world’s oldest living tree, a species whose existence can be traced back-over 250 million years! For this reason, the Ginkgo was referred to as living fossil (1859) by Charles Darwin. Ginkgo trees were common and widespread in Asia, Europe and America but disappeared from America about 7 million years ago, and from Europe about 3 million years ago. |
Description: | Deciduous conifer. A Ginkgo biloba tree can reach 30 or 40 m height and a spread of 8 meters. The trunk can become about 3 or 4 meters wide in diameter. It is straight columnar and sparingly branched. Young trees have usually a central trunk, pyramidal in shape, with regular, lateral, ascending, asymmetrical branching. The bark is brown and rough. It fissures rough furrows with the age. The leaves of this tree are interesting and unique from any other tree. They are fan-shaped, leathery and smooth. They are often deeply grooved in the middle of the leaf, producing two distinct lobes, hence the name Ginkgo biloba (two lobes). The leaves have a venation pattern that is open dichotomous; the veins fork in pairs from the base of the leaf, and are not cross-connected. They are bright green during the summer, turning gold before dropping in the fall.http://www.dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/plants/ginkgo.html |
I took these photos late afternoon.
My friend enjoying herself
Underside of the leaf
Top of leaf