Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

General Information Common Name  Norway Maple Scientific Name  Acer platanoides Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  20–30 m (66–98 ft) Spread  9–13 m (30–45 ft) Growth Rate  Moderate Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Orange Flower Color  Green Type  Tree Native  Europe, northwest Asia and north USA

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Rosidae Order  Sapindales Family  Aceraceae – Maple family Genus  Acer L. – Maple Species  A. platanoides

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Norway Maple scientific name Acer platanoides was introduced from Scandinavia in the seventeenth century, and has since enriched Britain’s scenery with its bright spring blossom and rich autumn foliage. In height it reaches some 98 feet.

The twigs are stout and shiny, generally tinged with red before turning brown. The small winter buds are set oppositely, and are bluntly pointed, with shiny reddish-tinged scales. The leaves when unfolding show rust-red tints. They are palatably five-lobed, sharply angled, bright green, rather shiny, with a long slender stalk which is tinged with red and contains milky sap. In autumn the leaves show a standard good yellow, and later brilliant orange-brown colors for a brief spell.

The greenish-yellow flowers of both sexes are found together in an erect or spreading inflorescence in the form of a corymbs panicle, and appear in early April before the leaves unfold. The fruit consists of two winged seeds – the well-known double ‘samara’ (or ‘keys’), set at an angle of about 1600. They are green at first, becoming brown before they spin away. 

The bark is thin, dark grey to brown, with short, smooth, narrow, and shallow fissures. The wood is white or grayish, fine-textured, hard and fairly heavy. It is used for furniture and turnery goods. If cut when dormant in winter and early spring the tree freely ‘bleeds’ its sugary sap.

Foresters sometimes cultivate Norway Maple for timber, but more often their chief objective is to form with its an attractive belt around other tree-crops. Unfortunately it suffers much harm, particularly in the crown, from the grey squirrel, which is attracted be its sweet sap.

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple in Autumn

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple : Flowers

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple : Seeds

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple : Leaves

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple : Leaves & Seeds

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple : Log

Acer platanoides – Norway Maple

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

General Information Common Name  Pleomele, Song of India Scientific Name  Dracaena Reflexa Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  4 – 5 m(13 – 18 ft) Spread  1 – 2 m (3 – 8 ft) Growth Rate  Slow Bloom Time  Winter Color  Green with white Margin Flower Color  White, Red Type  Shrub Native  Madagascar and Tropical Areas

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Asteridae Order  Solanales Family  Asparagaceae Genus  Dracaena Species  D. Reflexa

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena reflexa, commonly called Pleomele or the Song of India is a tender evergreen shrubs or small tree native to Madagascar and Mauritius. But this is a tropical tree. It may reach a height of 4–5 m, rarely 6 m in ideal, protected locations, D. reflexa is usually much smaller, especially when grown as ahouseplant. It is slow-growing and upright in habit, tending to an oval shape with an open crown. This is a full sun tree. In too much shade, plants may grow spindly with the variegated leaves losing their variegation. Plants like high humidity and consistent year-round temperatures.  The shiny leaves are narrowly lance-shaped, green in the middle and bordered with pale yellow that frames each leaf. There is greener version. The leaves spiral upwards from the stems to tip in a wild fashion that creates the Song of India's messy and unpredictable crown. 

It blooms greenish-white flowers in mid winter. Flowers are sometimes followed by orange-red berries. Neither the flowers nor the fruit are especially showy. Dracaena reflexa is a popular ornamental plant, both in the landscape and the home. People plant it in their home or garden as an ornamental tree.

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India : Flowers

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India : Flowers

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India : Flowers

Dracaena Reflexa - Pleomele - Song of India

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch - European White Birch

General Information Common Name  Silver Brich, Warty Birch Scientific Name  Betula pendula Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  15–25 ms (49–82 ft) Spread  9-12 m (30-40 ft) Growth Rate  Moderate Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Yellow Flower Color  Brown Type  Tree Native  Europe, North America, Centaral Asia

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Hamamelididae Order  Fagales Family  Betulaceae – Birch family Genus  Betula L. – birch Species  B. pendula

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch

Betula pendula common name is Silver Birch, or European Warty Birch, seeds itself so freely in some areas that it is often ignored. However, it is a graceful, slender tree, usually with attractive white bark, and its timber is quite useful. It is a medium-sized deciduous tree, typically reaching 15–25 metres (49–82 ft) tall some trees exceptionally up to 39 metres (128 ft), with a slender trunk usually under 40 centimetres (16 in) diameter, but exceptionally to 1 metre (3.3 ft) diameter, and a crown of arched branches with drooping branchlets. The bark is white, often with black diamond-shaped marks or larger patches, particularly at the base. The shoots are rough with small warts, and hairless, and the leaves 3–7 centimetres (1.2–2.8 in) long, triangular with a broad base and pointed tip, and coarsely double-toothed serrated margins. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins, produced before the leaves in early spring, the small 1-2mm winged seeds ripening in late summer on pendulous, cylindrical catkins 2–4 centimetres (0.79–1.6 in) long and 7 mm broad. Its purplish-brown twigs are slender, whippy and harsh to the touch and often pendulous. The young shoots are glabrous and bear little pale-colored rough warts. The small brown winter buds are alternate, many-scaled and pointed. In early spring they expand to show in mass a purplish bloom before the leaflets, first light-green then emerald, unfold. The leaves are about one inch broad and somewhat triangular, with a double-toothed margin, always sharply pointed, and hairless bout often rough to the touch. They usually turn yellow before falling.

The yellow male catkins droop like lambs tails, whereas the smaller pale-green female catkins are club-shaped and stand erect until they enlarge and become semi-mature, when they hang down. They open just after the leaves, and by August or September myriads of small winged seeds are produced are released on the winds. 

The tough, waxy bark is purplish-brown in young trees, with horizontal bands of lenticels, but on older trees the smooth, papery, peeling bark of the upper part is silver-white, with black diamond-shaped markings, and the base becomes increasingly rough and blackened. On many a tree, growths termed is tough, hard, clean and smooth, very pale brown or cream in color, with a dull surface. Its uses include turnery goods such as brush backs, reels and toys, and paper pulp. The branches are used for besom-heads and horse jumps. 

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Leaves

The Hairy Birch, B. pubescens Ehrh, with short and soft downy twigs and grey or cherry-like bark, is the second of Britain’s two tall species of native birch. Hybridization and introgression occur between the two species. The terms ‘white birch’ and ‘silver birch’, and the obsolete scientific name Betula alba, have been applied to both of them. Few silvi-culturists make any distinctions between the birches.

Planting birch for timber has seldom been worthwhile economically: the millions growing in Europe. Foresters value the tree for its useful light cover, providing dappled shade which usually enables better trees, inter-planted among the birches, to respond. It is a useful natural pioneer tree, adapted to colonize open land and it coppices freely. In plantations care must be taken to remove whippy birch trees that thrash and damage more desirable species.

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Leaves

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Flowers

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Flowers

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Flowers

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Flowers

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Seeds

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch : Seeds

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch

Betula pendula - Silver Birch - Warty Birch

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

General Information Common Name  Giant Agave Scientific Name  Agave Salmiana Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  1 – 2 m (4 – 6 ft) Spread  2 - 4.5 m (6 - 12 ft) Growth Rate  Slow Bloom Time  Summer Color  Green Flower Color  Yellow Type  Cactus & Succulents Native  Mexico

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Liliopsida Subclass  Liliidae Order  Asparagales Family  Agavaceae Genus  Agave Species  A. salmiana

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave salmiana is commonly known as Giant Agave is native to Mexico and plant in full sun where it is drought tolerant. This plant has also been in cultivation in Europe since the 19th century. It is a vigorous and evergreen plant. Its fleshy green leaves are strap shaped, up to 1.5m long with large spins (up to 8cm) arranged its leaf margins. When the plant matures and blooms the tall candelabra inflorescence rises to over 20 feet bearing yellow flowers that attract birds and bees. Each plant flowers once, usually after 20 years. After flowering it dies and produces rhizome like offsets which helps the spread of this plant. By its death it creates life and sustains its species. Some people cultivate Agave salmiana in their garden as an ornamental plant.

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave : Flowers

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave : Flowers

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave : Flowers

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave : Flowers

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave : Flowers

Agave Salmiana – Giant Agave