Salix caroliniana, commonly known as Coastal Plain Willow is native to the southeastern USA, Mexico, Caribbean Islands and the parts of Central America.
It is a shrub or small tree. It’s generally grows in wet areas and along ponds and lakes edges. Typically it grows 5 – 9 m (16 – 30 f) in height, in Florida occasionally it can be grow higher. Often as broad as tall or broader. The shape of the tree is irregular crown. The trunk is short, and often leaning. The bark color is gray, roughened with ridges and furrows. The smooth bark is not particularly outstanding. It is described by Argus as "having branches dark to light brown, glabrous or sparsely pubescent (coated with soft hairs); branchlets reddish brown to yellowish brown, brittle at branch base, with bud scale margins free and overlapping.
S. caroliniana is a deciduous tree. The leaves are temperate, light green in color. These are long and narrow, about 20 cm (8 in) long and 2 - 5 cm (1 - 2 in) broad. There have little grooves both edges of the leaves.
The flowers of Coastal Plain Willow are White in color are appeared in the early spring, either before or together with the emergence of leaves. The spear shaped capsule are green in color. When it becomes mature and buster numbers of seeds comes out. Every seeds contain white cotton to wind dispersed seeds
Tsuga mertensiana commonly known as Mountain Hemlock, is
native to the west coast of North America, from Alaska to California, British
Colombia, and the mountains of Washington. It is also found in the Rockies of northern
Idaho and Montana.
Mountain Hemlock is a large tree, growing 20 – 40 m (66 – 132 ft) in height, some exceptional specimens grows up to 59 m (194 ft) in height.
Its trunk diameter can be up to 2 m (7 ft). It is also a long loving tree, the
oldest are known to be over 500 years old but some may be over 1000 years old. The
Bark is thin and square-cracked or mortise, and gray to reddish-brown in color.
The crown is a slender, breezy, conic shape in young trees with a tilted or
drooping lead shoot. It becomes cylindrical when grow older. All ages of the
trees are distinguished by the slightly pendulous branchlet tips. The shoots
are small and orange-brown in color, with frequent pubescence all most 1 mm
long.
T. mertensiana is an evergreen tree. The leaves are shape in
needle-like, 7 – 25 mm (0.3 – 1 in) long and 1 – 1.5 mm wide. These are soft, edgeless-tipped,
only little flattened in cross-section. The color of leaves are pale glaucous
blue-green on above, and with two broad bands of bluish-white stomata below
with only a narrow green midrib between the bands; and this is the differ the
Mountain Hemlock from the other species of hemlock. There also having stomata
on the top surface of leaves, and are arranged spirally all around the shoot.
Tsuga mertensiana as Ornamental Plant
There are both sexes flowers found in the same tree. The
tree is monoecious, that is, male and female flowers are separate. Male flowers
are small, round yellow cone shapes near the ends of branches. The female cones
are also small but much longer than any other species of hemlock. It is
cylindrical, pendulous, 3 – 8 cm (1 – 3 in) long and 8 – 10 mm broad before the
open. After the mature when open it become 1 – 4 cm broad, superficially
somewhat like a small spruce cone. They have thin, flexible scales 8 – 18 mm
long. The immature cones are dark purple, after the pollination it become
red-brown within 5 -7 months. The seeds are red-brown, 2 – 3 mm long, with a
slender shape, and 7 – 12 mm long pale pink-brown wing.
Mountain Hemlock is a wood tree, but outside the native
area, it is manly plant as an ornamental tree. It is planted as a specimen tree
in USA, Europe and some Asian Countries as landscaping, in garden or road side.
Mountain Hemlock cultivation is limited by the very slow growth of young plants
and its susceptibility to urban air pollution.
