Trees Gallery - Helmsley Walled Garden

In the walled garden at Helmsley

Helmsley Walled Garden dates back to the 1750s as the kitchen garden for Duncombe House, but was regenerated from 1995 onwards on the initiative of Alison Ticehurst, as a therapeutic horticulture garden, run by and for volunteers. It now has a cafe, shop, plant sales, conservatory, community vegetable plots, and a number of interesting and unusual trees.

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Acer davidii acer - maple; davidii after Armand David (Père David, 1826 - 1900), who documented the tree on his travels through China.

Snake bark maple

A.k.a. Pere David's maple, a small deciduous tree native to China, with arching branches, growing 10 - 15 m tall with a trunk up to 40 cm in diameter, though often with multiple trunks. The small yellow flowers have five sepals and petals about 4 mm long, produced on arching 7 - 12 cm racemes in late spring, with male and female flowers on different racemes.

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Acer palmatum acer - Latin name for the maple; palmatum, palm-like, referring to the 5-lobed hand shaped leaves

Japanese maple

A.k.a. palmate maple,or momiji in Japanese. A deciduous shrub or small tree native to Korea, Japan, China, eastern Mongolia, and SE Russia. As always with the absence of a label, I am not sure which of the hundreds of cultivars this one is. Even in nature, Acer palmatum displays considerable genetic variation, with seedlings from the same parent tree typically showing differences in such traits as leaf size, shape, and colour. The flowers are produced in small cymes a flower cluster with a central stem bearing a single terminal flower that develops first, the other flowers in the cluster developing as terminal buds of lateral stems. , the individual flowers with five red or purple sepals and five whitish petals. The fruit is a pair of winged samaras A dry, indehiscent (it doesn't split open to release the seed), winged fruit , each samara 2 - 3 cm long.

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Acer platanoides acer - from Latin for maple; platanoides - resembling the plane tree (platanus).

Norway maple

A deciduous tree growing to 30 m, native to E and C Europe and W Asia. The bark is grey-brown and shallowly grooved. Unlike many other maples, mature trees do not tend to develop a shaggy bark. Flowers are in corymbs a flower cluster whose lower stalks are proportionally longer so that the flowers form a flat or slightly convex head. of 15 - 30 together, yellow-green with five sepals and five petals; flowering occurs in early spring before the new leaves emerge. The fruit is a double samara with two winged seeds.

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Alnus rubra old Latin name for alder; rubra red, referring to the catkins.

Red alder

A deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America, the largest species of alder in North America and one of the largest in the world, reaching heights of 20 to 30 metres. The leaves are revolute curled backwards or downwards , a diagnostic character which distinguishes it from all other alders. Rather than turning yellow in autumn, its leaves darken in colour and wither before they are shed. The male flowers are dangling reddish catkins 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) long in early spring. Female catkins are erect during anthesis the period during which a flower is fully open and functional , but otherwise pendant. They develop into small, woody, superficially cone-like oval dry fruit. The seeds develop between the woody bracts of the 'cones' and are shed in late autumn and winter. Seeds have a membranous winged margin that allows long-distance dispersal. [Wikipedia].

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Aralia spinosa aralia - uncertain derivation; spinosa, from Latin meaning prickly or horny, referring to the stems

Devil's walking stick

A.k.a. Hercules' club, angelica-tree and prickly ash; a deciduous, N American shrub or small tree with exotic, prickly stems and massive compound leaves, often growing to 6 m. It features umbrella-like canopy, large summer panicles of creamy-white flowers, and purple-black fruit, often forming colonies through suckering roots.

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Buddleia davidii Buddleia - named after Adam Buddle, who wrote a notable herbarium of British plants; davidii - after Père Armand David (1826 - 1900), who collected the first specimens in Tibet and Sichuan.

Butterfly bush

A fast-growing, deciduous shrub reaching 4 m, with long, arching branches and fragrant, conical panicles of flowers (lilac, purple, or white) that bloom from summer to autumn. It has lance-shaped, dark green leaves with white tomentose(woolly) undersides.

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Choisya (dewitteana? Choisya - after Jacques-Denis Choisy (1799 - 1859), a Swiss botanist and professor of philosophy in Geneva; dewitteana - from the Dutch surname De Witt (meaning the white one), with Latin suffix eana commonly used to create hybrid names; Aztec Pearl - refers to the plant's native origins in Mexico and pearl describes the appearance of the flower buds, which are pink before opening to pure white, resembling small pearls. Aztec pearl)

Mexican Orange Blossom 'Aztec Pearl'

This shrub is a choisya, probably a cultivar (Aztec Pearl) of a hybrid - dewitteana. It produces clusters of sweetly scented, star-shaped white flowers, which are often pink-tinged while in bud, blooming in late spring. It has narrow, glossy dark green leaves that are deeply divided into 3-5 leaflets, giving it a finer, more delicate texture than the traditional c. ternata. The leaves are aromatic when bruised.

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Ficus (carica?) Ficus - : Latin name for the fig tree; Carica: from the Latin caricus, meaning of Caria, a region considered the home of the fig.

Edible fig

A deciduous shrub or small tree with large, 3 - 5 lobed leaves, smooth grey bark, and sweet, pear-shaped fruit. Native to the Mediterranean and W Asia, it grows 7 - 10 m. The "fruit" is actually a fleshy, hollow receptacle called a syconium , a fruit that has developed from more than one flower, in which the flowers were tightly clustered, and matured into a tight cluster of individual fruits - yet these flowers - ovaries/fruit are borne inside the hollow, inverted receptacle. containing tiny flowers inside. It matures to green, brown, or purple with red, sweet flesh.

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Malus sp. Malus - Latin name for apple tree

Crab apple

Crab apples are relatively small, deciduous trees or large shrubs (roughly 10m tall) featuring vibrant spring blossoms, colourful autumn fruits, and a rounded, often gnarled canopy. I am unsure of the variety for this one.

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Mespilus germanica from Greek mesos, half and pilos, felt or ball, referring to the fruit's shape; germanica, meaning German, though the plant is indigenous to SW Asia and SE Europe, having been introduced to Germany and other parts of Europe via the Romans.

Medlar

A large shrub or small tree, cultivated since Roman times for its peculiar fruit, which is usually eaten after bletting a process of softening fleshy fruits beyond ripening - with medlars leaving them in sawdust for several weeks It may be eaten raw and in a range of cooked dishes. The wild form is a thorny shrub to 4m. In the cultivated forms, the thorns are usually reduced or absent. The wood has a fine texture, very hard, with a white, slightly pink-tinted sapwood and a brownish core. The annual rings are clearly visible.

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Pinus (mugo?) pinus - Latin for pine, (pitu - resin); mugo - an old Tyrolese name, likely referring to a diminutive of musk, implying an aromatic or mossy quality

Dwarf mountain pine

. I think this is pinus mugo, a.k.a. mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, Swiss mountain pine, bog pine, creeping pine, or mugo pine. A native of S and E Alps and the Balkan peninsula, it is a low, shrubby, often multi-stemmed plant 3 - 6 m tall with matt-textured, thin-scaled nut-brown symmetrical cones.

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