Trees Gallery - Helmsley Walled Garden

Prunus serrula prunus - genus name for a group of trees including plums, cherries, peaches, and apricots; serrula, 'saw-like', referring to the serrated leaf margins

Tibetan cherry

Standing next to the American black walnut is a Tibetan cherry, a popular ornamental tree in parks and gardens across the country. The main attraction is its bright red papery bark, with horizontal lenticels a loosely packed mass of raised pores in the bark of a woody plant, visible on the surface of a stem as a raised powdery spot, through which gaseous exchange occurs banding around the trunk.

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Ptelia trifoliata ptelia - from the Greek name for the elm tree, due to similar winged fruit; trifoliata - Latin for three-leaved, describing its compound leaves.

Common hop tree

A.k.a.wafer ash, stinking ash and skunk bush,is native to N America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the USA. A small tree, or large shrub growing to 6 - 8 m. The bark is reddish brown to grey brown, with short horizontal lenticels, becoming slightly scaly with age. It has an unpleasant odour and bitter taste. Small flowers have 4 or 5 narrow, greenish white petals, alternating with five stamens. They are followed by round wafer-like papery samaras, 2 - 2.5 cm across, light brown, with 2 seeds. These ripen in October, and are held on the tree until high winds shake them loose.

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Sambucus nigra sambucus - Greek, possibly referring to sambuke, an ancent instrument made from elder; nigra - Latin for black, referring to the dark colour of the berries.

Elder Probably from the Anglo Saxon æld meaning fire, because the hollow stems of the branches were used as bellows to blow air into a fire

A.k.a. elderberry, black elder, European elder, bore-tree (Yorkshire dialect, pronounced 'botry'). A deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 6 m, rarely reaching 10 m. The bark, light grey when young, changes to a coarse gray outer bark with lengthwise furrowing, lenticels prominent. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, pinnate with five to seven (rarely nine) leaflets, the leaflets 5 - 12 cm long, with a serrated margin. The young stems are hollow. White flowers are borne in large, flat corymbs, followed by dark purple to black berries. Both the flowers and the berries have a long tradition of culinary use, primarily for cordial and wine.

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Sorbus thibetica sorbus - from Latin, referring to the service tree (s. domestica), possibly from two Celtic words meaning sour and apple; thibetica - of Tibet, referring to its native habitat in the Himalayas and SW China.

Tibetan whitebeam

Now often classified as Griffitharia thibetica, a robust deciduous medium large tree growing to 20 m, native to the Himalayas and SW China. It has large, broadly rounded or oval leaves that are dark green above and distinctly white-hairy underneath, creating a striking silver effect in the wind. It produces clusters of creamy-white flowers, followed by yellow-red to brown apple-like fruits.

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Syringa meyeri syringa - from Greek syrinx, meaning pipe or tube, referring to the hollow, pith-filled stems of plants in the lilac genus; meyeri after Frank Nicholas Meyer (1875–1918),a Dutch-American plant explorer working for the US Department of Agriculture who discovered this lilac species in a garden in Beijing; Palibin after Ivan Vladimirovich Palibin (1872–1949), a Russian botanist and explorer who specialized in the flora of Asia. palibin

Dwarf Korean lilac

A slow-growing, compact, deciduous shrub known for its dense, rounded habit and intense fragrance. It produces masses of lilac-pink flowers in late spring/early summer, reaching 1.2 m in height and width.

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Syringa vulgaris syringa - from Greek syrinx, meaning pipe or tube, referring to the hollow, pith-filled stems of plants in the lilac genus; vulgaris - Latin for common or widspread. alba

White lilac

A hardy, deciduous shrub or small tree, reaching 5 m tall. It has intensely fragrant, cone-shaped, terminal panicle flowers that bloom in April - May), with deciduous, opposite, heart-shaped green leaves.

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Tamarix ramosissima tamarix - from Latin, possibly related to the Tamaris River in Spain;ramosissima - from Latin ramosus branching, issima, most, meaning many-branched.

Salt cedar

A deciduous, fast-growing shrub or small tree, reaching 1 - 5m (up to 18ft) in height, known for its arching reddish stems, grey-green feathery foliage, and feathery plumes of pink flowers in summer. It is exceptionally hardy and drought-tolerant, thriving in salty soils.

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Trachycarpus fortunei from Greek trachys, rough, and karpos, fruit, referring to the fibrous, rough trunk of the palm; fortunei, after Scottish horticulturist Robert Fortune (1812 - 1880).

Windmill palm

Also called the Chusan palm, native to subtropical and temperate mountain forests of China, Japan, Myanmar and India where it typically grows to 12 - 20 m. One of the hardiest of the palms, cultivated for its coarse but strong leaf sheath fibre, used for making rope, sacks, and other coarse cloth where strength is important.

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Viburnum carlesii Viburnum - Latin for the wayfaring tree (V. lantana), meaning to plait, bend, or wicker; carlesii - after William Richard Carles (1848–1929), a British consular service member in China and Korea who brought the plant to the attention of Western botanists.

Korean spice viburnum

A highly fragrant, deciduous shrub prized for its dense, rounded habit and intoxicating, spicy-sweet scent. It has red buds that open into pale pink or white snowball clusters in late spring, followed by berries that turn from red to black in autumn.

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Viburnum opulus Viburnum - Latin for the wayfaring tree (V. lantana), meaning to plait, bend, or wicker; opulus - after a species of maple (acer opalus) with similar leaves.

Guelder rose

A deciduous hedgerow shrub and common garden ornamental, native to Europe, N Africa and C Asia, growing up to 4 m. It has bright red berries and white foliage. Its common name relates to Gelderland in the Netherlands.

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Viburnum plicatum Viburnum - Latin for the wayfaring tree (V. lantana), meaning to plait, bend, or wicker; plicatum - Latin for pleated or folded, referring to the texture of the leaves, which have prominent, deeply impressed, and parallel veins that make them appear pleated.

Japanese snowball

A.k.a. doublefile viburnum, a deciduous, multi-stemmed shrub known for its distinct, horizontal, layered branching, growing to 3 m tall and wide. It features deeply veined, dark green pleated leaves, producing showy white flowers - either spherical snowballs or flat lacecap clusters - in spring. The shrub often offers red-purple autumn colour and red berries that turn black.

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