Trees Gallery - St Andrews Botanic Gardens. Page 6

Ribes menziesii Ribes: from the Arabic name for the plant; leptos meaning thin, slender, fine, or small, osme meaning smell or scent, possibly referring to a fine scent. leptosmum

Canyon gooseberry

A deciduous spiny shrub up to 2 m high, native to W North America from central California to Oregon. Young shoots are downy and covered with long, slender bristles. The flowers are red-purple with a short, bell-shaped base, the sepals 1 cm. long; petals are white, sometimes rosy tinted. Fruits are globose, covered with glandular bristles, the remains of the flower persisting at the top.

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Salix pentandra Salix Latin for willow; penta Greek - five; andros Greek for man or male, referring to the male flowers having five stamens.

Bay willow referring to its glossy foliage, aromatic when crushed, and similar to the bay tree (Laurus nobilis).

A large shrub or small tree growing to 14 m, usually in wet, boggy ground. The dioecious flowers are catkins, produced in late spring after the leaves; the male catkins are yellow, 2 – 5 cm long, the female catkins greenish, 1.5 – 3 cm long; they are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous minute seeds embedded in white down which aids wind dispersal. [Wikipedia]

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Sequoiadendron Sequoia - probably relating to the cherokee tribe, possibly from Latin sequi, relating the sequence of seeds per cone; dendron - tree; giganteum - giant. giganteum

Giant redwood

Arguably the world's most impressive tree. It is the largest tree by volume and can live for more than 3000 years. Publication of its discovery in the Sierra Nevada, California, in 1852 caused a sensation. The first seed to reach Europe arrived in Scotland in August 1853 with John Matthew, narrowly beating a consignment for Veitch Nurseries in Exeter. The main use of this tree is as a grand specimen, but some experimental forestry has been conducted in Britain.

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Sequoia Sequoia - probably relating to the cherokee tribe, possibly from Latin sequi, relating the sequence of seeds per cone sempervirens semper virens - always green.

Coast redwood

The sole living species of the genus Sequoia, capable of living 1,200 – 2,200 years or more. This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 115 m. The bark can be very thick, up to 35 cm, quite soft and fibrous, with a bright red-brown color when freshly exposed (hence the name redwood). The species is monoecious pollen and seed cones on the same plant . Seed cones are ovoid, up to 32 mm long. Seeds are released when the cone scales dry and open at maturity.

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Sorbus anglica Sorbus - Latin meaning red or reddish-brown, referring to the berries; anglica - English, as it is a native of Britain (and Ireland).

English whitebeam

A.k.a. hedlundia after Johan Teodor Hedlund (1861–1953), a Swedish expert on Sorbus anglica, a small tree or shrub, often with multiple stems, native to Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is usually found growing on cliffs, quarries and rocky hillsides. It probably arose as a natural hybrid cross between Aria porrigentiformis and Sorbus aucuparia. Flowers are white, small (1 cm across), with creamy filaments and anthers, and two or three styles. Fruits are more or less globose, about 1 cm wide.

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Sorbus arranensis Sorbus - Latin meaning red or reddish-brown, referring to the berries; arranensis - a native unique to the Isle of Arran.

Arran whitebeam

One of the rarest and most endangered trees in the world. It is a hybrid of rowan and rock whitebeam only found naturally on the Isle of Arran in Scotland. It is a small, slender, broadleaf tree, reaching a height of 7.5m in favourable, sheltered conditions, but more commonly only reaching 2m because of the harsh weather conditions and over-grazing. The leaves share some of the characteristics of s. aucuparia and (s.rupicola), the original parent species. Arran whitebeam has lobes but not separate leaflets.

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Sorbus bristoliensis Sorbus - Latin meaning red or reddish-brown, referring to the berries; bristoliensis - of Bristol, referring to the location where the tree is found: the Avon Gorge and Leigh Woods, Bristol.

Bristol whitebeam

A.k.a. karpatiosorbus the prefix is after Hungarian botanist Zoltán Kárpáti (1909–1972), who made significant contributions to the study of the broader Sorbus genus in Central Europe. bristoliensis. A shrub or small tree growing to about 10 m. Flowers are 2 - 5 cm wide, white, appearing in May or early June. Fruits are broadly ellipsoid, bright reddish orange and glossy.

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