Trees Gallery - Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) - page 9

Sorbus munda

Pratt's rowan

A.k.a. s. pogonopetala, or s. pratti, but distinct from s.forrestii in having pure white fruit with no pink phase. Also Pratt's mountain ash, Pratt's whitebeam. A small tree or large shrub up to 8m high, native to China. Long pinnate leaves have ten to fourteen pairs of leaflets. The inflorescence is pedunculate, with long white bell-like flowers, followed by round berries which start green and turn pearl-white. There are 31 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Sorbus pseudovilmorinii

Vilmorin's rowan

A small tree or medium sized shrub growing to 4m, native to China. A form of s. vilmorinii after Vilmorin, a French seed company. Smaller, delicate in appearance than the species type. Fruits are persistent, crimson red at first, but pass through pink and eventually white shades as autumn progresses into winter. There are 31 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Stuartia pseudocamellia

Japanese Stewartia

A.k.a. stewartia pseudocamellia, Korean stewartia. A small to medium sized deciduous tree, growing to 15 m, often with multiple stems and low branching trunks. The bark is smooth, exfoliating as the plants age, similar to plane, and has a mottled appearance with patterns of dull orange and green with grey mixed in. Flowers are up to 8 cm wide, with five white petals with orange anthers; they are shaped like those of the related Camellia, round and flat to somewhat cupped. They are produced from June until the end of August; each flower is short-lived, but many are produced that open over many weeks. There are 59 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website

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Syringa yunnanensis

Yunnan lilac

A native of SW China. A deciduous shrub up to 4m. Erect, slender habit, with oval leaves oval or narrowly obovate, tapered at the base, pointed, dull green above, glaucous beneath, glabrous on both surfaces but margined with minute hairs. The flowers are fragrant with a pale pink corolla all the petals of a flower , becoming almost white. The anthers are yellow, reaching the mouth of the tube. The reddish calyx the outer whorl of a flower, consisting of separate or fused sepals is glabrous free from hair or down; smooth. , cup-shaped, with very small teeth. The seed-vessel is smooth or with a few warts. There are 13 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Taiwania cryptomerioides

Taiwania

A.k.a. Chinese coffin tree popularity for making coffins on account of its scented, durable timber , and Tushan. Native to Taiwan, where it is on the IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature red list as vulnerable, due to illegal logging for its valuable timber, though it is now widely grown in plantations. It has also been found growing in China and Vietnam. It is capable of growing to 80m and living for 2000 years. The species name reflects its similarlity to cryptomeria japonica. There are 35 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Taxodium distichum

Bald cypress

A.k.a. swamp cypress, deciduous cypress. Native to SE USA, it is a large, slow-growing, long-lived tree, growing to 40m with some specimens reputedly 3500 years old. The main trunk is often surrounded by cypress knees woody s tumps rising above normal water level, roughly at right angles to the roots. Possibly they provide oxygen to the submerged roots, possibly they are for structural stabilisation . It is monoecious male and female cones on a single plant , with male cones on panicles 10–13 cm long, Female cones are round, resinous and green while young, turning hard and brown as the tree matures. There are 25 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Taxus baccata adpressa aurea

Dwarf golden yew

A wide-spreading dwarf cultivar, a dense female shrub with short leaves abruptly pointed at the apex. Found in the early 1800s as a seedling at the nurseries of F. and J. Dickson at Chester. It can reach a height of up to 2m, growing irregularly and loose. There are 6 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website

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Thujopsis dolobrata

Hiba

A.k.a. Asunaro, Hiba Arborvitae Hiba tree of life , Hiba Cedar, Deerhorn Cedar due to the branching habit of the leaves, Battle Axe Cedar leaves look like battle axes - dolobrata means axe , Lizard Tree scaly leaves resemble the skin of a lizard . A native of Japan, it is one of the Five Sacred Trees of Kiso along with Chamaecyparis obtusa ヒノキ, Chamaecyparis pisifera サワラ, Sciadopitys verticillata コウヤマキ and thuja standishii ネズコ . It is a monoecious having male and female reproductive parts on the same tree evergreen tree 30 – 40m tall, with a densely pyramidal-columnar habit and spire-like crown, often with multiple stems from the base or with lowest branches layering. The bark is dark reddish-brown, with vertical fibres detaching in long thin stringy layers. It has scaly, thick, leathery leaves borne all around leading shoots but arranged in fan-like lateral sprays on branchlets. There are 16 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Tilia x europaea

Common lime

The noticeboard at RBGE says: A Tree of Uniformity. A feature of Britain's parks and gardens, the common lime is a hybrid of two native limes - small and large leaved. Selected for its ornamental properties, it is propagated by layering or root cuttings, so every common lime is genetically identical. The trees produced are very uniform and are popular for planting in avenues or crescents like this one. Highly attractive to bees when in flower, common limes produce an abundance of shoots from the base of their trunks.Ironically, despite being a selected variety or cultivar, most gardeners cut off these sprouts to reveal clear, if scarred, bark. Beneath that bark limes produce a fibre called bast, once important for rope-making. Today limes still produce piano keys, sound boards for instruments and refreshing tea. There are 56 photos on the RBGE website.

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Tilia moltkei

Von Moltke's linden

A.k.a. t. spectabilis, t. americana moltkei. An old cultivar of the American linden originally assumed to be a hybrid. The crown is loose, broad and ovoid to rounded. Young trees have Young twigs are smooth and olive green, often reddish brown on the top and side facing the sun. The twigs and branches often hang down slightly. Umbels of aromatic, pale yellow flowers the same as those of T. americana appear starting in June. This is the best-suited nectar-producing tree for beekeepers. It is rarely used as an avenue or street tree because of its broad crown. [Van den Berk]. There are 4 photos on the RBGE Garden Explorer website.

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Tilia tomentosa petiolaris

Weeping silver lime

A large deciduous tree about 30m tall, with downward-sweeping, pendulous branches bearing long-stalked, sharply-toothed, heart-shaped dark green leaves, whitish felted beneath. Clusters of richly fragrant, pale yellow flowers in late summer. T. tomentosa is native to Europe, with Petiolaris a sterile cultivar of uncertain origin, having longer leaf petioles the stalk attaching a leaf to the stem. and drooping leaves; There are 9 photos on the RBGE Garden explorer website.

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