Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) - A Great Japanese Tree With a Lot of Potential

The Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) is among my favorites #treetuesday features.   it has great potential as an urban tree when planted in locations that serve its needs.  

Its heart-shaped leaves are so very reminiscent of the Cercis (redbud) trees that the genus name for the Katsura is Cercidiphyllum  or Cercis leaves. Japonicum, of course, means of Japan.  

Spring and summer leaves display a blue-green hue.  Autumnal leaves, as the following photos show, turn bronze to yellow.  

Photos are of trees planted in ring around the tree lawn / green belt / hell strip between a church parking lot and the residential street which the church fronts. These trees are located in Roanoke, VA.

Interesting photo showing progression of tree leaf color and senility.  This depends upon where the sun strikes the tree.  More sun means green leaves longer; shade means earlier coloration and ultimate senility and abscission.

Quick reference for whether the tree is a redbud or a katsura is a look at its leaf arrangement along the stem.  Redbud leaves are arranged alternately; those of the katsura are arranged oppositely. 

Here we see a variety of autumn leaf colors ranging from yellow-green to golden yellow to bronze and pink-bronze.

Gingko biloba and planting in Century Park Plaza, Roanoke, Virginia

One of my favorite places in downtown Roanoke, VA is the Century Park Plaza between Kirk and Church Streets.  It is planted with columnar ginkgo trees - both male and female -  with wisteria draped over trellises that hide the sides of neighboring buildings.

The Plaza is also home to seven sculptured columns decorated and colored to symbolize the cultures represented by Roanoke's sister cities.  The columns are tucked in among the gingko trees.  Mimi Babe Harris and Donna Essig created the sculptures.  The columns were dedicated in 2004 and are part of Roanoke City's public art collection. 

Entrance to the PLaza from Kirk Avenue 

Entrance from Kirk Avenue  through metal arches

Entrance from Kirk Avenue up brick steps, bypassing

 small fountain heads and through metal arch

Fountains consisting of small heads or jets, metal arches made of metal,

 and containers of summer annuals (coleus) made a great introduction to the 

light green leaves of Ginkgo biloba 

Laburnum anagyroides (common laburnum / golden chain tree) is an early summer feast for the eyes

Laburnums are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkan Peninsula.  Members of the pea family, their golden yellow flowers hang in racemes which do look like golden chains.

Don't mix them up with Koelreuteria paniculata, commonly called the golden rain tree, which blooms in mid- to late-June.

Golden chains hang from an underappreciated specimen in Roanoke, Va

 

Happy Autumnal Equinox to all Tree Huggers

Kudzu (probably Pueraria lobata) is at the height of its flowering cycle

#treetuesday introduces what is probably one of the most invasive species ever introduced into the Unites States  First introduced as a flowering ornamental at the Philadelphia Continental Exposition in 1876. In the 1930s and '40s, the government rebranded kudzu as a remedy for soil erosion and as cattle feed. 

 In the southern U.S. kudzu is reportedly used to make soaps, lotions, contribute to compost, and the fiber used to make baskets. 

***All of these photos taken near a street where I live in southwest VA where it rambles over abandoned trees and even over an invasive bamboo.

 

Aralia spinosa: The Devil's Walking Stick, a dangerous but colorful North American native

The thorns arising from the woody trunks and stems 

give this small tree its name.

Aralia spinosa, aka The Devil's Walking Stick or Hercules Club, is our #treetuesday woody plant of the week.  In the ginseng (Aralia) family it is native to eastern North America. It's been many years since I've seen a stand of them, but found these in a much cutover slope near Charlottesville, Va. 

Small white flowers develop into these showy maroon berries

 in the autumn 

The tri-pinnately compound leaves are another distinguishing 

characteristic of this handsome but straggly tree.

Ginkgo biloba: an ancient and beautiful tree

#tree tuesday

Ginkgo biloba, commonly called the gingko  or the maidenhair tree, is an ancient and unique species with no living relatives. Often called a living fossil, the gingko is similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. It is native to China, was introduced early to human history and cultivation. It has various uses in traditional medicine, and its fruit is a source of food in Asian cooking.  The gingko, preferably the male of this dioecious species, makes a handsome and adaptable urban ornamental.