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.

Autumn Leaves

#Tree Tuesday

First Day of Autumn

In 2014, the autumnal equinox brings the fall season to the Northern Hemisphere on: September 22 at 10:29 P.M. EDT. The days are getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere. Day and night are approximately equal in length. 

Sun peeking through hickory tree leaves around noon.

 

Gathering up oak and hickory tree leaves using a gasoline-powered blower. 

Franklinia (Franklinia alatamaha) a southern American native that's hard to find

#treetuesday

 The Franklin tree blooms in the Philadelphia area at the end of July into August.  The yellow mass in the center of the flower consists of numerous stamens (male parts).

 Fertilized flowers, but undeveloped fruit, appear in the top of the photo.
The pistil, female portion, is the stick-like portion protruding from the developing fruit.
 Fully developed, but immature, fruit appear in the center of the photo.

The Franklin tree remains small and open or scraggly in stature.  Its mature height is 10-to 20 feet. 

Franklinia (Franklinia alatamaha), the Franklin tree named for Benjamin Franklin, is a native of the southeastern U.S.  Originally found near the Altamaha River valley in Georgia, by John Bartram and his son William, it is now considered extinct in the wild and only known from cultivated trees.  This small tree is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 8.  This photographed tree is a youngster and grows in a slightly shaded spot near a college campus in suburban Philadelphia.

Slow Death of a Fine Tree

Tree Tuesday

You are in so much of a hurry with so many things to do that you unknowingly sacrifice the life of a fine ornamental tree by leaving fairy lights in place in-between seasons. 

The result of leaving any kind of band around a tree in-perpetuity is slow death by strangling.  Tree people term this "girdling" and the villain slowly works its way through bark - composed of cork cambium, phloem (food conduction tubes), cambium (cells for lateral growth) and sometimes going into the xylem  (water conduction tubes).  Eventually the part of the tree above the girdle dies.  Eventually the whole tree dies.