Mountain Laurel - Kalmia latifolia

Ericaceae - Heath Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 25
Mountain Laurel
Kalmia latifolia

Spring

Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia

Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia

These small trees are filled with flowers in May and June.  You can find many Mountain laurels throughout the Botanical gardens of Asheville; that is where these photos were taken.

The beautiful flowers display mother nature's stitching as each flower has intricate stitching in each flower.
http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/

Mountain Laurel

The Mountain Laurel is usually a large shrub that lives in thickets.  However, it can grow up to 25 feet tall with a single trunk that is 10 inches in diameter.  The flowers are pink and white and red with pink lantern-shaped buds.

Summer

Mountain Laurel - Kalmia latifolia

Mountain Laurel - Kalmia latifolia

Fall

Does anyone have a photo or drawing they would like to add to my project for the Fall Mountain Laurel or Winter Mountain Laurel? If not, I better get busy!


Winter


For the love of the trees,
Becky

Persimmon - Diospyros virginiana

Ebenaceae - Ebony Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 24
Persimmon
Diospyros virginiana

The word Diospyros means "the fruit of the gods" in ancient Greek.

Spring

Persimmon Tree in the Spring
The green is very vibrant in the early morning spring light.
This tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.

http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/.

Persimmon Flower.  Thank you to Wikimedia commons for the use of this beautiful persimmon flower .   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Persimmon_0375.jpg

This is a female Persimmon flower.  Both female and male flowers grow on the Persimmon tree.

Summer

Persimmon leaf teas have been used for many years in China, Japan, and in Korea.  These teas have been said to have numerous health benefits.  Benefits to health include improving blood lipid values, skin health, colon health, and many other health benefits have been reported as far back at 1000 years.

Persimmon fruit growing in the summertime

Fall

Persimmon fruit growing in West Virginia in the fall.  Photo by Robert Priddy

Persimmon in the fall.

The fruit before it ripens is very astringent.  I wanted to know what that meant, astringent.  So, I tasted a a persimmon back in June when the fruit was green.  I discovered what astringent means.  It means every single drop of moisture in your mouth is sucked out.  I had the driest mouth I ever had in my whole life.  So, today, needless to say, I was a bit skeptical to try and taste this now ripe fruit.  I have heard it said, not to eat the persimmon until they start to fall from the tree.  For, then and only then, are they ripe.  Well, today, on my walk about, there were persimmons on the ground.

So, I picked one up off the ground, with a wish that no dog came by earlier, and I felt the persimmon.  It was quite soft.  I smelled the persimmon, I did notice a sweet-like scent, that was new to me.  After touching and smelling, I decided to taste.  I bit into the soft flesh of the persimmon fruit.  I was so amazed at what I tasted.  The fruit was so sweet, like a heavenly date-like nectar.  I had to taste more.  They were all a gift from the tree.  I thanked the tree and will be sure to go back tomorrow for another taste of heaven.

May you all find a persimmon tree on just the right fall day

Winter

Persimmon Tree that lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens

The bark of the Persimmon tree is distinctive with a dark deeply-fissured, rectangular blocks.  The Persimmon tree is native to the eastern US.

From Wikipedia:  "In philosophy, the painting of persimmons by Mu Qi (13th Century) exemplifies the progression from youth to age as a symbol of the progression from bitterness to sweetness. The persimmon when young is better and inedible, but as it ages it becomes sweet and beneficial to humankind. Thus, as we age, we overcome rigidity and prejudice and attain compassion and sweetness. Mu Qi's painting of six persimmons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Persimmons) is considered a masterpiece."

For the love of the trees,
Becky

Eastern Red Cedar - Juniperus virginiana

Cupressaceae - Cypress Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 23
Eastern Red Cedar
Juniperus virginiana

Eastern red cedar is actually not a cedar. It is a juniper. The red cedar is the most common native conifer in the Eastern United States. Its seeds are spread by cedar waxwings and other birds that eat the blue seed cones. The berries are so blue!

Spring

Juniperus virginiana

The small pink flowers on the Red Cedar will turn into a blue berry-like cone.

This next image is a Red Cedar tree with a Rust Gall.  These are quite interesting.  These do not harm the Cedar tree; yet they are cause much havoc to apple and crab apple trees.

Cedar Apple Rust

These trees are so important to the birds in the winter. The berry-like cones provide food during the winter months. Cedar waxwings, American Robin, Northern Bobwhite, Turkey, Starling, Mourning Dove, Northern Mockingbird, Purple Finch, American Crow, Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, and the Eastern Bluebird all eat the berry-like cones of this tree. If you want birds to come visit where you live, plant these trees and enjoy.

Summer

Eastern Red Cedar - Juniperus virginiana

The Red Cedar is important to wildlife, it is beautiful, and it lives a very long time (400 plus years). The berries (cones) on this tree are colorful and used in herbal medicine as well as providing food for birds. The bark is colorful, interesting, and smells wonderful.

This Juniperus virginiana tree is filled with blue berry-like female cones.

Fall

Juniperus virginia in September in Arkanasas

Winter

If you have an image you drew or photographed and would like to add it to my blog, please send it to me.
I will be going out to find this winter Eastern Red Cedar this week.


For the love of the trees,
Becky

Black Gum - Nyssa sylvatica

Cornaceae - Dogwood Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 22
Black Gum
Nyssa sylvatica

Spring

Black Gum leaves and flowers in May at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.

The vibrant green leaves of the Black Gum tree stand out in the forest in the spring time.  The small flower clusters are still on the tree in May.  This Black Gum tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.
http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/

Summer 

The Black Gum Tree in the Summer

The Black Gum Tree in the Summer

Dark spots often decorate the Black Gum leaves.

The beautiful Black Gum tree stands with its branches straight out from it's trunk.  It paints it's leaves with dots of color and then changes to brilliant orange and red.  It is said that migratory birds feast on the fruit of the Black Gum, for they see the color from high in the sky.  The fruit is one of the first fall tree fruits to ripen.

Fall

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Winter

The Black Gum Tree Bud

The Black Gum Bark

This beautiful tree has bark that looks like little rectangular blocks seperated by deep crevices. This Black Gum tree is the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina.

Another good way to ID a Black Gum tree is by the horizontal arrangement of the branches to the trunk.

Do you know how to imitate a Black Gum tree?

For the love of the trees,
Becky

Always appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flowering Dogwood

Cornaceae - Dogwood Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 21
Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida

Spring

Flowering Dogwood in the spring

Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood, in the spring

The Dogwood trees are so beautiful this time of year!!!!  The leaves are opening up and growing by the hour.  Some trees are in full flower and some are leafing out.  It is a wonder filled time of year.

Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, in the spring

Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, in the spring

The Flowering Dogwood Tree in March

A flowering Dogwood in April.  

The Dogwood Tree - Cornus florida

The beautiful Dogwood is in full spring bloom in the mountains of North Carolina.  I am always in awe of this incredible display of flowers in the sky, and always look so forward to April to see this sight again.

Summer

The Flowering Dogwood Tree in July

The flowering dogwood has these little green berry-like fruits called drupes during the summer. The leaves are getting a bit worn come summer time. However, to see this tree on a July summer day with the fun filtering through the leaves, well, I am not sure it gets much better.

Many animals and birds will depend on these drupes for food when they ripen in September.  The drupes will be bright red by September and can usually be seen on the trees until December.

The Flowering Dogwood tree in July.  The veins on the Dogwood leaves are quite distinctive the way they all curve up towards the tip of the leaf.

Fall

Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood in the fall

Fall Flowering Dogwood Tree

Beautiful red berries,

A fall red blush,

I can not pass by without pausing

and being grateful for this moment.

Winter

The Flowering Dogwood Tree

This Flowering Dogwood lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/

You can always recognize the beautiful flowering dogwood tree by it's very distinctive bark. The bark is broken up into little interesting shaped pieces. You can also identify this tree by it's buds that are all upright and remind me of little birthday candles all over the tree. Sunsets and dogwoods can paint such beautiful scenes.

Flowering Dogwood Bark

The drops of rain on the dogwood tree were so beautiful on every limb. The winter dogwood tree stands out with its thousands of limbs lifting up to the sky with buds on the ends of each limb. The water droplets shining like small diamonds in the morning light looks like stars.

For the love of the trees,

Becky

Alternate-leaved Dogwood

Cornaceae - Dogwood Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 20
Alternate-leaved Dogwood
Cornus alternifolia


Winter

Alternate-leaf Dogwood

The Alternate-leaved (or leaf) Dogwood in this photo lives at the Botanical Gardens at Asheville.  This is a beautiful garden with many native southern Appalachian trees.  http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/

The Alternate-Leaved Dogwood - Cornus alternifolia

Spring

Alternate-leaved Dogwood

These images show the springtime ivory-colored flowers of the alternate-leaved dogwood tree. 
The leaves look like a flowering dogwood except they are alternate instead of paired opposite.

"Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf." Albert Schweitzer

Alternate-leaved Dogwood

The flowers bloom in April and May.  These flowers are grouped together in a flattened top type of arrangement called a cyme.

Summer

The Alternate-leaved Dogwood

This tree is called an under storytree, for it grows under the forest canopy.  It often will have horizontal branching and a flat-topped crown.

Fall

Alternate-leaf Dogwood

The Alternate-leaved dogwood is a small tree which may reach up to 30 ft and 6 inches in diameter. The tree has slender branches that grow horizontal to the ground. The Bark is green as a young tree and retains some green as it grows older. The leaves are alternate and clustered mainly at the end of the limbs that appear almost whorled. The fruits are blue black drupes with an unpleasant odor. The dead twigs turn bright yellow. This tree has white flowers in April and May.

I found it interesting when I read that it is possible that the common name of Dogwood may have come because “dogs were washed with a brew of its bark, hence Dogwood.”

For the love of the Trees,
Becky