Camer Park

There are a nice selection of trees in Camer Park, planted at various times, I presume much later than the extension of the house in 1716.   In fact some of the trees were not introduced until the 1830s at the earliest.

A previous post described in detail the wonderful three trees which are located in the centre of the garden. Close by is a single Japanese Pagoda or Scholar Tree, Sophora (Styphnolobium) japonica, which is showing a lovely autumn flowering this year (the usual period for this tree) - I wonder if the unusual summer has had anything to do with this showiness, or whether it is normal. The creamy white flowers are produced in really generous panicles, nicely exotic. I don't think this is the dramatic weeping form, probably just the standard species, which was introduced to the UK in 1753.

It is actually a Chinese tree but has traditionally been widely cultivated in China, Korea and particularly Japan.

It is a good landscape tree, but tends to shed year-round, a bit of a nuisance. Its durable wood is used in boat construction and building, and most parts (except the pod) have good uses in Chinese Medicine.

The fruit is a leguminous and toxic tomentum, splitting into one-seeded parts.

Zelkova serrata at Camer Park, Meopham.

Very pleased to identify a Zelkova at last, although I do wonder whether I have seen leaves from this tree before, but failed to give it any name at all in the past!

Once I spotted the correct genus in the Collins guide, after spending a long time determined to fit these leaves into the genus Nothofagus, I was absolutely delighted to head almost straight away towards Zelkova serrata. Several pointers - the leaves hanging DOWN, which I had thought might be due to the drought or time of year, but is actually a characteristic of the species, and the number of vein pairs - 12 on the leaves I looked at fitting in with the stated 9 - 13.

The upper surface of the leaf is "micro-rough", even finer than an Elm might be. The underside is contrastingly glabrous. The toothing on the leaves didn't immediately seem to fit the book descriptions exactly, but seems to fit a range of the images on the internet very closely. The leaf size is given as 6 - 12 cm, and I thought these were at or just over the top of this range.

The tree is said to be quite beautiful when the leaves turn. I look forward to the stated orange colours this autumn!

Zelkova serrata, the Keaki (or Keyaki), is from Japan, China and Korea. It was often grown in Japan for timber, ornament and bonsai. A spreading habit is often referred to, very obvious in these three trees. The spreading habit in these trees might help support the theory that these trees might be old enough to have been grown from early batches of Japanese seed brought to the UK in the early 1860s.

The bark is grey, smooth and very Beech-like, to my eyes indeed. There is no sign as yet of any bark flaking off to reveal orange patches beneath in this tree - except the split on the right. There were plenty of flakes with underlying dark orange on the right-hand tree which was examined the following day, photo not yet available.

The twigs are slender with small, dark conical buds held in a zigzag pattern on the twigs, each bud pointing outward at a fairly characteristic 45 degrees. The pattern, in hindsight, is really very elm-like, as in the photo taken from the bench underneath the tree's canopy.

The species is said to be pollution-resistant (not sure why this isn't a moveable feast, as pollutants change over time).

The yellow-green flowers occur in tight groups, perhaps high in the canopy and the fruits are small, pea-green drupes. An American source has the fruit as a small triangular drupe, pea green turning brown, sub-sessile, 2.5 cm long and 2.5-3.5 mm in diameter with the surface covered by an
irregular network of low ridges. 

The currently recognised county champion for girth and height is 13 m high with a girth measured at 240 cm at 1.1 m, in Cherry Ingram's old garden at the Grange, Biddenden. The notes on the Tree Register suggest that this might have been grown from Japanese seed. The first tree I measured at Camer Park, the first of three, has a greater girth than that, 240 cm, measured at 75 cm height, and the second, with a much more muscly trunk, measured at 261 cm, measured at height.

The timber is very valuable as it is fine-grained and rot-resistant. It is much used in high quality furniture, construction and ship-building. It is also traditionally used in the making of the Japanese drums called Daiko, as seen in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HL5wYqAbU. The Wikipedia page on Daiko is also exceptionally good.

The Zelkovas are in the Elm family and used to be spread across the north Temperate zone. Zelkovas differ from Elms in that the seeds lack a wing, and the bases of the leaves are much more symmetrical. A Zelkova that looks a little like Z. serrata is in the North American fossil record from the Eocene. However, Zelkovas are thought to have died out in North America in the Tertiary period.

Acer cappadocicum, the Cappadocian Maple

Acer cappadocicum is a fairly large tree from Asia Minor - Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus across to China. It SHOULD be fairly easily recognised as its got quite distinctive un-toothed triangular palmately-arranged lobes to its leaves. It is said to have obvious milky sap in its leaves, and I saw some evidence of this.

More says it always throws up root suckers - but I didn't see any root suckers at Cobtree Manor Park, where I came across this strong contender for the ID in mid-August 2018. The leaves look the right shape, but do seem quite large (up to 15 cm) in relation to the dimensions given in this book, 5-10 cm. However Wikipedia supports up to 15 cm.

The tree is quite a late introduction to Western Europe, said to be as late as 1838. It is thought to be commonly planted in large parks and gardens - Leeds Castle for example has a bit of a collection of Acer cappadocicum.

The day after I first saw this tree at Cobham Manor Park, I saw a second tree just by the car park at Camer Park near Meopham! The tree is quite a light green overall, covered with multitudes of yellowish good-sized double samaras in the middle of August.

And, when I checked, there were indeed quite a few root suckers.

Acer tataricum ssp ginnala, or simply Acer ginnala

I found a well-established plant that I think must be this, to the north of the Japanese Pond in Broadview Gardens.

The leaves are quite a characteristic shape:

Acer pensylvanicum - Moosewood - the coloured bark form labelled 'Erythrocladum'

Acer davidii 'Serpentine' - and the inconsistency of text descriptions !

One of the nicest things about the small tree in the semi-shade labelled as Acer davidii 'Serpentine' just to the north of Sandell Lake in the College grounds is the fulsome display of fruits above your head and against the sky as you stand underneath the arching boughs. The fruit nutlets are green and the fruit wings yellowish to pinkish in this tree at the moment. The branches are densely leaved as well as fruited and the overall effect is somewhat ethereal.

Bluebell Nurseries proclaim a yellow autumn colour for their plants, while Ornamental Tree Nurseries say that theirs colour up a deep red, and the Shoot website and Larch Cottage Nurseries claim their trees' leaves become a deep orange. Does it vary with the plant's genetics or environment I wonder, or are the colours just variable on each tree? I wonder what this particular College tree will end up as?

There is similar variation in the described colours of the fruits (pink-brown or red) and the bark (red, purplish). The petioles may be green (in the shade?) to pinkish. A. davidii ssp davidii is partly separated from A. davidii ssp grosseri in at least some texts by the former's pink to red petioles and the latter's green ones.

Here is a quote from the TreesandShrubs online: † cv. ‘Serpentine’. – A selection raised from seed in Holland, apparently from Forrest’s form, with smaller leaves than normal. Young wood brown. (http://treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-davidii/).

This is quoted from the Polish PlantMar website: "This cultivar was discovered as a chance seedling in a nursery in Boskoop (Holland), raised and introduced by W.J. Hooftman in 1976. Much smaller than the type, forms small shrubby trees to 5-6 m high by 4 m. Leaves dark green, narrow and oval, almost unlobed (specially on older plants), smaller than the species (10 cm long) with red petioles. The bark is the most ornamental. On young shoots it is carmine-red to purple (specially nice in the winter) with distinctive, creamy stripes. Here is a picture from a shoot in the sun that seems to capture the colour of the petioles, the summer shoots and the one year old twigs."

Again from the PlantMar website, "the older twigs are olive-green with vertical pearl-white stripes. Buds red. Fruits abundant, samaras to 2 cm long. Autumn colours orange and yellow, not so reliable. Good plant for smaller gardens."

I wonder if the bark could be improved by cleaning off the lichens, etc? These two pictures below are of quite large main trunks, about xxx girth, so obviously refer to the older bark description above "olive green with pearl-white stripes".

One feature that every website seems to agree on however, is that the leaves of this cultivar are rather narrower than the type. This picture below seems to indicate the relatively narrow leaves of this Cultivar, as well as what might be leaf damage caused by a hungry caterpillar.

Acer davidii 'George Forrest' and 'Earnest Wilson'

This first series of photos of a cultivar of Acer davidii was seen at the Cobtree Manor Park between Aylesford and Maidstone in October. 2015. I think it is probably Acer davidii 'George Forrest'. This is still a small tree here, in its native habitat the species is a medium-sized spreading tree that can grow to 10 - 15 m.

According to Wikipedia, the leaves are 6–18 cm long and 4–9 cm broad, with a petiole 3–6 cm long; they are dark green above, paler below, ovate, unlobed or weakly three-lobed, with a serrated margin. They may turn to bright yellow, orange or red in the autumn. The flowers are small, yellow, with five sepals and petals about 4 mm long; they are produced on arching to pendulous 7–12 cm racemes in late spring, with male and female flowers on different racemes. The samara nutlets are 7–10 mm long and 4–6 mm broad, with a wing 2–3 cm long and 5 mm broad.

'George Forrest' is a cultivar of Acer davidii (subspecies davidii?) that is said to have originated in Scotland. The species was originally discovered by Pere Armand David, in 1869 and rediscovered by Charles Maries a few years later, 1878.

The species description states that samara nutlets are 7–10 mm long and 4–6 mm broad, with a wing 2–3 cm long and 5 mm broad, at nearly 180 degrees. Flowers small, yellowish, in slender, pendulous, 5-7.5 cm long, clusters (racemes); female clusters longer than male.

These particular leaves are not very serrated, toothed or lobed. Pictures on the internet appear to indicate a degree of variability! Oregon State University points out that in the species on younger plants almost all the leaves are tri-lobed, and their own plant (of the species) is nearly entirely three-lobed. One feature that appears reasonably consistent is the  crimson red of the petioles, and a variable reddishness of the shoots. The young leaves are also reddish as they unfold.

The stem is greenish with white stripes. The whitish stripes, characteristic of these snakebark maples, are said to be due to waxes that accumulate in the valleys of the bark, and may therefore be quite variable, dependant upon the ebbs and flows of the wax:

The next series of photographs is of another tree, this time in Dunorlan Park, and earlier in the season, at the beginning of August. I think this could be the cultivar 'Earnest Wilson' perhaps - they do seem quite narrow and unlobed, there does seem to be a bit of a v-fold at the base of the leaves, and they are perhaps a bit greyish underneath. so perhaps I should consider this. The arching habit is quoted on some websites. If so, there should be a good orange autumn colour, not seen in 'George Forrest', but the leaves should not unfold in the early dark orange flush characteristic of 'George Forrest'.

In this case the petioles are a light reddish-pink rather than bright scarlet, and this could perhaps be due to the time of year, or perhaps 'George Forrest' isn't the right ID, and 'Earnest Wilson' is.

It was interesting to see on these ripening samaras that the area of the nutlets remain a strong green while the wings have started to colour up quite well. I also saw this pattern in the tree labelled as Acer davidii 'Serpentine', which is encouraging if it is thought to be a feature of the species.

So interesting to compare with the samaras of the tree tentatively identified as Acer rufinerve in Dunorlan Park where this colour pattern is entirely reversed.

Here is a picture of one of the main stems, showing the "white, green and brown vertical striping" and some of the horizontal break-lines in the bark that we see in some of the on-line images, unreliable as they are. On this plant, there are none of the dark purple stripes that you see in some online photos, however.

Acer rufinerve - a snakebark maple

A single plant of Acer rufinerve, the Grey-budded, Red-veined or Honshu Maple from central Japan, is on the planting list at Dunorlan Park and I think must be the ID of the relatively broad-leaved Snakebark Maple planted in the half shade above the boathouse and the large oaks, beeches and limes on this slope.

According to the key, Acer rufinerve falls into the Macrantha group L on the key, those with 3-5 or 5 lobed leaves and membraneous pockets in the underside vein axils. This key makes no mention of the obvious reddish tufts of hairs also in the axils, which some authors say are persistent, as they appear to be here. Others claim that the hairs disappear in the summer, and the University of Copenhagen states that they are not found on the most vigorous shoots.

The overall mature leaf outline is said to always be obovate (quite broad?), as opposed to quite variable in a variety of other small Acers. The young shoot should then be blue-whitish bloomed to distinguish it from A, pensylvanicum which has a green young shoot, and usually longer obovate leaves. The petiole is greenish, as described by most books.

The plant in Dunorlan Park often look rather speckled with yellow and could perhaps be infected with a visible virus.

In July 2018 the developing fruits on this tree showed red where the seeds are, while the wings remain green. this is a feature of Her's Maple noted in the Collins Guide but Her's Maple (Macrantha Group K in the key) has its reddish hairs in the leaf axils soon lost, persistent white pegs, and stubbier side-lobes. Although it looks as though the seeds are developing well, the tree is dioecious according to Wikipedia, so the seeds will probably be infertile. This doesn't sound like an invasive species - see below? In addition, the sex of the trees is said to be malleable with environmental conditions according to researchers who worked in its native range in Japan.

The young stem is that lovely green-striped pattern that you see in the books - but the overall shape of the young tree is rather disappointing, rather too upright and ungainly I thought - and the potential space for this tree is a little cramped. so I don't think that will change. Note the greenish bud in this photo, not yet obviously white-bloomed.

Amazingly, this tree is said to show signs of invasive-ness in Belgium!

Acer griseum and other compound -leaved Acers with dark imbricate scales on their buds

There is an Acer griseum beside the driveway into Hadlow College - and it is very nearly the recorded size of the County Champion at Cherry Ingram's old house, the Grange at Benenden.

The vegetative Acer key moves into Group B, when you are looking at trees with compound leaves, and then into either trifoliate or pinnate leaves. The next important step is to look closely at the buds. If there are just two non-overlapping bud scales, then you are off towards cissifolium, henryi, and negundo. A. cissifolium has brown woody second year twigs, and trifoliate leaves with pointy leaflets, while the other two have green or purplish second year twigs. A. henryi has trifoliate leaves while A, negundo is the familiar Box Elder with pinnate leaves, normally five. I can deal with these in a separate post focussing on Acer negundo.

If there are more than four dark overlapping scales, then you are off towards mandschuricum, triflorum, griseum and maximowisczianum (nikkoense). A. mandschuricum, The Manchurian Maple, a smallish upright tree with good autumn colour, has glabrous (contrasting red) petioles with quite lanceolate slightly toothed leaflets, while the petioles of the other three are hairy-fuzzy. A. triflorum has the underside leaf pubescence largely restricted to the main veins, and the bark coarsely vertically fissured. A. griseum and maximowisczianum (nikkoense) have obvious pubescence under their leaves, with peeling orange bark on A. griseum, and smooth bark on A. mazimowisczianum. The former tends to few lobes decreasing towards the apex, while the latter has perhaps more shallower lobes or blunt teeth of equal size.

A. griseum is the commonest seen as an ornamental tree in the west, as the overall effect is quite stunning, while the other species are quite rarely planted. From a distance the leaves of A griseum are an attractive matt almost grey-green against the orange curls of the trunk and branches.

This a close up of the dark scaled (4+ imbricate scaled) buds and the pubescent petioles:

This is the underside of the leaves:

Broad-leaved Lime at Dene Park

I finally had a good look at this small tree on the Knight's Park path in Dene Park, which I have wondered about for many years. It had leaves up to 150 mm long, quite floppy, and nearly as wide as long. A close examination showed a downy upper surface, hairs on the lower surface, with very obvious whitish hair tufts on the less developed leaves. It does look quite a lot like Broad-leaved Lime, Tilia platyphyllos Scopoli.

Looking very closely at the teeth, most are drawn out into a point, a feature of this species I think.

This is the underside of the leaves.

and here is a view of the tufts and hairs on the underside of the leaves.

I was very pleased to find all these features. Now all I have to do is go back in about 8 months to see the winter buds

Oliver's Lime at Riverhill Himalayan Gardens

The two specimen of the Chinese White Limes or Oliver's Limes, Tilia oliveri Szyszyłowicz, on the east end of the front terrace are looking a bit tatty really, although on the plus side, the Mistletoe plants do love them - perhaps a Mistle-Thrush or two might be involved.

From above, the sub-cordate leaves looked a rather acidic lemony yellow rather than a dark green, while from below a very uniform whitish or light grey colour is produced presumably by the tomentum (stellate-downy). The base of the leaves is quite unequal, looking as though the leaf is set upon the petiole at an angle. Things I did notice were the (glabrous) smooth glossiness of the young shoots, and the quite long petioles. I didn't notice the colour of the bark.

The plants originate from moist forest in NW. Hupeh, in Central China, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 metres altitude.

Hilliers describe it as: "A Medium Tree. This is an elegant domed -shaped tree, leaves dark green above and silver-white beneath. Very pretty in wind. It has silver-grey bark which is clear and smooth. This tree is clear of aphids.". There is also an excellent article in "Trees and Shrubs Online", describing its introduction.

From the Chinese eFlora. Trees 6-26 m tall. Bark dark gray, smooth with shallow furrows and rounded ridges; branchlets glabrous; winter buds big, glabrous or hairy. Petiole 1.5-5 cm, glabrous or rarely pilose; leaf blade broadly elliptic, ovate-orbicular, or triangular-ovate, 6-14 × 4.5-10 cm, abaxially densely gray-white stellate tomentose, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 5-6 pairs, base shallowly cordate to obliquely truncate, margin serrate to serrulate, teeth often awned, apex shortly acuminate. Cymes 7-20-flowered, as long as or shorter than bracts. Bracts band-shaped, sometimes broader distally, 5-8 × 1-2.5 cm, adnate to peduncle for 2/5 of length, sessile. Sepals triangular-ovate, 5-6 mm, abaxially densely stellate puberulent, adaxially densely tomentose. Petals 5, 6-7 mm, glabrous. Stamens 45, in 5 fascicles, glabrous; staminodes smaller than petals, glabrous, stalked. Ovary densely stellate tomentose; style glabrous. Fruit obovoid, globose, or ellipsoid, 7-10 mm, gray-white tomentose and verrucose; exocarp woody, hard, indehiscent. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 82*.

It is listed as fairly narcotic to bees.