Outside
of the greenhouse, the Kew landscape has recently been going through some
staggeringly beautiful and dramatic changes. The place is absolutely chock full
of mature and magnificent trees, so the autumn colour is both unique and
utterly glorious! There are literally thousands of trees here; The Arboretum holds
the lion’s share of the site with the garden display areas dispersed in amongst
it. The long history of the gardens means that many of these specimens are
beasts, and considered champions within British arboriculture! This season of radiant
autumn colour has already given way to winter structure, but with the strong
possibility of snow on the horizon I am looking forward to smothered branches
and icy silhouettes!
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Several
majestic specimens of Taxodium distichum dominate the banks of the Palm House
lake, what a tree! |
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Down
by the main lake, Taxodium distichum is collapsing into an autumn drop while
the evergreen Taxodium mucronatum holds things together with a stiff upper lip |
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A
monstrous Larix decidua towers over Prunus serrulata ‘Taki-nioi’ |
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The
shocking red foliage of Sorbus commixta! |
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An
autumn standard, the Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum |
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The
foliage of Cotinus obovatus displays these curious markings in autumn, the tree
appearing to drain the life out of each leaf |
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Over
by the Palace, a stand of Liquidambar styraciflua |
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This
is Pterocarya x rehderiana, the foliage delightfully reminiscent of Wisteria
autumn colour |
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The
Temple of Aeolus perched on the mound that affords some good views of the Palm
House, and an ancient Acer campestre |
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The
shimmering display of Carya glabra, which has the charming common name of the
Pignut hickory and is native to the Eastern United States |
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Prunus
serrulata ‘Tai Haku’ lights up the Japanese Garden and Chokushi-Mon (the
Gateway of the Imperial Messenger) |
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A chap named David Nash has been displaying some of his famous
sculptures across the garden. He works mostly with wood, and these organic
shapes have looked quite fantastic amongst the frosty Kew landscape |
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Amongst
all of the colour, some incredible seed pods have been seen about the place!
These are from the Goldenrain tree, Koelreuteria paniculata. Apologies for the
quality of the image as these were taken with my field telephone device |
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Paulownia
tomentosa fruit is egg shaped and with tiny, papery seeds. These seed pods and
fruit were brought together for our recent identification test, every fortnight
we have a ‘plant ident’ featuring a test on 20 Latin names from a possible list
of 40. This includes genus, species and family |
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Finally
this is from an Aristolochia species. Such detail and colouring, it looks more
like an expensive Christmas tree decoration! |
One
of my favourite Hidcote blog posts was from this time of year; please click here for more autumn mayhem.
7 comments:
Though I've no talent for gardening, I am nonetheless enjoying your posts from Kew, which one day I hope to see in person. Here in Southern California, there are liquidambers up and down the street where I live. they are certainly ablaze in gorgeous color this time of year. And, lots of work raking up all those leaves when they start to fall, very soon now.
Some beautiful images Bertie, I especially love the misty one... thanks for sharing Kew with us.
Hey Bertie, loving this 'tree' post and enjoying the new blog from Kew! The last picture of the seed pods of the Paulownia tomentosa fruit is beautiful.
Hen x
Hooray for deciduous conifers! Looking forward to reading more about your placement at Kew!
Intricate seed pods, I would surely be busy seeking out those. I've become a bit obsessed by collecting seeds lately. I don't remember there being a palace at Kew ( I read it has been been undergoing some restoration for the past few years. It's a wonderful orange colour and shape. I am also surprised by quite how many trees there are. Great to see the changes in atmosphere at different times of the day and year.
Brilliant post as always Bertie. Remember Latin names are always italicised, or underlined if writing by hand. Hope the test goes well! They would always dock us lots of marks for forgetting that at uni.
Greetings all!
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