Garden Notes - Wayfaring Tree to Yew

Wayfaring Tree
Viburnum Lantana

A near relative of the Guelder Rose (see No. 22); a shrub-like tree which usually grows from 6 to 10 feet high, and occasionally to 20 feet; abundant on dry, chalky soil. Bark: fissured, gray-brown. Branches: in pairs; stout young twigs covered with grayish hairs. Leaves: in pairs, egg-shaped, very hairy when young, coarse and much wrinkled in summer, crimson and red in autumn. Flowers: white, arranged in flattened circular clusters, individual flowers funnel-shaped, five petals. Fruit: flattened oval berries, green at first, turning to coral-red, and finally to black; glossy and smooth.

Wellingtonia
Sequoia gigantean

Introduced from N. America about 1853, and named after the Duke of Wellington; in California has been known to exceed 400 feet in height, and 100 feet in girth. Bark: thick, fibrous, reddish-brown. Branches: slender, horizontal or drooping, lower branches usually sweeping the ground; regularly decreasing in length towards top, thus producing the pyramidal outline characteristic of the tree. Leaves: short, rigid, arranged spirally, closely pressed to stem, evergreen. Stamen-bearing flowers in small catkins; Pistil-bearing flowers in cones. Fruit cones: 1 ½ in. to 3 in. long, egg-shaped, woody, consisting of 25-30 scales.

Crack Willow, or Withy
Salix fragilis

A native British tree. Fond of cold, wet soil in low-lying ground, especially near sluggish streams. When fully grown reaches a height of 80 or 90 feet, with a girth of 20 feet. Branches: smooth, yellowish-brown in color; very brittle at the base and easily broken off, especially in spring (hence its name of Crack Willow). Leaves: lance-shaped, 3 in. to 6 in. long, smooth with pale undersides. Stamen-bearing flowers in erect catkins, 1 in. to 2 in. long; Pistil-bearing flowers also in erect catkins, more slender than stamen-bearing flowers, and born of different trees. Both flowers appear in April or May.

Goat Willow, or Sallow
Salix Caprea

A native British tree, usually grows about 15 or 20 feet high, occasionally to 30 feet. Leaves: egg-shaped, varying from lance-shaped to broadly oval, unpolished and many-veined, downy beneath. Stamen-bearing flowers begin to appear in February, and mature about a month later, when the golden-yellow and almost globular catkins (popularly known as "Palms") are visited by swarms of bees and moths. The Pistil-bearing catkins, green to silvery in color, are bo9rn on a different tree. As the Fruiting catkins ripen they resemble masses of fluff, and the tree is whitened as though snow had fallen.

Yew
Taxus baccata

The longest lived native British tree, a Yew at Fortingale, Perthshire, being over 2000 years old; usually 20 to 30 feet in height, and greater in breadth. Trunk: massive, sometimes 50 feet in circumference, made up of many branches fused together. Bark: furrowed, thin, scaly, purple-red. Leaves: narrow and flat, leathery, very dark-green, about ¾ in. long, poisonous to horses and men. Stamen-bearing flowers in catkins, almost round, about ¼ in. across, each flower with about six yellow anthers; Pistil-bearing flowers resemble minute green buds. Fruit: consists of an olive-green seed embedded in a red, wax-like cup.