Arbutus 'Marina' - Marina Strawberry tree

The Marina Strawberry tree is a great small evergreen tree with outstanding seasonal interests which include exfoliating bark, small pink flowers and red fruit. There are several great street plantings of Marina in Santa Cruz, but you can see this tree almost on every street. This is the great planting on New Street. There is a short bit of its history from the San Marcos Nursery website: http://www.smgrowers.com/info/arbmarina.asp

Marina Strawberry tree will likely stay about 25' tall but the original one in the Marina district of SF was close to 50' before being removed, so to call it a small tree might be a mistake, but not likely around here. Generally it has a straight single stem, with a more or less rounded crown to slightly oval. However I prefer the multi-stemmed forms for homes as the bark is key and getting more stems means more bark.

The leaves are evergreen, alternately arranged, elliptical shaped, 4-5" long, leathery, dark green in color but may have a tinge of bronze when emerging. The leaf margins are lightly serrated, petioles are usually red in color. Young stems are red and fairly stout. Vigorous stems may also have some short stiff hairs.

The tree seems to bloom year round, but heavy flowering in spring and fall. The flowers are small, white to pinkish tinged urn-shaped in large pendulous clusters at the ends of the branches.

The fruit, of course which is where the common name originates looks like a strawberry, well, maybe a native one but not a commercial edible one thats for sure. They are about an inch in diameter, orange to red colored, warty and yes you can eat them. But you better be hungry.

Perhaps the bark is really why people want this tree in their yard. It is magnificent. Branches are smooth mahogany colored but exfoliate in the late summer or early fall to reveal cinnamon and greens below, but the peeling parts are really great looking, reminds me of Acer griseum for a warmer climate. If you wanted the native Arbutus in your yard but can't get it to grow, try this one.

On older parts of the tree the bark will stop peeling.

I thought the bark was awesome, but the kids at the Boys and Girls Club downtown made them look even better.

Misidentification? Native Madrone (A. menziesii) maybe, they have great bark as well, but the leaves are larger both longer and wider, stems are grooved,  the flowers white, fruit smaller and more orange and if you see one in a landscape its likely not as they really prefer their native sandy soils.

Locations: Everywhere.

Santa Cruz:

New St. are some of the largest ones

Favorite Tree Books

I thought of this the other day while riding in Wilder Ranch enjoying the oaks and after a fun tree walk with a bunch of other tree fans.

Which books are either helpful or fun to read about trees?

While in no particular order.....

When we were walking in the cemetery by Harvey West Park and hearing a discussion about the Dawn Redwood it brought to mind one of my favorite books on trees.

A Reunion of Trees: The Discovery of Exotic Plants and Their Introduction into North American and European Landscapes by Stephen Spongberg.
This book tells the story of the Dawn Redwood as well as the Ginkgo tree being discovered just before WWII. I also loved the part about the plant hunters coming from the UK to explore the west coast and hearing the fate of David Douglas, namesake of the Douglas Fir.

Pacific Coast Trees, McMinn and Maino.
Bought this one while taking my first ID class at College of San Mateo with Alex Graham. Had a blast with the keys and then it just went away, lost among the new picture books. But with our recent move back to the coast, its a must have. The names are different but as usual the plants don't change.

Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us, Matt Ritter.
This is a really great book written by an expert on trees among other stuff. The keys are wonderful, pictures are excellent, and I really like the scale in each picture. The Taxonomy and nomenclature is the most up to date reference we have.

Trees of Santa Barbara, Robert Muller.
Great treatment of trees that you might not find in other books because of the climate down in SB. Its not really an ID book as much as a reference book once you know the plant. When I find something "tropical" looking here this is where I look.

Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco, Elizabeth McClintock.
Great book about the history of the park and the trees in GGP. Great descriptions as well as maps with the park and surrounding area. Full of less common trees.

Trees of Seattle, Arthur Lee Jacobson.
If I could pick a book that inspired me to write a Trees of .... book this would be it. I started one in Spokane WA but moved (after 15 years) before I could get very far.

North American Landscape Trees, Arthur Lee Jacobson.
Also by Arthur, a great book, but what I like most is the research discussing the tree's introduction and history.

Trees of the California Landscape, Charles R. Hatch.
Nice reference book, some good pictures, and nice lists of trees by their attributes. Has keys but I have not tried them.

Conifers of the World. James E. Eckenwalder.
Huge book, great information, very technical but worth reading if you like conifers and want to learn about ones from the southern hemisphere.

Conifers of California. Ronald M. Lanner.
Great book on native conifers, I especially like the ID parts, At a distance, Standing below, In the hand. Great idea.

Pocket Guide to Palms. Robert Lee Riffle.
Nice handy little book.

Conifers. Keith Rushforth.
Had this one a long time, still use it all the time, great descriptions and easy to read.

Oaks of California. Bruce Pavlik, Pamela Muick, Sharon Johnson and Marjorie Popper.
Oaks are a bugger to ID, this book helps,

Platanus x hispanica - London Plane Tree

London plane trees are one of the most commonly planted trees in CA and very common here in Santa Cruz. They have a long history as very tough landscape trees. When I asked a great friend and arborist why he thought they were so popular his response was "they are tolerant of just about anything".

They originated in England during the industrial revolution after European plant explorers brought together 2 species (P. occidentalis and P. orientalis) usually separated by thousands of miles of ocean. They proved to be very tough and tolerant of heavy particulate pollution commonly seen in London back in the day. This is one of my favorite plantings in Bath England.

London plane trees are large (70'+), bold with a very strong habit. Upright to pyramidal when young but becoming rounded with broad spreading branches. Habit really depends on the cultivar being grown. This is the planting on Walnut street in SC. These trees line so many streets. They close the canopy very nicely.

Leaves are alternate (6-8"), 3 to 5-lobed with light bristles on the lobes. Dark green upper surface with a pubescence on the lower surface that falls off fairly early in the season. A bit of an irritation to many.

Stems are brownish green, stout and slightly zig-zag. Buds are large and well hidden by the leaf base.

This is a young stem in summer and not really hardened off but you can see the small bud and the base of the petiole, which is hollow.

On young vigorous stems  you might see small leaf like appendages at the base of the petiole, they are called stipules. 

Flowers are monoecious in clusters, reddish coloring to the cluster pretty early in the spring.

Fruit is an aggregate, 1" diameter. They break up before falling usually but are still a mess. Generally borne in pairs. (Sycamores are single, plane trees in pairs)

As I mentioned, they are tolerant of almost anything and one is a special type of pruning called pollarding. You can see examples of them pruned like this at the Farm on Soquel Drive. These are from Filoli gardens.

These are in SF at the bandstand in golden gate park.

They are also likely to be damaged by a disease called Anthracnose which causes the leaves to brown and fall off early in the spring and continue later into summer. The tree will need to spend lots of energy to replace the leaves and it causes the plant to weaken over time. They also look sort of funky with most of the foliage out on the ends of the branches or they might develop what is called witches brooms.

This shows the canker where the fungal spores overwinter and provide the source of the fungal spores to infect the new leaves the following spring, when the rain splashes them onto the new leaves.

Several cultivars are available that are more resistant to anthracnose disease. 'Bloodgood' and 'Columbia' are commonly encountered. 'Yarwood has been planted in front of the new Cabrillo College bookstore, reportedly has single fruits and a very tight pyramidal habit. The native sycamore is very susceptible to this disease and should not be planted (sorry native tree lovers).

Here are a few others that I like, this one is in Canterbury England.

This one is from Amsterdam.

Can't recall the garden…. Canterbury as well I think….

Misidentification:
Not likely to be mistaken for another tree but perhaps the native sycamore, P. racemosa. This tree has very white bark when old, usually defoliated due to anthracnose disease and the leaves are more deeply lobed but not bristle tipped.

The tree is also known as P. x acerifolia and looks a lot like a maple leaf, especially Acer plantanoides, the norway maple.  Funny, there is also an Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore maple. So we have 2 maples that look like a sycamore and a sycamore that looks like a maple.

However, heard an interesting story about P. racemosa and P. x hispanica, they hybridize freely and it has been suggested that any California sycamore less than 150 years old is likely to have P. x hispanica in it. Might not be a bad thing considering the problem with anthracnose.

Location:
Almost everywhere.

Aptos:
Soquel Drive at Cabrillo College