Acacia stenophylla - Shoestring Acacia

The Shoestring Acacia is a fast growing smaller evergreen tree reaching 25-30 with upright branching and somewhat bent or twisted to weeping secondary branches seemingly going all over each other. Generally single stemmed but can be found as a multi stemmed tree. Not really attractive in a small container and needs a good salesperson with a nice specimen on hand to sell them. Life span is reported to be plus or minus 50 years but I have seen several just fall over. 

Leaves are evergreen, alternately arranged, simple, linear, 12 -16" long by 1/3 - 1/2" wide, dull gray-green color on both sides, thick textured, generally straight but some lightly curved. They are technically phyllodes and not leaves, but flattened petioles which is the stalk of a typical leaf.

Flowers appear in the early spring but the only ones I have seen in SC county blooming are too high. They are light yellow and in round clusters like many other acacias.

Fruit is a pod, often called a loment because of the restrictions between the seeds, 3-5" long, tan to brown in color. Pod will often break apart at the constrictions. The pods I collected form seed off the trees in Santa Barbara came with weevils in every seed.

Stems are mahogany colored, thick and more or less shiny. Vegetative buds are tiny.

Bark is persistent, rough, dark gray with reddish inside the checked bark.

Misidentification:
Cant think of anything

Location:
Aptos:
Cabrillo College Hort Center (6500 Soquel Drive) (Gone - Fell over in the wind)
455 Sandalwood Dr.

Capitola
4525 Garnet St.

Santa Cruz
City all along Locust St

Paulownia tomentosa - Princess tree

The Princess tree is a very fast growing large tree with beautiful flowers. Growing  50+ feet, it forms a dense rounded to oval canopy. Pretty spectacular sight in full bloom. Known to be pretty invasive, where one is planted other  show up in neighbors yards.   Would not want to have to clean up the leaves in the fall. My students are always impressed with the specimen on 36th. This one is on Clubhouse Dr.

Leaves are deciduous, opposite, simple, large 6-12" long x 4-8" wide, cordate shaped either entire or with 3-5 lobes. Leaves are densely hairy, almost velvety texture. 

Variously lobed, most of the time 3-5 but this one caught my eye but you can see the leaf behind it with pointed lobes.

Flowers are borne prior to the leaves in large upright 12" panicles. Individual flowers are purple, trumpet-shaped, 2" long and wide with a lower lip from fused petals. The flowers have some yellow in the throat. 

Flower buds are copper colored.

Fruit is an oval-shaped brown capsule with a point on the end.

Stems green, thick, and somewhat hairy.  Bark is mostly gray, with some dark diamond shaped areas.

Misidentification:
Huge leaves, large purple flowers, really fast growth rate.

Location:
Aptos
970 Clubhouse Drive

Santa Cruz
733 36th Ave (Pleasure Point)

Acer saccharinum - Silver Maple

The silver maple is a fairly common large shade tree in our county, especially in older areas of town. You might think it's our native maple due to the leaves but they are not really that close. As far as I can guess its common name comes from the silvery lower leaf surface.

This is a fast growing larger tree, maybe to 45-50 feet here but over 75' elsewhere. It has upright and spreading branches making it the ideal street tree shape except it has weak wood and likes to lift the sidewalks and streets. It likes wet soils, likes septic systems, and may be a tree to plant where nothing else will grow.

This species is native to the central states and has a native range that overlaps with A. rubrum which has resulted in many hybrids in commerce. (Hybrids are named A. x freemanii.)

This image is located in the PNW and shows the size as well as the nice yellow fall color.

These two trees are in front of Native Revival Nursery. (no longer in business)

Leaves are opposite, 5 lobed, 3-6" with very deeply acuminate lobes. The center lobe is often strongly 3 lobed but all the lobes are toothed. Leaves medium green color and silverish beneath (waxy bloom). Maple people like to point out the angle formed by the lobes. Its called the sinus. The sinus is angled at about 45 degrees (see our native maple which have rounded sinuses in the image at the bottom.)

Flowers are produced very early in the season. They are orangish and can be pretty showy. Male and female flowers on same tree (monoecious).

Fruit is a winged pair of samaras, wings spreading to about 90 degrees. They dry a light brown color and generally are not of equal size.

Trunk is thick, smooth gray when young developing shallow fissures showing a light orangish color.

Misidentification:
Perhaps several other maples. The native big leaf maple has larger leaves but the lobes have less teeth on them and the silver maple has distinct white on the lower surface.

There are many hybrids with the red maples and many of the true hybrids look more silver than red and can be hard to identify, but the flowers of most hybrids and reds seems to be red while these tend to be more yellow red.

Locations:
Aptos
Mar Vista Ave in front of Native Revival Nursery. (Image of the deciduous trees above are in front of the nursery.

Soquel
At the Persimmon house, on the corner of Main St and Soquel Drive, 3010 N. Main St.

2800 Chanticleer across from Mission Tile

XCupressocyparis leylandii - Leyland Falsecypress

The Leyland cypress (falsecypress) is a very fast growing evergreen conifer to 50' by 15 - 20' wide,  often upright pyramidal to almost columnar. Primary lateral branches upright at about 45 degrees. Eventually becomes more open with age but is a tight screen when younger. Often pruned into a hedge. 

This is a pretty mature specimen showing the flattened branching habit typical of the hybrids.

Originally considered a hybrid between Cupressus macrocarpa and Chamaecyparis nootkatensis. The parents didn't change but their names, both of them, one several times. Now considered to be a hybrid of Cupressus as most taxonomists have put Chamaecyparis back into Cupressus as the foliage lasts 2 years instead of only 1. So it might be called Cupressus x lelayandii. Then again, with the discovery of a closely related new species in Vietnam Chamaecyparis nootkatensis was moved to Xanthocyparis. But then someone noticed that the genus Callitropsis was overlooked in preference of Xanthocyparis making Callitropsis the proper name. Many taxonomists don't agree with this classification and prefer to keep Chamaecyparis with Cupressus.

So where does that leave this poor lost plant? Who knows. Taxonomists are rearranging the other half of the cross, Cupressus into 2 genera, old and new world species. As I mentioned in the post of our Monterey Cypress, it's name has changed to Hesperocyperus. So, while the big dogs battle this one out I am sticking with X Cupressocypris leylandii. 

Leaves are evergreen, scale like, tips free, dark green or bluish green about 1/16" long, in flattened narrow sprays, lasting 2 years before turning brown. You can see the leaves below how the tips spread out.

Here you can see how the leaves and branchlets are arranged in flattened sprays

Small inconspicuous male and female stroboli.

Rounded cone, 3/4' diameter, shiny brown at maturity with 4 sets of scales, each with a slight point in the center, maturing in 2 years

Cultivars are numerous, I have seen many in England where they are really popular. Yellows and blues mostly.  I have a great picture on my old school slides showing 3 in a group at the Botanical Garden in Cambridge.

Not recommend much anymore due to a couple of fast acting diseases.  Botrysopheria canker that causes cankers and dieback and Seiridium canker which looks similar but is usually accompanied by large amount of pitch.  

Misidentification: Yes, very likely around here, they are commonly mistaken for Monterey Cypress. The cones are much larger on our native, and the leaves are not as distinctly pointed and the lateral branches come off  in all directions rather than this one being in a flattened spray.

Location: Capitola: as seen from the freeway at the Park Ave exit surrounding the Capitola Knolls Condos.
East Cliff Village Shopping Center, on the east end of the parking lot, near where Tremont Drive enters the shopping center.

Ulmus parvifolia - Chinese Elm

The lacebark elm, also called the Chinese elm is wonderful deciduous tree. Do not mistake it for the similar Siberian elm and its one of the reasons many use lacebark rather than Chinese. The form is truly beautiful with age, a bit gawky when young. You can see the weeping tendencies in the first picture and the awkwardness in the second. This a a fast growing tree, 30-50' tall and wide spreading, maybe even wider than tall. Forms a spreading to rounded crown with varying degrees of weeping branches or at least the end of the branches. Evergreen except in cold climates.

Leaves are alternate, simple, 1 to 2-1/2" long by about 1/2" wide, oblanceolate to elliptical, serrated margins, dark green upper surface and lighter  below. Leaf base is characteristic of elms, they are uneven or oblique. Not all plants with oblique bases are elms, but elms have oblique bases. Elms are also known for having stiff hairs on the upper surface making them fell like a 5 day beard. In areas where they are deciduous they can have nice red to yellow fall color.

Flowers are small, not likely noticed, and borne in the fall unlike other elms.

Fruit is a small round disk like fruit about 1/2" in diameter with a papery covering over the seed. Produced heavily in the fall.

Certainly one of the greatest attributes is the bark. These are planted nicely in a grove to show off the bark. The bark is orangish brown with lots of lenticles and peels off or sheds in small flakes.

Misidentification: The Siberian Elm, but the have very different bark, bloom in the spring, are weedy, and the leaves tend to be doubly serrated.

Locations:

the grove shown is at 2701 Estates Dr, Aptos

Santa Cruz: 710 Mission St. is a really big one

17th heading towards the beach from Portola along the street at the Elementary School

Betula pendula - European Weeping Birch

Perhaps one of the most popular trees in northern climates, the European White Birch. Regardless for being a riparian tree they are everywhere in Santa Cruz. They are by far the most common birch seen in SC, partially because the others have not been available as long. You may notice them more in the winter due to their habit than in the summer.

These are large (30-50'), fast growing deciduous trees with an oval to pyramidal habit with upright spreading laterals and weeping minor branches giving it a very nice soft shape. Sensational tree, love the weeping habit, the drooping branchlets from the main laterals. Generally looks best in groves. You may recognize this on on Mission Blvd. You might run into a "clump birch" which could any birch species but has 3 individual trees growing in the same pot. 

You can see the form more easily in winter. And, its very clear that most people plant them in groves.

Notice the small lateral branches are seriously weeping while the strong laterals are more upright.

The leaves are alternately arranged, 1.5-3" long, ovate to deltoid or rhomboid shaped with serrated margins and the tip can be (but not always) very much acuminate.

Twigs are reddish-brown with lots of whitish glands.

Male flowers in a 2-3" long catkin overwintering, usually in 3's. Female emerging in spring, red color and erect on lateral branches. These are the male catkins, the image below is the catkins open.

Fruit are little nutlets retained in the same structure as the female flowers, with a distinct bract separating each fruit, looks sort like a fleur de lis. We used to pull the seeds and bracts off the stalk and put them down our friends shirts.

Not one of the better birches for winter interest as the black starts earlier than other 'white bark birches". The bark is chalky and comes off in very thin sheets. Along with the fruit we used to pull the bark off in strips.

Fantastic fall colors of various yellows, this was up north and they do not color like this here.

Many cultivars available. 'Dalecarlica' is the cutleaf birch which I will cover later. 

'Youngii' is a popular weeping cultivar. This one is in Capitola.

There are several purple leaved ones floating around. 

 The little dwarf one is fun. 'Trosts Dwarf'.

There are other birch trees here, from what I have seen, in decreasing popularity, B. jacqumontii, B. nigra, B. pendula 'Dalecarlica', B. papyrifera.

Misidentification: Other birches perhaps, the B. jacquemontii looks pretty similar but the young twigs are hairy and the buds are short rather than long. B. papyrifera is pretty similar but the leaves are not generally rhomboid nor does the tree have the weeping habit seen with B. pendula. I dont recall where this image came from, but you can see some of the typical birch leaf shapes.

Locations: Almost everywhere. At one time they were extremely popular (I still like them.)
Aptos

Nice ones on Humes

Santa Cruz

the one on Mission is pretty nice, and just a block away towards downtown you can find a grove of cutleaf birches as well as a jacquemontii (white bark birch) on the other side of the street.