Melaleuca quinquenervia - Paperbark Tea tree

Another tree from the southern hemisphere that preforms very well in California, maybe better in warmer areas than SC but still pretty okay. The paper bark tea tree is a medium to fast growing evergreen tree with an upright oval shaped habit, It can can have a pretty open or pretty full canopy. More likely grown for its fairly narrow habit and its beautiful bark.

These are at Cal Poly and you can see the open habit.

Leaves are simple, elliptical, 2-4" long by about 1/2" wide, entire margins, both sides look the same and the veins look parallel, unlike most dicots. Reddish new growth in the spring, medium green in summer and an odd purplish in the cooler season. May be slightly hairy, especially the petiole.

Terminal buds are red, pointed but only about 1/" long.

Flowers are typical of this group, sort of bottle brush like, off white to cream colored, lots of flowers in a tight cluster along the stem. Easily seen if you look at the fruit below.

Fruit is a small rounded capsule, about 1/4" diameter, retained on the stem for a long time.

As I mentioned, the bark may be why people plant this tree. Very light colored almost white, and very spongy. Peels off in large sheets.

This tree also goes by Punk Tree, Paperbark Punk, Cajeput Tree, Niaouli, and just plain old melaleuca. Considered invasive in at least 6 states.

Misidentification: Bottle brush when not in bloom perhaps. Look at the bark and the habit.

Location:
Capitola:
In front of Big 5 on 41st by Capitola Dr, nice grouping.

Santa Cruz:
209 Fridley
Ocean St, County Court House parking lot.
334 Pacheco Ave

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 nigra - River Birch

The River birch is a large, fast growing, deciduous tree capable of reaching 80 feet but more likely 35-60'. Often grown as a multi-stemmed tree to show of the bark. It forms a pyramidal shape and can be 30' wide. Give it room. Very interesting bark when mature. Fall color is not as great as other birches but not bad.

These are going fast, most of the cul-de-sac on Mar Vista (in Aptos) were removed.

Leaves are alternate, simple, rhomboid to ovate shaped, margins doubly serrated, base is wedge shaped. Dark green above and glaucous (waxy layer) below. Leaves generally 1- 1/2" 3- 1/2" long. Petiole is slightly hairy.

Stems are light reddish brown and slightly pubescent when young. Much smoother than the other birches and has a smaller bud.

Flowers are monoecious (male and female flowers on the same plant). Males in overwintering catkins 2-3" long. Females emerge with the leaves, small (3/4") red and erect. This image shows the males and the pollenated females.

Fruit are small nuts in a catkin. All the birch fruit look alike to me. You can see a picture of the nuts in the post on Betula pendula.

The bark of the species is usually dark brown with stiffly exfoliating sheets. Quite rough in appearance. There will be a few that show some smooth pinkish white peeling bark. 

The cultivar 'Cully' is such a selection beautiful bark, larger leaves and faster growth. 'Cully' has the common name of Heritage Birch. This birch selection has very nice bark, and is very fast growing, with slightly larger leaves. I am not sure I have seen any around here but I will keep looking.

Misidentification: Other birches perhaps, but not with that bark. Look at the stems, once you know its a birch it will be easy.

Aptos:

Mar Vista Dr. across from the intersection of Madeline along the street and into the small cul-de-sac but you better hurry, many of them were removed this winter.

There are some young ones on the Cabrillo campus in the plaza outside the "new" health science building.

1770 Dolphin Dr are a few nice ones

Soquel:

Soquel along Soquel/San Jose at the entrance to the blue ball park.

Santa Cruz:
619-623 Seabright Ave - Condo driveway

Laurus nobilis - Grecian Laurel

The Grecian laurel is from the Mediterranean region and yields "bay" leaves and "laurels" used by the Greeks. Its a slow growing evergreen tree to about 35', usually multi-stemmed with a wide spreading form after its upright youth. Not sure why you would plant it, do you really need that many bay leaves?

Leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 2-4" long, narrowly elliptical or lanceolate, entire margins, sharp pointed tip and fragrant. Glossy, dark green as well.

The cultivar 'Saratoga' released by the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation has rounded leaves.

Flowers are borne early spring, in clusters at the ends of last years growth. Plants are males or females.

These are the flower buds.

The trees are often multi-stemmed as seen here. Bark is generally gray and smooth.

Misidentification: The California bay perhaps. Both multi-stemmed generally, both with very fragrant foliage. The Ca bay tree has lighter green leaves, and a fleshy fruit like a small avocado.

Location: 221 Townsend Aptos,

110 Madeline Aptos

Pinus ponderosa - Ponderosa Pine

The Ponderosa pine is one of my favorite conifers. It is native to parts of SC county as well as the Sierras and into the eastern portions of  the PNW.  Tall columnar shape when older, trunks void of branches for about a third of the trunk showing off the beautiful bark. Lateral branches short, mostly perpendicular to the trunk. As would be expected there are variations of this species as some are found in the Sand Hills area and others at 2000 feet elevation of the inland pacific northwest. Growth rate is medium and has been noted to grow several feet per year when young. The ponderosa pine is also know as bull pine, blackjack pine and the western yellow pine.

Leaves are needle like, in bundles of 3 (there is a botanical variety with 2 or 3 needles P. ponderosa scopulorum) 6-8" long, light to medium green color and very sharp pointed. Needles tend to be restricted to the ends of the branches as they only last 3 years. They are also somewhat droopy on the branch.

Reproductive structures are separate on the trees, males generally dark reddish purple (or can be yellow) before opening and releasing massive amounts of yellow pollen. Generally borne on the lower branches.

Females are red, and borne higher up in the tree.

Immature cones vary in color with subspecies, and can be black to purple as seen in this image from eastern washington to green colored.  All the cones turn dark reddish brown as they mature. They are about 4" long, oblong or ovate shaped, with very sharp prickles on the ends of the scales that reflex backwards (outward, unlike the Jeffery Pine). 

Mature cone. Note the tips of the scales pointing outward.

The cones leave behind a row a scales on branches when they fall. The are not the only ones that do that, its just a helpful characteristic.

Stems are very stout, greenish-brown. 

Trunks with mature bark is one of the most beautiful barks I know. If you look closely the bark bits look like jigsaw puzzle pieces. But it takes a long time to develop this sort of trunk. Orange in color, with black crevices. 

Misidentification: Always look at the needle number first, these have 3.
Jeffery pine for one,
Other 3 needle pines in our area:
P. attenuata, Knobcone Pine is native to the northern county and can be seen in UCSC wild areas. Cones are very different, in large clusters on the main stems and held for years.
P. canariensis, much longer softer needles, longer cones, much fuller habit but more or less the same overall shape but way full.
P. coulteri, longer bluer leaves, more stiff and dont seem to droop on the stems, not as restricted to the ends of the branches as they last 3-4 years. Much broader habit. There are some around.
P. jefferyi, the cones are different in that the prickle on the scale is curved inward and will not stick you and you will not likely see one in SC.
P. radiata, covered earlier, dark green leaves, shorter and softer.

Location: Several nice places,
From the road you can see them on:
Highway 17 between Granite Creek Rd and Mt Herman Exits on the north side,
Highway 1 to the east, lining the area below Cabrillo College
Graham Hill Rd just past Quarry Rd on your way to Ben Lomond on the right is a beautiful one.
Mt Herman Rd as it leaves Scotts Valley area and heads into the Sand Hills area.
Scotts Valley has a great collection, there is a nice big one on the corner of SV Drive and Bean Creek Rd.

In town, you can see one that was supposed to be a P. pinea so its planted with other Italian Stone pines, on Mar Vista Dr in Soquel outside the Seacliff Adult mobile homes on your left.

Acer buergerianum - Trident Maple

The trident maple is a great little tree and a welcome addition to our evergreen dominated urban forest. It is a small deciduous tree, 10-25' tall, generally rounded outline, often low split trunk forming a multi-stemmed tree. Foliage is dense. Foliage is green during summer and can turn beautiful red in fall, depending on location.

Leaves are opposite, simple, 3-lobed near the apex, rounded base, 2-3" long and wide. Very distinct but can resemble some of the red maples. Lobes are acute pointing forward, entire on the lower half of the leaf, lightly serrated towards the tips. Dark green above, lighter green below with a waxy layer (glaucescent bloom). Petioles are 1.5-2" long.

Variable leaf shape.

Flowers in an erect panicle, light yellow, early spring.

Fruit are paired samaras, typical of the maples. Samaras about 1.5-2" long with more or less parallel wings. Reddish in summer.

Bark

There are several very interesting cultivars but usually not very widely planted except by collectors. They may have smaller foliage, twisted foliage or even variegated. Several are in Santa Cruz. Makes a great Bonsai.

Misidentification: maybe a young red maple but they would be much larger trees.

Location:
Aptos:
228 North Ave (Seacliff) nice specimen.

Capitola:
4675 Capitola Rd. Capitola
Center St and Sunset in Capitola
720 Sunset Capitola, funny how they show up in the same neighborhood.

Santa Cruz:
Nice grove in Harvey West Park

Pinus canariensis - Canary Island Pine

Certainly one of the most commonly planted pine trees in our area. Usually quite easy to identify from a distance. Tall and skinny, sort of billowy for the most part with pendulous long needles. Very tolerant of urban conditions, seems to like dry soils but tolerates wetter sites and does well in poor soils. Here is a group planted at Stanford U.

The Canary Island pine is a moderate to fast growing pine to about 50-80' tall and 20-30' wide. Pyramidal when young becoming conical mid-aged and eventually flat topped (see the one below at the Huntington Garden). Main trunk thick very straight. Laterals short (but can be long) and typically upright eventually becoming horizontal with the tips curving up at the ends, creating a somewhat layered tree or appearing whorled or billowy as I mentioned.

The linear needle-like leaves, retained 1.5-3 years are in fascicles of 3 with a persistent 1" sheath, and are 6 - 12" long. They are bright green to yellow-green, and slender which is why the longer ones droop gracefully with their weight.  Shoots stout, buff to yellow-brown, and rough from the non-photosynthetic leaves.

You will see lots of juvenile foliage on this species, along the trunk or near cut branches. They are borne singly, light bluish colored, and about an inch long.

Buds are about 1" long and already contain all the leaves that will grow that season.

Male cones are clustered at the ends of lower shoots, opening up to be yellow, releasing lots of pollen. After these fall off you will spaces on the branch without any leaves. Do not be mistaken that something is wrong or is dropping leaves.

Female cones are slightly curved on short stout stalks, glossy chestnut-brown symmetrical, hard, heavy, ovoid-conic, 4-8" long.

As they open.

The bark is extremely thick, reddish, with small flaky plates separated by shallow furrows.

This is what they like to do to them in Southern California.

Here are two I saw several weeks ago growing at the base of the SF Bay Bridge.

Misidentification:  Be sure to count the needles and look at the length as well as them being soft. Pinus coulteri also has long needles in 3's but they are blue, very stiff and the tree is more rounded. 

Other 3 needle pines in our area:
P. attenuata, Knobcone Pine is native to the northern county and can be seen in UCSC wild areas. Cones are very different, in large clusters on the main stems and held for years.
P. canariensis, much longer softer needles, longer cones, much fuller habit but more or less the same overall shape but way full.
P. coulteri, longer bluer leaves, more stiff and dont seem to droop on the stems, not as restricted to the ends of the branches as they last 3-4 years. Much broader habit. There are some around.
P. jefferyi, the cones are different in that the prickle on the scale is curved inward and will not stick you and you will not likely see one in SC.
P. radiata, covered earlier, dark green leaves, shorter and softer.