Fraxinus velutina 'Modesto' - Modesto Ash

I have been watching this tree for years and never stopped to take a close look at it. But one day in late November I stopped because the fall color was spectacular and most ash trees with yellow color fades very quickly. The Modesto Ash has great color for a long time. Planted in large quantities in cites as street trees. Drought tolerant as well.

Foliage is deciduous, opposite, pinnately compound, 4-10" long, with (3)5-7 leaflets, each leaflet elliptical to lanceolate, 1-2" long, terminal leaflet larger than the others, with long petiolules (petioles of the leaflets), margins lightly serrated along the upper half of the leaflet, entire on the lower half or more. Upper surface medium green, lower may be pubescent, especially in the spring, or smooth later in the summer. Terminal leaflet is very wide in the middle of the leaf, narrowing to a long point, while the others are much narrower.

Not sure it makes much of a difference but the rachis and the petiolules are very much grooved.

Trees are males. Don't have any pictures.

No fruit as they don't have female flowers.

Stems are pubescent when young, smooth later in summer, brown with white lenticels. Terminal buds with dense copper colored hairs and clustered in 3's, with the center one much larger than the others. Prominent leaf scars strongly U shaped with the bud in the center of the U. Not as strongly U shaped as F. americana.

Bark is smooth and gray when young, turning rough and scaly with age.

Misidentification:
Lots of ash trees look alike, this one has different terminal leaflets, often only 5 leaflets, holds its fall color longer than most. Around here you will see mostly Green Ash and the Evergreen Ash. If you are really unsure, wait till fall and into winter. The green ash has the bud on top of the leaf scar, and the evergreen ash is…. evergreen.

Location:
Aptos
3070 W. Ledyard Way

Santa Cruz
1003 Morrissey Blvd on the corner with Park Way.

Betula pendula 'Youngii' - Young's Weeping Birch

Young's weeping birch is a fun dwarf form of the European Weeping Birch that's more shrub than tree but can still be a great focal point in a landscape. I have seen several that the skirt formed by the branches hits the ground and was used a fort by little kids.

This is a specimen from Bondnat Gardens in Wales. Its just leafing out so you don't get to see the skirt well developed.

Here is one from Capitola, showing off its winter outfit. White twisted bark! Very cool.

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 lot 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.

If you are lucky you might come across a 'Trost's Dwarf'. Very finely dissected leaves.

Misidentification:
Only if you are only handed a branch.

Location:
Aptos
1743 Calypso Dr, While you are there you can see a weeping Blue Atlas Cedar and a Harry Lauders Walking stick.

205 Toledo Dr. interesting driveway.

Acer truncatum - Shantung Maple

The Shantung Maple is a beautiful small deciduous tree with a nice tight rounded canopy to 25'. Wonderful fall color and drought tolerance once established, I am surprised its not more common. Also known as the Purpleblow maple. Drought tolerant, smallish, fall color, what's not to like?

The deciduous leaves are opposite, simple, 3-5" long, dark glossy green, with five lobes which are usually entire but can be undulated. The base of the leaf is often truncated, or flat which is were the name comes from. White milky sap can be seen if you remove the leaves in summer. New spring growth with a reddish cast.

Flowers are small, greenish yellow and look like many other maples in this group (A. platanoides, A. campestre).

Fruit is a pair of samaras, usually broadly spreading into a U shape.

Stems are smooth, as is the bark.

Fall color can be yellow, reds, oranges. This is one I planted many years ago in Spokane.

This species is related to A. platanoides and has been hybridized to produce several commercially available trees including  'Pacific Sunset' and 'Norwegian Sunset'. Both hybrids resulting in a smaller size, better fall color and drought tolerance of A. truncatum.


Misidentification:
Most likely looks like a cultivar of A. palmatum around here. But the flowers are a different color.
Other locations where more maples grow you might see A. pictum mono, A. cappadocicum.

Stumbled across this https://www.metromaples.com/shantung-maples. Wow.


Location:
Aptos
114 Seacliff Dr
204 El Camino Del Mar

Edited 5/24

Zelkova serrata - Japanese Zelkova

The Japanese Zelkova is a medium to large sized deciduous tree growing to 50 plus feet, with a short trunk and an upright vase shape eventually spreading with age. Younger trees show a very upright V habit. Resistant to Dutch Elm disease and is recommended as a replacement for many elms.

Leaves are alternate, simple, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1.5 to 2.5" long, with large very uniform serrations. Medium to dark green, sort of dull and much lighter below. Leaf tip is long and pointed.

Buds are easy to spot. They are divergent (spreading) on the reddish brown thin zig-zag stems. They are sharply pointed with imbricate scales.

Fruit are wingless drupes (aren't they all, if they had a wing I think they would be a samara), green turning brown when mature.

Spectacular bark. Like the Chinese Elm, gray with an orange brown inner bark. When young they have lots of lenticels.

Fall color is pretty good, or fair, depending on the tree. Can be red to yellow and in-between.

 Two trees on 7th side by side.

Older specimen in Spokane, showing the strong V shaped branching of the primary lateral branches.

They make spectacular bonsai.

Misidentification:
Maybe the Ulmus parviflora, due to the bark and the leaves, but look at the leaves carefully, the serrations are much different.

Location:
Capitola
Across from New Brighten School on Monterey Blvd.
Also just up the street are a few large ones, 825 Monterey Blvd

Santa Cruz
7th Ave young ones, around the 1000 block
King St in the grounds of Mission Bell School - One of the best

Tilia tomentosa - Silver Linden

The Silver Linden is a large deciduous tree with multiple upright leaders reaching 50' or more with a spread of 30' with an oval outline. Pretty attractive when young as it forms a columnar tight habit. Rarely seen in our area but common in the northern states. There are several variations of this species, one of which is T. x petiolaris (seen below) and called weeping silver linden and a hybrid of the silver linden and some other linden.

 This is a cultivar called 'Sterling'.

The deciduous leaves are alternate, simple, broadly ovate to about 4" long, with serrated margins and a slightly acuminate tip. Leaf base is unequal like other lindens. Dark green upper surface and white hairs on the lower surface.

Stems slightly covered with white hairs as well. Linden buds all look the same with one bud scale larger than the others, looking something like a boxing glove.

Flowers are fragrant, borne in the summer on long leaf like bracts, yellowish green in clusters of 3-7 flowers.  Attract tons of bees. Some confusion exists about its toxicity to bees which can be found in large numbers on the ground below the trees at flowering time. The nectar is to blame. 

Fruit is a dry little nutlet, about 3/8" long and ribbed.

Fall color is a beautiful bright yellow.

Thanks to Leslie Keedy, Santa Cruz City Arborist for pointing this tree out to me.

Misidentification:
From a distance you might see the silver from the bottom of the foliage and think its a silver poplar??

Location:
Santa Cruz
731 Highland Ave (on the Ross side of the house)

Ginkgo biloba - Ginkgo Tree

Ginkgo biloba is a really beautiful and interesting tree with a long history. Often called a living fossil because it was growing before the dinosaurs. It is the only living relative from that period. Ginkgo's are not flowering plants but a gymnosperm, more closely related to pine trees than oaks. There is a Ginkgo Petrified Forest just out side of Vantage Washington. Trees are reported to live for 3500 years or so.

Ginkgos form large trees, growing to 100' but in cultivation and as a street tree may reach 50'. Cultivated varieties have pretty decent shapes, but the species can have main lateral branches going almost any direction, so the form is not very clear or formal, though they are upright for the most part. There were two trees on the WSU campus that were propagated from weak lateral branches and developed into a weak side lateral branch habit referred to a plagiotropism.

If you google Ginkgo biloba, you will see pages and pages of ginkgo extract used for medicinal purposes.

Two large trees at Wisley Garden.

Large tree in Chico CA. (Ouch, most likely destroyed in the fire that burned down the mansion.)

Leaves are deciduous, simple, with a distinct shape, alternate on elongating stems, appearing whorled on spurs. The leaf has two lobes, most of the time but can be seen looking somewhat like a whale's tail. Generally 2-4" long, with a dissection in the middle of the tip being deep or virtually non existent. Looking like a maidenhair fern leaf. I used to think the name biloba was because of the leaf, but its not, see below. I suspect that more people know a ginkgo leaf than any other leaf. I see all sorts of ginkgo leaf art.

More deeply lobed leaf.

Even more deeply lobed leaf of the cultivar 'Saratoga'.

The venation is key, its dichotomous, and the only plant I have heard of with such a pattern. It is like a bracket in a sporting event, maybe you have seen tennis tournament brackets, or the NCAA basketball brackets but not squared off, like a Y in a road. Essentially the veins branch into two equal veins, these branch the same and it goes on and on, so the leaf starts off thin, and gets wider like a fan.

Wonderful fall color, bright yellow, and in cold climates they seem to all fall at the same time.

Plants are dioecious, male and female and you want the males. Males produce catkin looking stroboli while the females produce a short reproductive structure with 2 lobes (hence the name, biloba).

Males in a "catkin like" structure.

Female trees develop a fleshy cone like structure. After they ripen and fall they produce butyric acid, which smell like someone else's vomit. Unfortunately they are not reproductive for 25 or so years, so its too late to pull it out (buy named cultivars). Fleshy, edible, used for centuries as a medicinal crop.

Downtown Santa Cruz sidewalk.

Bark is pretty, deeply fissured looks sort of like cork with age.

Misidentification: Not a chance.

Locations:
Aptos
1842 Calypso Dr.

Corralitos

1649 Hames Rd. Wonderful specimen (seen above in it's fall foliage.)

Capitola
124 Central Ave - Very large specimen.

Santa Cruz
Clock tower, cultivar Saratoga, with great fall color, nice pyramidal habit and a male.

500 Block of Washington. Quite a few very old specimens, seed grown for sure as their are some females in the mix.

Acer campestre - Hedge Maple

The recent water pipe work on Soquel Drive made me think about posting up this tree as they are not doing that great anyway and with the construction they may not last much longer. The Hedge maple is a nice smaller maple developing a rounded crown to about 25'.  Trees are often low branching and need to be pruned if used as a street tree.

Leaves opposite, simple, palmately lobed, usually 5 rounded lobes, 2-4" long, dark green, lighter below, sometimes lightly pubescent below, another maple with white sap.

Flowers are yellowish green, small, at the same time as the leaves emerge. Found at the end of the stems.

Fruit are winged samaras, 1 to 1-1/2" long and spreading at 180 degrees.

Stems thin, light brown, sometimes with corky growths, usually not.

Bark is thin, light gray to brown with some shallow furrows.

Misidentification:
not sure, rounded lobes are a good feature,

Location:
Aptos
Soquel Dr in median from Cabrillo to Capitola Rd

Santa Cruz
500 block of Logan St at Mott.