Cercis canadensis and Cornus florida
The redbuds and dogwoods are blooming right now (mid-April) in south-central Kentucky. At this time of the year, I love driving the rural backroads of Christian County and seeing the wild redbuds and dogwoods blooming in the woods.
I don't see much difference between the wild redbuds in the woods and the redbuds in towns, even though many of the hand-planted redbuds are probably cultivars. However, I do notice that most wild dogwoods have smaller, greener blossoms than the hand-planted dogwoods growing on lawns. The blossom size is bigger and the color is whiter in the cultivars.
Our trees in this part of Kentucky had a very hard winter. Many of them suffered a great deal of damage in the massive ice storm that hit this area. You can see broken limbs and a fallen tree in the foreground of the photo below.
However, the trees are responding to spring. They have wounds to heal and their injuries may shorten their lives, but they are blooming and beginning to leaf. Those are dogwoods blooming, on the opposite side of the pond.
"The power to recognize trees at a glance without examining their leaves or flowers or fruit as they are seen, for example, from the car-window during a railroad journey, can only be acquired by studying them as they grow under all possible conditions over wide areas of territory. Such an attainment may not have much practical value, but once acquired it gives to the possessor a good deal of pleasure which is denied to less fortunate travelers."
0 comments -- please add yours:
Post a Comment