I’m following a tree: month 7

07 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, parks, trees

Tags

Bute Park, Dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, redwood tree

Midsummer has been and gone and, though we’ve had some glorious sunny days – and a short heat wave, we’ve also had some unseasonably cool weather. Perhaps that’s why there are definite signs of autumn to be seen in the foliage of trees and shrubs in my local parks and woodlands.

Even Dawn Redwood is showing small signs of the changing seasons and, remember, most unusually for a conifer, Dawn is deciduous. So, these tiny tinges of orange and red are just a hint of how spectacular she will be when the real autumn weather comes.

160807 dawn redwood (5)

Some time during the month, Dawn seems to have suffered a little damage at the top of the tree. Either that or she’s had an incredible growth spurt in one particular branch, which I doubt. You can see the change in the photos below: the one on the left as taken in May 2016, the one on the right in late July 2016.

We haven’t had any particularly strong winds or stormy weather so I’m not sure what happened to cause this change but she looks rather wild and a little unkempt compared to her previously perfect pyramidal shape. It will be interesting to see if this corrects itself or if she loses that errant branch or if she just stays this way. Time alone will tell.

Tree following is fascinating and fun. Why not join in? You can find out more here.

I’m following a tree: month 6

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, trees

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bute Park, Dawn redwood, I'm following a tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides

The longest day has come and gone, and autumn’s just around the corner. Though some trees are already dropping leaves, there’s none of that messy stuff happening around the very tidy Dawn Redwood.

160712 dawn redwood

The park staff at Bute Park keep her base neatly strimmed and regularly mow the grass that surrounds her, so she always looks tip top (except when untidy humans leave litter from their picnics or late evening drinking sessions!).

160712 dawn redwood base

As you might expect from a tree named redwood, Dawn’s wood, if we could see it, would be a rich reddish colour. The bark that covers her wood is also a reddish brown, though it will become increasingly grey as she ages. This bark is quite fibrous and furrowed, and it exfoliates in long narrow strips.

160712 Dawn redwood bark

Both the bark and the leaves are used in Chinese folk medicine to produce an ‘anti-microbic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug for dermatic diseases’. In 2015, a study was undertaken to determine if there was any scientific basis to this medical use and it found that Dawn Redwood does, indeed, contain chemicals that can reduce the symptoms in allergic contact dermatitis. So, Ms Metasequoia glyptostroboides is not only beautiful but useful too!

Tree following is fun. Why not join in? You can find out more here.

I’m following a tree: month 5

13 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, trees

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bute Park, Cardiff, Dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, tree following

Summer has come to Cardiff so, although she loves our Welsh rain, Dawn Redwood is also a lover of a sunny location and has been basking in the long sunny days. Her leaves are now fully developed, a rich vibrant green in colour, with leaves arranged opposite each other on the branches, flattened in shape, and around 12mm long and 1.5mm wide.

160613 dawn redwood (2)

Although she doesn’t provide the dense shade of a horse chestnut, an oak or a beech, Dawn is much favoured by Cardiffians as a shady spot for a lunchtime picnic – on the two recent occasions I’ve passed by, there have been groups sitting on the grass below her, which is lovely to see but also means I haven’t been able to get too close for more intimate photos (I was intending to check her bark more thoroughly this month).

160613 dawn redwood (3)

It surprises me a little that I’ve never seen any birds perched in Dawn’s branches, as I’d have thought she provided the perfect cover for the smaller birds as well as a well-elevated viewpoint for the larger birds like magpies and crows. However, Dawn is surrounded by trees – several varieties of prunus and some lovely magnolias, as well as other species I’m not sure of – so the birds have plenty of other spots to choose from.

160613 dawn redwood (1)

I’m following a tree: month 4

09 Monday May 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, trees

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

autumn leaves, Bute Park, Cardiff, Dawn redwood, I'm following a tree, tree following, trees

Dawn is no longer a naked lady. As April progressed, she gradually acquired her vibrant new covering of leaves, though it has been a slow process, perhaps because we haven’t had much rain to help stimulate leaf production.

160509 dawn redwood (2)

Considering her stature resembles that of a giantess, Dawn’s leaves are surprisingly fine, feathery and delicate, so her new attire is still coquettishly flimsy, seductively see-through.

It was lovely to see Dawn being enjoyed by the locals when I popped by on an unseasonably warm day late last week. Her leaf covering may not yet be lush but she was providing ample shade for a picnic lunch.

160509 dawn redwood (5)

Why not join the tree following community. You can find out more here.

160509 dawn redwood (1)

I’m following a tree: month 3

09 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, trees

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Dawn redwood, I'm following a tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Spring growth, tree following

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where Dawn’s leaf growth is? From a distance, Dawn Redwood looks much the same as she did last month. It’s only when you get closer that you can see the fresh green buds just beginning to open now that the days are getting warmer and brighter.

160409 dawn redwood (1) 160409 dawn redwood (3)

Having said that, it was blowing a gale when I visited a few days ago, a cold howling wind that prevented me from getting better close up photos of the new growth. That wind did, however, make me admire how well Dawn copes with such conditions. She has her feet well and truly planted in the ground, which is a good thing when you consider how tall and slender she is, and I’m sure her broad strong base helps anchor her when those strong winds are blasting.

160409 dawn redwood (2)

She has a light covering of bright green moss on the lowest metre or so of her trunk but no lichens or fungi that I could see with the naked eye, which is probably a good thing, as they can be indicators of disease or cause a tree to die – and I certainly don’t want that to happen. I’m looking forward to seeing a very different Dawn next month.

Tree following is fun. Why not join in? You can find out more here. https://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/tree-following/

I’m following a tree: month 2

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, trees

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Bute Park, Cardiff, Dawn redwood, I'm following a tree, tree following

160308 dawn redwood (4)

Though I have strolled past Dawn Redwood a couple of times this month, I hadn’t really noticed any change in her, until today – and then it was only when I was reviewing this afternoon’s photos and zoomed in on one or two. Note to self: next time, choose a shorter tree to follow, the better to see what’s happening up top – because it’s at the top of the tree that all the action is happening.

160308 dawn redwood (2) 160308 dawn redwood (1)

Not only is Dawn still carrying last season’s cones up there, she also still has more of a flush of this spring’s flowers higher up and, at the very top, the green of this year’s foliage is just beginning to burst out. I find each of these things surprising – the cones and the flowers because the top of the tree must be the most windblown so I’d have expected both to have been blown off more at the top than lower down the tree, and the budding foliage because I thought the tree would green from the bottom as the sap rose upwards with the warmer weather.

This is exactly why following a tree is so very interesting. The more closely you look, the more you see and learn.

small cones for such a large tree, and very tiny seeds (bottom of photo, left of centre)

Why not join the tree following community. You can find out more here.

I’m following a tree: month 1

12 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, nature photography, trees

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bute Park, Cardiff, Dawn redwood, I'm following a tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, tree following

dawn feb 2

She is a statuesque beauty, tall for her 67 years, but with a very slight lean to one side – I blame the strong winds blasting inshore from the mighty Atlantic Ocean. Her name is Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides, to be precise) and her kind was thought to be extinct, having only been identified in fossils until some time between 1941 and 1944 when she was rediscovered, growing in the town of Moudao, in Hubei, in south-western China. Long ago, her family and her cousins, the sequoias, could be found right across Europe, in Asia and in the Americas but all were killed off during the last ice age.

dawn feb 1

My Dawn came from the first shipment of international seeds to arrive in Britain in 1949. She grows in Bute Park, in the Welsh capital of Cardiff. She was a champion tree, the tallest of her kind in Britain, in 2005, but she has since been surpassed. Still, she has a regal air and a wonderful pyramidal shape.

Flowers blown off during recent stormy weather

Dawn is deciduous, which is unusual for a conifer, but at the moment she is flowering, which has given her a rusty tinge – perhaps she’s blushing! In fact, she is monoecious, which means she has separate male and female flowers on the same tree. The male flowers hang in clusters at the end of her branches, while the female flowers are solitary. Over the next 12 months, I will be visiting Dawn often and will blog about her monthly.

Why not join the tree following community. You can find out more here.