WildflowerHour: Tree flowers

14 Sunday Apr 2024

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#WildflowerHour, British trees, tree flowers

The challenge for this week’s #WildflowerHour on social media was to find as many tree flowers as possible. Here’s my contribution …

240414 ash birch blackthorn

Ash, Birch (not sure which species), and Blackthorn

240414 cherry laurel hawthorn

Cherry laurel (probably a garden escape) and Hawthorn

240414 maple field norway ornamental cherry

Field and Norway maples, plus I couldn’t resist adding an ornamental Cherry in to the mix, as they’re looking so gorgeous at the moment.

240414 willow female male

Goat willow, I think, female above and male below – Goat willows are dioecious, i.e. male and female flowers are on separate trees.

Mid-February winter 10

11 Sunday Feb 2024

Posted by sconzani in flowers, trees, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, tree flowers, winter colour, winter wildflowers in bloom

Despite this having been a very wet week, the temperatures have been quite mild and, in some cases – as with the ornamental Cherry tree outside my flat, for example – I’ve felt like I could almost see the buds fattening. So, it comes as no surprise to me that, this week, I’ve managed to find ten species of wildflower and tree in flower: Alder, Field speedwell, Dandelion, Lesser celandine, Primrose, Wild strawberry, Sweet violet, Common fumitory, Three-cornered leek, and Red dead-nettle.

Alder flowers

12 Sunday Mar 2023

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Alder, Alder flowers, female Alder flowers, tree flowers

It’s almost two months to the day since I blogged about the first Hazel I’d seen with both the male and female flowers open (Flowers and catkins, 15 January). Perhaps I’ve been remiss in looking for these, but yesterday I spotted my first Alder tree where both types of flowers had opened. The reproductive systems of the two plants are remarkably similar, both with long dangling pollen-shedding male catkins and much smaller pink anemone-like female flowers, except that the female Hazel flowers develop into a nut and the female Alder into a cone. It’s the female flowers that I find particularly eye-catching.

230312 alder female flowers

Fit to bursting

05 Sunday Mar 2023

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male yew flowers, tree flowers, Yew, Yew tree flowers

I was checking this Yew tree for galls – found none – but it was absolutely covered in flower buds that were almost literally about to burst open. A few more days and this male tree will be spreading a sea of yellow pollen all around anytime the wind blows or someone brushes against its branches. How do I know it’s a male tree? Well, in a previous post, Flowering Yew trees from way back in March 2016, I blogged about Yew flowers so, if you want to know more about these fascinating trees, just click on that link.

230305 yew flowers

End of winter wild flowers

26 Sunday Feb 2023

Posted by sconzani in flowers, trees, wildflowers, winter

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British wildflowers, catkins, tree flowers, winter colour, winter flowers

As another winter draws to a close, I thought I would document the plant and tree flowers currently in bloom in my little bit of south Wales.

Tree flowers

08 Sunday May 2022

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spring flowers, tree flowers, trees

Instead of wildflowers, this week we have some of the tree flowers I’ve noticed in recent weeks. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list but I’ve definitely got a much better appreciation for the lovely flowers so many trees have.

Oak burst

14 Friday May 2021

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British trees, Oak bud burst, Oak flowers, oak tree, tree flowers

Here’s the latest in my occasional series of watching the trees come to life. This time, it’s the Oak tree – I’m not sure which of the Quercus species this is but I think they’re all fairly similar. First, the leaves burst from their buds, and the vibrancy of the new growth is dazzling.

210514 oak burst (4)

And, of course, everyone knows acorns come from Oaks but perhaps, like me, you hadn’t noticed where the acorns come from. Below left are the male flowers, the catkins, dangling to catch the breeze that carries their pollen, and below right are the female flowers, tucked away, sheltered, waiting to be fertilised by the pollen and develop into acorns.

210514 oak burst (7)

Ash burst

25 Sunday Apr 2021

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Ash flowers, Ash tree, British trees, flowers on trees, Fraxinus excelsior, tree flowers

First, the black buds split open to reveal their furry brown inner parts.

210425 ash flowers (1)

Next, those brown furry parts burst open to reveal luscious purple ‘berries’.

210425 ash flowers (2)

And finally, those purple berries transform – they’re not berries at all, of course, they’re the tips of the anthers of the spiky flowers that grow at the end of the twigs and branches.

210425 ash flowers (3)

This is an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), and they have a very complicated but fascinating reproduction system, which I didn’t know about when I took my photos – you can read all about it on the Tree Guide UK website here.