Memphis Trees: Eye catching trees

Tree # 20 updated for spring: the Chinaberry tree

There are some days when you are just driving along on some side street (with your camera handy) and you come across an unexpected surprise. Today was such a day. On the way to church with Sara, my friend who needs a ride on Sundays, I stopped to update a picture of the China berry tree posted in the winter [tree #20 Dec. 15, 2013, Trees with unusual pods and berries]. This tree is now leafing out and has some small purple flowers.

China berry tree May 4, 2014 showing last years fruit, new leaves and flowers.

The berries are falling off now and lining the ground.

Pavement under the tree is being peppered with chinaberries May, 4, 2014

Tree #66 Paulownia tomentosa (Empress tree)

Here is the surprise find. Just south on Manassas from the chinaberry tree was an old favorite of mine. This tree is a Paulownia or Empress tree.

Paulownia tomentosa May, 4, 2014 on the west side of Manassas street at Peach St. (between Poplar and N. Parkway)

The leaves are large and heart shaped and if the tree is pruned the new leaves can be almost one foot across like an elephants ear. The leaves are similar to a catalpa's leaves. However, the catalpa makes long seed pods like bean pods, and this tree does not have those. If you look closely you can see last years seed pods in clusters near the top right corner. The flowers are purple and look like foxglove flowers. I know a place just northwest of Southern and the railway crossing at Goodlett where there is a catalpa. I need to go by there soon and take a picture for comparison (see tree #71 later in this post).

The Paulownia is a romantic tree as it figures in the beginning of the Tale of Genji. The first chapter is called Kiritsubo (the Arthur Waley 1925 translation), or The Paulownia Court (the Edward Seidensticker 1977 translation). Waley's chapter begins: "At the Court of an Emperor (he lived it matters not when) there was among the many gentlewomen of the Wardrobe and Chamber one, who though she was not of very high rank was favoured far beyond all the rest; so that the great ladies of the Palace, each of whom had secretly hoped that she herself would be chosen, looked with scorn and hatred upon the upstart who had dispelled their dreams." The tree is called Kiri in Japan. The emblem of the Prime Minister's office is go-shichi-no-kiri

I discovered The tale of Genji in 1977, just after visiting an exhibition of six and twelve-fold Japanese screens at the Volunteer Park Museum in Seattle. James Michener (author of Hawaii, and other epic novels) had an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints on display and the screens were in conjunction with that exhibition. One of the screens illustrated scenes from the Tale of Genji. Later, that week, quite by accident, I was in the University of Washington Bookstore and I came across the new Seidensticker translation. It was in a lavish box set with beautiful detail from a screen depicting a garden with rushes and quite possibly flowers resembling Chinese privet shown later in this post. I had to have it. I spent the summer reading it in Alaska in my first year after graduation from college. Now I have several translations of the multi-volume thousand page book (originally a scroll). The art library at the University of Washington has a fabulous illustrated reproduction of a real scroll. This is in a large box covered with lavender taffeta and closed with ivory pins. The pages show the original text in ancient Japanese hand painted over gold leaf and lavishly illustrated. Even for one who cannot read the old text (even modern Japanese cannot read ancient Japanese) it is a treasure to view. The price was a bit out of my range ($400).

The Empress tree was named for an empress, but not a Japanese empress. The tree was named for Anna Pavlovna, the daughter of Czar Paul I of Russia. She married William II of the Netherlands. This family was a patron of botanical collectors and that is how the empress tree was named.

Closer view of the Paulownia flowers and some seed pods are also visible.

The University of Washington Arboretum has one of these trees near the entrance. You actually have to walk past it from the parking lot. I did not think it was in Memphis, so I was glad to find it accidentally.

While traveling, I once entered a used and rare bookshop (one of my indulgences) and I met the grizzled bookstore owner. After inquiring about copies of The Tale of Genji, I was told "you know there is only one acceptable translation." not telling me who this was, but it was clear he was in the Arthur Waley camp. Seidensticker was a professor at Ann Arbor Michigan who spent years translating the tale, but with the approach of an academic, favoring more literal translation and not rewriting like Waley did. Arthur Waley was more of an Edwardian translator. He reinterpreted the language, which has impossible grammar for English speakers. This resulted in an impression of the story, not a true to the original academic translation. I read Seidensticker's version first, and I really like it. The poems are wonderful and challenging to translate. Waley's version is also charming.

Waley had an interesting life (born 1889). He maintained lifelong romantic relationships with Beryl de Zoete and Alison Grant (much later Alison Waley). Each knew of the other and seemed to tolerate the situation. Arthur married Alison on his deathbed (after he broke his back in a car accident) so she would inherit his estate. They were married in May 1966 and he died in June. The fascinating story is told by Alison in her autobiography "Half of Two Lives" McGraw Hill 1982. Waley dedicated his first volume of translation of the "Tale" to Beryl de Zoete in 1925.

Paulownia at Manassas and Peach, May 6, 2014

Closer view of the top part of the tree

I returned on July 6, 2014 to photograph the tree with fruit.

Tree # 67 Chinese privet

After a visit to Goodwinds Nursery on Sunset, we were driving back with a gardenia bush, some impatiens for the front walkway planters and some yellow and purple flowers for the backyard planter. We came across this mass of white flowers on a tree. We went home, unloaded the new flowers then I went back to take these pictures.

Presumed Chinese privet, May 4, 2014 on Sunset and Elliot Ln, northeast corner.

Flowers of the Chinese privet, four petals each on a branched spike.

A leaf and a flower spike used to help in identification.

Trunk of the tree.

An under the canopy view

Tree #68 cottonwood

Memphis is on the Mississippi River. The cottonwood trees grow all along the river. These are massive trees. A couple of years ago the river rose about 40 feet and nearly flooded Harbortown on Mud Island. These pictures are taken at the park just across Island Drive from Harbortown.

Look at the people to see the scale of these trees

One amazing fact about the flood is the time these trunks were in 30-40 feet of water. The river remained very high for at least a month and these trees did not drown. After the flood you could see the high water marks on the trunks 25-30 feet up from the ground.

Looking north on the river from the Mississippi Greenbelt Park on Mud Island, May, 4, 2014

Our house was host to one of these great trees when we moved in in 1994. Our neighbors to the north of us did not like the tree. In the spring it released its cotton and this got in their pool and their air conditioner. In fact, they offered to pay us $500 toward the cost to have it cut down. My wife Susan's reaction to that was "Any tree that can make people hate it must have our respect." We did not cut the tree down. In a year or two, the tree, which was the tallest tree in the area, was struck by lightning A 2-3 inch strip of bark was peeled off the trunk where the lightning traveled to the ground and after two years it died. So we did have to have the tree cut down after all. That tree belongs in the RIP section of the blog (still to be written). If you walk down the greenbelt park along the Mississippi and you look carefully at the trunks of the cottonwoods, I think you will see evidence of these strips of bark missing. It only makes sense that these tall trees out in the open would be hit by lightning, though few of them die.

The author was one of 109 authors on the paper: The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray). Science 313, 1596-1604 (2006). This was the first tree to have its genome sequenced. I spent nearly four and half months identifying and assembling the hundreds cytochrome P450 genes from this tree.

Tree #69 Blacklocust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

These trees were a mystery to me. I could see them along the freeway in the spring as white flowered trees against the dark background of mostly oak forest. They were too far away to tell what they were. This spring I noticed some of the same trees along Poplar PIke.
Here I could stop and take pictures and get close enough to identify the trees. The tree is a legume, like the redbud tree from an earlier post.

Blacklocust on the north side of Poplar Pike, east of Massey, April 25, 2014

Beautiful white flowers of the locust. This tree is a legume so the flowers resemble pea flowers.

The locust tree is mentioned in the Bible. An error in translation may be responsible for the common view that John the baptist ate locusts, when it is more likely that he ate the seed pods of the locust tree. These seed pods are also called St. John's bread. (Lives of the Trees, Diana Wells Algonquin Books 2010, p. 195).

Note on Aug. 12, 2014. A viewer corrected the assignment of this tree. I had it as honey locust, but the commenter says it is a blacklocust.

Vine #2 updated: Lady Banks Rose

Flowers on the Lady Banks rose (April 30, 2014)

This same rose was featured in our previous post on a walk to Holmes Park and back again. On April 18 there were only one or two flowers starting to bloom. This picture is just past peak time on the flowering of this rose. There are relatively few flowers this spring. Last year the whole plant was carpeted with flowers. We did have a very cold winter (for Memphis) this year and that may be partly responsible.

Close up view of the flowers

A closer view. The flowers are just past prime and they are beginning to fade.

Tree #70 Salix matsudana 'tortuosa' Corkscrew willow

This is a tree that I find looks better in the winter without leaves. I came across this shrub at the Water Works on Central near Central Barbeque.

A rare find in the garden accessory store Water Works. April 19, 2014

A look at the corkscrew branches. Some of the male flower catkins can be seen.

I am sorry I did not get a picture of this tree before it leafed out. When I first saw it, the catkins were in place but no leaves were visible yet. That would have made a better picture, but by the time I was able to return on April 19, the leaves were already coming out.

Tree #18 Loblolly pine (much larger specimen)

In my second post (Memphis trees continued) I showed a loblolly pine. That was a rather small decorative tree. Here is a much bigger example at Patrick's Restaurant on Park near Mt. Moriah.

Substantial loblolly pines with deeply creviced bark, May 4, 2014

The author at Patrick's next to to a large loblolly pine.

These pines were in a courtyard patio with wooden flooring. The wood under the trees had spatters of sap especially right up close to the trunk. Obviously, these trees were trying to kill us with their diterpene resin acids, but we were too fast for them.

Tree #71 Catalpa

The catalpa is a venerable southern tree. I did make it to the catalpa West of Goodlett at Southern. The tree was in bloom and later in the day I saw two more because the blooming tree is easy to spot. There is a large one that is dying on the top on Poplar at the entrance to Audobon park. A third tree was located at Poplar at the corner of Lafayette.

One of the largest trees in this neighborhood, a Catalpa. May 8, 2014

I was surprised at the size of this tree. Clearly, this tree has been planted here for many decades. One of the branches going off to the right reminds me of the Southern Magnolia (tree #6 on this blog's first post) with the very thick sideways branch near the ground.

A second low branch very healthy with foliage and flowers.

The leaves of the catalpa are similar to the Paulownia. The real diagnostic difference is the seed pods. Catalpa has long bean-like seed pods (see below).

Close up of a seed pod. This tree is also called Indian bean tree.

The tree attracts a specific caterpillar called the catawba worm. It is the larval stage of the catalpa sphinx moth. The catalpa is the exclusive host plant for this caterpillar. Fisherman prize these worms and they have been known to plant catalpas on their property for the access to the worms.

Leaves and flowers against the large tree trunk.

The catalpa is in the Bignoniaceae family, as is the tropical jacaranda tree. The Paulownia was thought to belong to this same family, but it has now been put in its own family Paulowniaceae. I find the two plants to have visible similarities.