Morning glory vine

Vine #7 Morning glory (Ipomoea nil or Asagao in Japan)

The new house on Tutwiler has some surprise vegetation we are discovering. There is a pale blue morning glory vine growing on a fence and nearby rose bush. 

 

Chapter 20 in the Tale of Genji is titled Asagao. Genji tries to have an affair with the princess Asagao but is rebuffed.
"He paid a visit to Princess Asagao, whose name meant "the morning glory". Her attitude was very stiff and formal. He came back and lay awake with disappointment. He had the shutters raised early and stood looking out at the morning mist. He broke off a morning glory in the garden and sent it to Asagao with a poem saying, "I wonder if the flower has been taken past its bloom".

Hiding behind a showy competitor Sept. 6, 2015

The color combination between the green and the violet is very pleasing.

After an accident broke this sundial, we left it as our own Greco-Roman ruins.

 

The morning glory is a popular flower in Japan. The older literature and paintings referred to an intense yellow variety, but in modern day Japan there are no yellow morning glories. For some reason they have gone extinct. To set matters right the Suntory Brewery Co. (Suntory Global Innovation Center Co., Ltd.) did genetic engineering on a morning glory to add back a missing enzyme (aureusidin synthase) needed to make the yellow pigment. They thereby restored the fabled phantom yellow morning glory of old. Suntory has also made blue carnations and blue roses by a similar method (different enzyme).

The enzyme added came from snapdragon and it converts a chalcone in morning glories to an aurone, a bright yellow pigment. The basic scaffolds of these molecules are shown here.

see this link

Another plant in the same genus is Ipomea batatas. This is the sweet potato. Not unexpectedly the flowers look very similar.

Sweet potato flower

For more info on morning glories visit "A Wandering Botanist"

Bottlebrush buckeye

Tree # 87b Bottlebrush buckeye

We recently moved (June 17) to Tutwiler in the Evergreen Vollintine neighborhood in midtown. Our next door neighbors Steve and Rose have a flowering tree that was hard not to notice. It is a bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora). In mid June it was in full bloom. It is said that hummingbirds come to the flowers. This may be true here also since my wife saw some hummingbirds in our garden visiting red ginger flowers.

June 18, 2015 the greenery with just a few flower spikes in the top center

We have a screened in porch that is the closest we will get to the legendary southern verandah. In front of the porch there are three tiers of beds that suggest all kinds of possibilities, however my wife Susan reminds me that we need a low maintenance garden as we are not particularly hobbit-like in our nature.

From the street the buckeye flowers seem to be seeking the next roof

A sky background shows off the brush-like character of the flower stalks

A few con trails add to the composition with the leaves in dark relief

I had posted buckeye photos before (see tree #57 red buckeye April 18, 2014 at this link and tree #87 bottlebrush buckeye July 5&13, 2014 at this link).

Vine #6    Crossvine 

I found this vine covering a mailbox on Summer Grove near the intersection with Morning grove (East of Sanga Rd. in Cordova). The leaves have veins branching from a central vein so they are definitely not clematis that has more parallel veins. The tendrils are also finer than clematis tendrils. I have not been able to find a matching image and the description of vines from the southeast do not seem to match it very closely. If you know what this vine is please leave a comment. I did ask some friends of ours who live near it and drive by it every day if it flowers and what color the flowers are. (see below for the answer)

Cousin It in plant form

June 7, 2015 Do you want to put your hand in there?

Looking north along Summer Grove

Closeup of the leaves and new growth
 

My friend John went back and found a flower on July 17, 2015.

A buttery five-petalled flower with a vase-like base

Closer view looking down the throat. Imagine you are a bee.

Back to give some perspective

This finally allowed me to identify this vine as crossvine from the trumpet-creeper family. Thanks John. For a mailbox vine this seems superior to clematis that is forever falling over onto the ground.

American smoketree

Tree #101 American smoketree

On my way to help move my son to a new house I drove past a new tree that I had not seen before. It had large feathery pink flower spikes that gave it a very soft look.

Smoketree in bloom May 30, 2015, 4191 Kimball in Memphis between Rebecca and Merrycrest

I had lost track of my camera, but when I found it this week in a suit pocket I decided to go back and take some photos of this tree and try to identify it. I finally found a picture that matched it on the web. Scientific name: Cotinus coggygria

flower spikes and leaves

Close up of the flower spikes

Some branches shot up away from the rest like a Dr. Seuss invention

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

In spring 2016 my wife and I went to eat at Caritas Village in Binghampton (on Harvard St.) where we saw this pair of trees in full bloom. The leaves are not the same so this is not a smoketree, but it has that same feathery look to it.

 

A Second Paulownia Tree

Tree #66b Paulownia tomentosa

There are some rare trees in Memphis. I have written before about a Paulownia tree at Manassas and Peach St. That was the only one I had seen in Memphis, but now I have found one more. 

Paulownia tree May 30, 2015

Close up of the flower spikes after flowering

This tree is on the south side of Park Ave. on the power line easement just at the 240 overpass. I had actually seen the flowers from Park Ave. while driving past. I was not able to get there while the tree was still flowering, but I did go by today. I met the owner who was pruning roses in the back yard. She said the tree was ordered since they were not available in Memphis nurseries. It is only about 5 years old and has grown very quickly. The owner was knowledgeable about the tree. She mentioned the flower logo was used as a family crest in Japan (symbol of the Prime Minister's office) and the story is told how when a girl is born one of these trees will be planted so it can be used to make a wedding chest (like a cedar chest) in the future when the girl gets married. (see my earlier post).

The Goodlett Ginkgos

Every fall I look forward to driving by the row of ginkgos on Goodlett between The railroad tracks and Central. The cross street is Grandview Ave. The trees are so fine that others have already posted them on the web as an ad for the Grandview Area Neighborhood Association, Memphis, TN, USA (see the link below).

Grandview Ave and Goodlett 

Ginkgos have the reputation for dropping their leaves all at once. This does not always happen, but it seems to happen after a hard frost. When driving to work on Nov. 14, 2014 just before 8 AM, I saw the leaves falling. I did not have a camera so I called Susan and asked her to come with a camera and take pictures before it was too late. She could not get there right away but she did come later after most of the leaves had fallen. Here is what she saw.

Carpet of ginkgo leaves, Nov. 14, 2014

There were a few left hanging on the trees, but not many.

Waiting for the next breeze

These ginkgos are behind a large holly hedge.

The holly and the ginkgo

 Well, there is always next year. I need to keep that camera in the car.

Solo Ginkgo on Kirby Parkway north of Cottingham.

Nov. 16, 2014

This blog is dedicated to Memphis trees, but I have to make this one exception for a ginkgo we saw in Kyoto. After much pointing and gesticulation I was able to get an old gardener to tell me this tree is 400 years old. I cannot verify this, but the size of the trunk seems to fit.

Ginkgo at Nishi Hongwanji temple Kyoto, Sept. 20, 2014

Closeup of the trunk of this amazing tree.

Meeman-Shelby State Park Oct. 4, 2014

When I was younger my two boys were scouts. They often went on hikes in the Memphis area and farther afield with their troop (Troop 276). Adults went along and this was a great excuse to do things most adults would not make time for on their own. One local trip was to Meeman-Shelby State Park. The one notable tree species here is the American Beech. I went back with my two sons and Susan to revisit this park, just a little north of Memphis.

Tennessee is divided into geographic zones. Most of Memphis is in the Tennessee bottoms These end in bluffs about 200-300 feet tall overlooking the Mississippi River. below these bluffs is the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, less than 300 feet above sea level. Meeman-Shelby State Park has trails that take you into the alluvial plain, where the beech trees love to grow.

Here are a series of photos taken on October 4, 2014 that show the trails and some of the trees. This park is home to 11 championship trees, but that info is not available at the visitors center.

Tree at the visitor center with five-pointed deep-lobed leaves, possibly a fig tree

Same tree, full shot

Welcome to the trail

Tree #100 American beech

Beech trunk

Same tree, upper branches

Stephen and David

Lots of ups and downs on the trail

A red arrow on the trunk marks the trail

Just because a tree has fallen does not mean it is down and out

Down in a hollow

Beech

Top part of the same tree

Some people can't help carving on these beech trunks

Come on. Put your hand in!

Large liane

Base of a large oak

Upper part of the same tree

Identifying features for this tree

The stream has patches of rushes

Yes, you are still on the trail

Stephen, Susan, Adam (in Shakespeare shirt), David (in Muir Woods shirt) and Merlin

Notice the woodpecker holes in the bark

Rosie checking the trail

Rushes closeup

another large American beech

Interesting striations. What is this tree?