Trees Gallery - RHS Harlow Carr - page 5

Picea jezoensis hondoensis

Hondo spruce

Native to NE Asia, growing to 50m. Also known as the dark-bark spruce due to the blackish-brown trunk of older trees. It is an important timber and paper-pulp tree in Russia and the Far East, but is often logged unsustainably (illegally), though it's conservation status is still considered of least concern IUCN category - Very Low risk, not likely to be threatened in the near future .

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Picea sitchensis 'Papoose'

Dwarf sitka spruce

A slow-growing dwarf conifer with a rounded form and blue and green needles which age to a silvery blue on one side and green on the other. Late in spring, clusters of buds open at the branch tips and form blossom-like bursts of foliage. As it ages it takes on a tight, upright, broad shape, perhaps reaching 2-3m. It was found as a seedling on Vancouver Island in the 1960s.

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Pieris japonica

Japanese andromeda

Also called Japanese pieris, a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, where it grows in mountain thickets. This medium-sized evergreen shrub or tree is widely cultivated in gardens. The plant is poisonous

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Pinus nigra

Austrian pine

A large conifer (20 - 55m) native across Europe and NW Africa. Also called the Black Pine. It can live well over 500 years.

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Pinus parviflora gyok ke sun

Japanese white pine

Also known as five-needle pine, belongs to the white pine group, p. strobus, native to Japan. Parviflora means "with small flowers". It is a popular tree for bonsai. Can be spelt gyok kaysen, or gyo kasen hime.

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Pinus mugo.

Dwarf mountain pine

Aka mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, Swiss mountain pine, bog pine, creeping pine, or mugo pine. Native to high elevation habitats from SW to C Europe and SE Europe. This one is growing in the alpine house, though there are known specimens up to 6m high

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Pinus strobus 'Blue shag'

Dwarf White Pine

The evergreen coniferous species is native to E North America. This cultivar was developed by Sydney Waxman at the University of Connecticut, a dwarf shrub of dense, globe-shaped habit, very different to one of the tallest species in America, growing to 70m.

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Pinus strobus pendula

Weeping White Pine

A weeping tree with soft, drooping, blue-green needles in groups of five; branches are intially horizontal, before drooping and trailing over the ground. Long, hanging, resinous cones remain on the tree all year. Semi-dwarf, it will grow to 5m, and form a large, spreading mound.

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Pinus sylvestris

Scots pine

One of three conifers native to Britain (the others being juniper and yew). Capable of reaching 35-45m, and living typically 150 - 300 years, though there are specimens reputedly over 700 years old. Sometimes called redwood, and the timber is referred to as deal from an archaic UK unit of volume used to measure wood - a board between 12 and 14 feet long. . The Caledonian Forest would have once been mainly made up of Scots pine.

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Pinus sylvestris Beuvronensis

Dwarf mountain pine

A slow-growing, bushy, dome-shaped tree that may eventually grow to 3m, as here. It has blue green needles, 18mm long. It is believed to have originated as a witch’s broom and was put into commerce by Transon Frères, a nurseryman at Beuvron in France.

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Populus tremula

Aspen

A fast growing slender tree, which shimmers in the breeze, giving it the name "tremula" - trembling tree. Growing to 25m. Native to the UK and across Europe. The bark has distinctive diamond shaped lenticels. These trees are growing on the edge of the arboretum area.

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