What sort of tree is it?

[PhotoLady]

I've been a bit quiet the last few days as we're in the middle of our back garden makeover....

But we're still trying to find out what the tree is that lives in the garden. The lady who lives at the back of us said the guy who originally planted it was a tree surgeon. Someone said they thought perhaps it was a Yew but it doesn't produce flowers or berries. The leaves / spines dropped last winter and came back in spring.

Any ideas?

[beachcaster]

Photolady. Could it be a Dawn Redwood ?
If so it is Metasequoia Glyptostroboides which was only Known as a fossil until 1948 when found growing in south-west China.
Regards....Alan

[PaphosAL]

We have one identical at the end of our front garden on a communal lawn, Jules. There are parking bays below it, and when it sheds it's needles in October / November, it makes one hell of mess on the cars!

Ours was planted as a sapling around 20 years ago and now stands at about 40ft in height. The fact that it looks like an evergreen pine tree, but is in reality deciduous makes it beyond all shadow of doubt a European Larch tree.

Cheers- AL

[PhotoLady]

Cheers Al.....
I looked up the European Larch but the images I see makes me think it isn't that..... the spines / leaves are in fronds rather than in clumps sprouting up from the branches.

I also looked up the Dawn Redwood tree and that does look much more like ours... with soft green linear leaves either side of the branches.

I found this image of the Dawn Redwood, it's leaves are very similar but most likely ours is probably a species belonging to the same family rather than a Redwood itself:


The European Larch is described as

Leaves: light green leaves are soft and needle-like, 2-4cm long, which grow in tufts from short woody knobs, or shoots, on the twigs. They turn golden yellow before falling in autumn.

The leaves here are very different than those on our tree:

[PaphosAL]

Here is a picture of our nearby European Larch that I took at 4pm BST today, Jules.

Thought I'd posted this earlier, but it seemed to have vanished into a black hole

Cheers- AL

[PhotoLady]

Looks similar but I need to see a close up on the leaves

[PaphosAL]

Will comply in the morning, now I have the hang of it, LOL!

[PhotoLady]

Will comply in the morning, now I have the hang of it, LOL!

Cool, nice one AL

[panoscouse]

Looks like a redwood to me. I have one at my UK house (Canadian Redwood), 45ft at the moment can grow 60 ft easily. many different varieties but produce very good acidic compost from their leaves.

[PhotoLady]

Ours is about 20 feet tall.
It's a beautiful tree and will be the focal point of the back garden when it's all finished.

[beachcaster]

Photolady. Post a close up of your leaf configuration.It is difficultto identify a tree without this. there are very similar trees in this world but the answer lies in the detail. Also old and new growth stems are different in colour.
Regards ....Alan

[PaphosAL]

Sorry to be a bit late on parade Jules (and Alan- beachcaster), but it was precipitating earlier, making me disbelieve the local BBC weather forecast for TODAY for my local area even more.

Anyway, close-up of our mystery tree (which I'm no longer so sure IS a European Larch), just taken at 15:00 BST Fri 29 Sept. Spookily, today would have been our 44th WA...

I can see it carries loads of cones. Does yours? This in my mind makes it a Conifer, but a deciduous conifer, not Evergreen? That's crazy! By Christmas, our tree will be bare through to Spring. When the communal gardeners come round and lop the lower branches, I've often asked them what sort of tree it is.

Invariably they replied "No idea". I guess my European Larch solution resulted from many google and bing searches. In which case, I'm more than happy to stand corrected!

Cheers- AL

European_Larch_hmmm.jpg (86.92 KiB) Viewed 8040 times

[beachcaster]

PaphosAl. Is your tree a Norway Spruce or Christmas tree. If so the cones would be about 18cms long or x4 =7.2 inches.
Regards....Alan.

[PaphosAL]

Definately not, Alan. We had two Christmas Trees in our front garden, planted when they were 6ft tall (after Xmas) in Jan 80 and Jan 81. They eventually reached over 40ft, but in gales, long branches were being broken off and falling into neighbour's gardens. My dear wife took the decision to have them chopped to ground level, much as she loved them (and the squirrels and birds too...) They were Evergreen all year round.

This tree adjacent to our front garden looks like a conifer in Summer. Now in Autumn, it's carrying small cones, on average 1" to 2" long (as per pic above). In a few weeks, it will be totally bare- as in deciduous. Weird, or what?

Regards- AL

[Royal]

It certainly looks like a Larch to me...

[PhotoLady]

No cones on our tree....

I will take a close up over the weekend and post a photo as soon as I can.

[PhotoLady]

Hi Alan - here is a close up photograph of the tree in our back garden as requested below. It's not the clearest as it's a bit breezy today so I had to hang onto the branch with one hand and my Nikon with the other. I use the viewfinder rather than the display screen when taking photos and I just noticed there are a couple of small "bobbles" of some kind on the very left branch but they don't amount to "cones" of any sort.

If you click through the image, you will also be able to zoom in on it further by clicking again when you reach my Flickr account.

[beachcaster]

PhotoLady. quite confusing.The close up of your branch is not what i expected but on searching into your flicker account photos I can zoom into the branch configuration and it differs from your last post. I think the configuration of two pair of single leaves between the pairs of main leaves still points towards the Dawn Redwood. I am no expert so I am about done. Good luck with everything you do with your new life.
Regards ....Alan

[PaphosAL]

I noticed that some of the older branches on my tree are red in colour. Am beginning to change my mind, socks and underpants on this conundrum...