Love of Nature, Natural Patterns

A Local Lockdown Walk

A magnificent Stone Pine

Yes, I live within easy reach of Kew Gardens, and after weeks of grey winter and grim news, it was a lovely moment in the sunshine among the fabulous variety of Pine trees – dozens of species – in the arboretum.

The gloriously abstract painterly bark of the Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). It’s more reminiscent of laurels or the London Plane than of the craggy bark of many Pine species. It’s a graceful tree, too.
The tightly packed structure of the cone of the Atlas Cedar, a magnificent and elegant tree from the Maghreb hills of Algeria and Morocco
Flowers in January! Yes, it’s a member of the Hamamelidaceae, the Witch-Hazel family, but not one of the usual suspects. This is the Persian Ironwood, Parrotia persica, from Iran and the Caucasus.