Early April in LA

Now we are in the middle of Blooming May, but before writing anything else I must write about those early signs of Spring that mean so much to me.  This is one of the few times I get homesick, yearning to see the first hedgerow wild flowers- primroses, violets, windflowers, celandine.  Coming from the UK, a country where we have so many deciduous trees compared with Los Angeles,  here in LA I am always searching for that first delicate bloom you see on the trees and which I find so moving.  This post will be devoted to some of these trees.  In a post I wrote about the Fall in LA, I spoke of some trees I saw regularly when taking my young granddaughter out and these are the ones I am now showing in their new April state. First, here is the Tulip Tree- Liriodendron tulipifera:

I was fascinated to see that the seed clusters remaining from last year's flowers were still on the branches, interspersed with the fresh new leaves:

Similarly, the round, pom-pom like seed clusters of the American Sweetgum tree- Liquidambar styraciflua- were still in evidence:

But what surprized me more was the fact that on these American Sweetgum trees many of the Fall leaves- red, purple, orange, yellow- were still there, intermingled with the new bright green ones.  I do not remember ever seeing this in the UK (apart from occasionally some dead, crinkled ones left behind on, for instance, oak trees) as there Winter winds have normally blown them all away.

This gave the trees an interesting patchwork, hybrid effect...

Ash trees, too, still held some of their dead "keys", but that I have seen in the UK.

Another example of Autumn and Spring combined was on the Silk Floss trees, where their wonderful sci-fi "pods" hung among the new leaves, the floss having not yet burst out:

And what about this Yaupon holly- Cassina aquifoliaceae- that seems to be totally confused about the seasons: 

Apart from these trees, some in LA seem to suddenly be covered in technicolor green foliage, having completely missed out on that delicate first bloom.  Unfortunately I have not yet discovered the name of these particular ones (can anyone help me?):

Finally, down the street I am living on, there are these tall, rather straggly trees- Black Locusts (Robinia pseudacacia) that suddenly became transformed by ravishing pale pink flowers- similar to Wisteria- making one's walk a delight:

Now, of course, it is May and there are many more glorious, exotic flowers on both deciduous and evergreen trees- but more about that later...

The Fall in LA

All my life having been subjected to the miraculous, dramatic shocks of the changing seasons in the UK, I will always feel rather cheated in Southern California, where the changes are more subtle. Because of this, I get extra excited when finding evidence of Autumn- or I should say "the Fall"- in LA where the majority of trees are evergreens.

As I have said before, as an artist my prime interest in trees is visual. Although my knowledge of the indigenous British trees is quite extensive, it is very limited regarding trees from other countries, including those in the US. In the last few days I have twice been made very aware of this, and embarrassed myself.

The first instance: Nearby, there is a wonderful avenue of one of the few local trees that are now glowing red and yellow and orange. I vaguely decided they were some variety of Maples- partly because of their colours and partly because of the palmate shape of the leaves:









Before writing this post I looked more closely at them, and soon realized that there were no signs of the Acer family winged seed pods. Instead there were these spiky, round fruits that I think of as "pom-poms", similar to those on the London Plane trees, and the leaves were slightly different from all the Maples.


A bit of research led me to the American Sweetgum tree- Liqidambar styraciflua.

My second instance of mistaken identity was in a street connected to that of the Sweetgums, down which I regularly walk when taking my Granddaughter Violet to a nearby playground. There I was constantly enjoying some magnificent tall golden trees, especially when lit by sunlight. Again, I was not that concerned about what they were, as it was their colour rather than their structure that caught my attention. I thought they were possibly some sort of Sycamores (though not the London Plane tree).








Having decided to include them in this post I became a bit more observant: checking out the leaves on the ground, I recognized the distinctive shape of a tree I had fallen in love with in the Botanical Gardens of Bath. This was the Tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, also known as the Yellow Poplar tree, although it is a member of the Magnolia family. What puzzled me at first was that on the LA trees I had never noticed the wondrous flowers they have, and which I had delighted in photographing on the Bath tree- but then I remembered that last Spring I left the country in March, before they would have blossomed.

These are the LA leaves:



And this is one of the Bath ones:


And here is the evidence I zoomed in on of the seed clusters on the LA tree:


Finally, two photos of the Tulip tree flowers in Bath. I just can't wait to see the LA trees covered with these magical flowers next year!

Tulip Tree

No sooner had I settled myself in Ilford- in Eastmost London- than I had to return to Bath due to family illness. This has caused me to yet again get behind in writing about my recent exciting visual experiences. I will write more about these later but in the meantime feel compelled to share with viewers this totally magical flower I saw in Bath's Botanical Gardens, walking home from the Royal United Hospital.

This is the flower of the Tulip Tree- Liriodendron Tulipifera, a member of the Magnolia family. Apart from the trees wonderful, almost "painted" flowers, it has the most elegant leaves. It is an incredible tree- a tree to uplift one's spirits.