Westonbirt

I had a meander to Gloucestershire today to Westonbirt Arboretum, which is probably the best time of year to visit because the Japanese maples are at their best.

Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple

Chinese Red Birch

Chinese Red Birch

Lime Avenue

Monterey Pine Cone

 The oldest small-leaved lime in Britain, some two thousand years old. We usually think of old trees as being large and gnarled, but, apparently, this lime has been continually pollarded every thirty years or so through those two millennia.

Small-leaved Lime

Small-leaved Lime

Small-leaved Lime Sculpture

Wollemi Pine

Wollemi Pine

Autumn Flowers

A short walk in autumn produced some flowers as below.

This sweet-scented flower is a universal favourite with people.  It is a deciduous climber, twining clockwise.  The flowers are in terminal heads, yellow, yellow-pink or red; leaves are broad, not serrated, opposite in pairs, each pair lying in a plane at right angles to the next; the berries are red.

Honeysuckle is from Old English "hunigsuce".  It is also known as woodbine.

The generic name "Lonicera" is after sixteenth-century German botanist Adam Lonitzer. Its specific name "periclymenum" is from the Greek "peri", around, and "klymenon", a tendril, which indicates its twinning habits.

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Snowberry

Snowberry

Snowberry with Flowers

Ivy