Autumn tree highlights
Credit: Paul Box
Autumn is always astonishing at Westonbirt Arboretum and this year is no exception. With such an array of colour, which trees are particularly special at this time of year? Westonbirt’s dendrologist Dan picks out some of his highlights.
Westonbirt’s autumn magnificence is provided by trees from all over the temperate world. Some of these regions are home to large numbers of plants that come to the fore at this time of year.
One of these is eastern North America. Growing in varied and sometimes strikingly different habitats in their native surroundings, a great many thrive here at Westonbirt. Many plants from North America have been grown in Britain for centuries and while some are almost as familiar as our natives, others are less so.
24 WESTONBIRT AUTUMN 2017
The tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) is special in more ways than one. At its peak its autumn colour is among the very best, with vibrant shades of orange burning bright in the landscape. Its scientific name, Nyssa sylvatica, roughly translates as ‘nymph goddess of the woods’. A fiting name for such a beautiful tree. A small genus of around 10 species, with about four found in eastern North America. The water tupelo (N. aquatica) is another of these, though as the scientific name suggests, it occurs in rather different areas to tupelo. It grows in swamps and develops a remarkable swollen base. Though most apparent on large trees, the swollen base can be seen on young trees here, planted in 2010.
Another lover of swamps is the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Known by some as the ‘traffic light tree’, it oſten colours from the top down, in three distinct bands of colour. Oſten beginning to change as early as August, there can be shades of red-purple at the top, orange-yellow in the middle, while still green towards the botom. It has a broad range, extending south from north east USA to Central America, with trees at Westonbirt collected from Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia.
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