Cycas revoluta - Sago Palm

Cycas revoluta: Cycas from Greek 'kukas', erroneous reading of 'koïkas', accusative pl. of 'koïx', a kind of palm tree, perhaps of Egyptian origin; revoluta, meaning rolled back from the margin or apex, revolute.

Evergreen. Native to the West Indies, China, and Japan. Slow growing to 20' tall x 16' wide, forming a short, cylindrical trunk with whorled stumps of removed leaf bases. Develops off-shoots at the base, forming multiple upward-curved trunks with age. Sago palms can live to be over 500 years old. Leaves are 2-3' long dark green glabrous feathery fronds that are rigid and feel like plastic. Bark is scaly, cinnamon-red to dark brown.

Fronds are composed of many stiff, narrow linear-paired pinnae with sharply pointed ends, arising from a short-sheathed stalk. Fronds persist until they are cut off.

Dioecious flowers occur on separate plants, with yellowish conelike males producing pollen...

and larger female rosettes covered wth thick down, maturing into a cylindrical dark cone...

with thick red edible seeds.

Seeds and stem starch have been widely used as a food source; a large plant may yield over 1,000 seeds. The Ryuku Islanders make a form of sake that is poisonous and an occasional batch kills all who partake.

Prefers part shade in hot interior climates, with moderate moisture in fertile, well-drained soil. Due to its tolerance of temperate climates and various forms of horticultural abuse, this is the most common ornamental cycad.

Cupressus funebris - Funeral Cypress

Cupressus funebris: Cupressus is the Latin name for the Italian Cypressus tree (Cupressus sempervirens); funebris, Latin meaning 'funereal' -- so named for its pendulous, weeping branch tips.

Also known as Mourning Cypress.

Evergreen. Native to China. Tolerates wet soil, does well around ponds.

30'-60' tall with an equal spread. Heavy, wide-spreading limbs with weeping branch tips.

Foliage is lacy, in flat, drooping sprays of tiny yellow-green scale-like leaves with short, blunt points.

Tiny green female flowers form green, juniper-like cones 3/8" long.

Female cones maturing to brown in the fall of the first season. Male flowers are reddish brown, appearing at leaf tips in spring.

Bark is thin, reddish brown, peeling in thin, hairy strips.

Sophora japonica - Japanese Pagoda Tree

also known as Chinese Scholar Tree




Seed pods (legumes) resemble a string of pearls.

Melia azedarach - China-Berry

Celtis sinensis - Chinese Hackberry

Medium textured tree with leathery leaves.
Distal 1/3 of leaf margins are crenate to serrate with entire margins about the leaf base. Leaf base is oblique, as is typical of the Elm family (Ulmaceae).
Smooth grayish brown bark takes on blackish margins and warty growths with age, often with shallow furrows and ridges.

Albizia julibrissin - Silk Tree

See also this video of the leaves displaying thigmonasty (touch-induced movement).

Pistacia chinensis - Chinese Pistache

Medium textured, feathery, round-headed form.
Pinnately compound medium to dark green leaves.
Tiny panicles of yellowish green flowers. Male and female flowers are dioecious (on separate trees).
Fruit (on female trees only) are clusters of small, reddish drupes favored by birds that turn black when ripe in early fall.
Fall color tends to be better on male cultivars.
Bark is reddish brown, thickening to become grey-brown, finely fissured, with flat, scaly ridges.

Cunninghamia lanceolata - China Fir

A pyramidal coarse-textured conifer.
Needle-like leaves 2"-2.5" long are arranged in a spiral around the stem.
Round female cones 1"-2" long with spine tipped scales.
Chestnut brown bark has long straight furrows.

Salix babylonica pekinensis 'Tortuosa' - Corkscrew Willow

Salix babylonica pekinensis 'Tortuosa': Salix is the Latin name for willow; babylonica, meaning "of Babylon;" pekinensis, species is native to China; Tortuosa refers to the twisted twigs and leaves.

Also known as S. matsudana 'Tortuosa'.

Compact weeping willow, often grown in the landscape for the novelty of its twisted twigs and leaves.
Profuse but inconspicuous catkin-like flowers appear in spring after leaf out.
Twisted leaves are about 3" long, shorter than S. babylonica
Twigs are also twisted.
Grayish scaly bark, sometimes with dark brown furrows.

Paulownia tomentosa - Empress Tree

Paulownia tomentosa: Paulownia, named for Russian Princess Anna Paulowna, daughter of Czar Paul I; tomentosa, meaning 'hairy' or 'wooly', referring to the lower leaf surface.

Very coarse, round headed tree. This fast-growing tree needs a lot of room.
Blue to pale violet trumpet-shaped flowers with a yellow-striped throat in showy upright 6-12" panicles before leaf out. Compare to Jacaranda mimosifolia.
Enormous cordate (heart-shaped) leaves with smooth upper surface and hairy undersides can grow to be as much as 12" long.
Leathery seed pods start green and turn brown with maturity, cracking open to release lots of small winged seeds in fall. Seed pods can persist on the tree into winter.
Shiny gray bark with reddish mottled fissures.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides - Dawn Redwood

Metasequoia glyptostroboides: Metasequoia from meta meaning 'with', 'after', 'sharing' or 'changed in nature'; sequoia refers to the sequoia genus; glyptostroboides, for its resemblance to the genus Glyptostroboides.

This tree was known only in the fossil record until it was rediscovered in China in the 1940s. Fossils of this tree have also been found on the Pacific Coast. This is the tallest tree in China.
Leaves are pinnately compound, paired opposite along branchlets with soft fern-like needles.
Female cones resembling giant sequoia cones are about 1" long. They hang pendulous from long slender stalks.
Scales open to release tiny brown seeds when the cones mature in late summer of the first year and can persist on the tree into winter.
Incredible pink to orangey brown fall color.
These conifers are deciduous.
Gorgeous fibrous reddish brown bark with shallow fissures.
Buttressed trunk.