Friday, November 21, 2008
Solving a plant mystery
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
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Q: I need your help in identifying a couple of plants and some facts about each that I should know. I saw the plants in mid-fall here in the Roanoke Valley. I might want to use either or both in my own landscape next spring.
The first is a tree that is growing in a parking lot island in the parking lot of one of the Lowe’s home improvement stores. None of the employees of the garden section there seemed to know for sure what the tree is. Some of its leaves had turned yellow, while others had already fallen. The leaves were shaped kind of like redbud foliage, but they had little pointed teeth all around the leaf edges and the leaves were big -- maybe 6 to 8 inches wide by 6 to 8 inches long coming up to a pointed end. The leaves came out in an alternate arrangement on the branches. The bark of the trunk was a gray-brown color and was mostly smooth. There were many “V” shaped intersections in the trunk and the big branches seemed to grow in a zigzag fashion.
The other plant I want to know about appears to be a 8-10 feet tall. It's a , deciduous, multiple trunk clump shrub that I’m guessing was planted many years ago very close to the outdoor heating and air conditioning unit of an old stone church that I pass by. The shape of this big bush was upward growing and not very wide. I guess the idea of close planting was to hide the outdoor electrical unit, but the bush looked rather ratty to me when I recently saw it. The leaves were coming out from the stems opposite from each other. The leaves were boat-shaped, about 3 inches long by about an inch wide with small, rounded teeth. Some leaves were a pale green, many were purple, and some leaves were just gone. I don’t know if this bush flowers. The trunks and stems were dark brown colored and appeared smooth.
A: The unknown tree definitely fits the description of the American Linden, which is sometimes called Basswood (botanic name is Tilia Americana.) The linden grown here in the East is a shade tree reaching 80 feet with a width or of aboout two-thirds its height.
It is winter-hardy, tall and stately. However, it grows several slender, low-hung spreading branches that might get in your way but can be pruned. Overall, this tree has a pyramidal form when young, but the overall shape becomes more rounded with age.
Unfortunately, this linden doesn’t offer breath-taking fall color, as you noticed. The leaves of some of these trees change to pale yellow in the fall. Usually, though, linden leaves fall off green or yellow-green in the fall. Leaves on some American Lindens tend to develop a brownish cast in very early fall and become rather ugly, especially if the summer has been dry.
As for the shrub, my guess is it is one of the Viburnums. There are many varieties that are attractive in the right landscape setting. It is a mistake, though, to plant any tree or shrub extremely close to a foundation or outdoor piece of electrical equipment.
