Tree of the day

[caveman]

School is back in session.  I guess I am going to have to look up parenchyma.  I hope that it retains its whiteness but I suspect with the rain and humidity we are supposed to get this week that it will turn grey.  I have been looking forward to sawing a magnolia for quite a while.  This log sawed like a hot knife thorough butter.  Even though I applied anchorseal  II, I did notice a small end grain crack tonight in the slabs.

[Ljohnsaw]

OK, on to the next tree of the day, this one from the west coast.  I thought I only had two "pine" trees on my cabin property but I was wrong.  I have three but Ponderosa has already been listed somewhere above.

I've been clearing dead, dying and malformed trees and came across two different ones.  Here is the first.  This is actually a little baby one but same as the adults except for the bark.  When mature, the barks tends to get scaly.


 

 
I forgot to check the needles for roughness top/bottom but I'm pretty sure they are smooth on top.  There is a slight taper where the needle attaches to the twig.  And you can see that they are flat branches with the needles sticking straight out.  No sharp point that sticks you and not a lot of "pine odor" to them - just mild.  Looking in my western tree identifying guide, I'm 99% sure of what it is based on the range.

Looks like White fir

Too easy for you being on the left coast!  On to the next one then...

[Ljohnsaw]

This one is a bit sappy - one knit glove got glued to the back of my hand with a couple drops.  You will be instantly transported to Christmas time when you smell this one, from several feet away, when its cut.


 

 
Note the rust-colored bark on the twigs and that the needles are a bit uppity. ;)

[Texas Ranger]

Like your camera work.  Closest I can come is balsam.

[Ljohnsaw]

Like your camera work.  Closest I can come is balsam.

Just my little old flip phone.  No macro setting so I can't get any closer / clearer shots. 
My Pacific Coast Tree Finder field guide does not even list balsam as an option out here.  That "tree" was just the top I stuck in the ground to get the picture.  One might say it is fit for a king... ;)

[Texas Ranger]

Noble of you. 8)

[tule peak timber]

Abies almost right !

[dchiapin]

Magnolia grandiflora

[caveman]

Tree of the day today is not really a tree but it is called a tree.
  I suspect they do not grow in some of the areas where a lot of the FF members live.
 

[Texas Ranger]

fruit or vegetable?

[tule peak timber]

Hippies in California smoke it to benefit from bannabanol........

[caveman]

They used to commercially farm them years ago about a mile from where I live.  A road there, which is, ironically, straight is named after this fruit.  

 It is not a bird of paradise.

[Don P]

I ate one today before stripping a cedar roof, didn't work. Which end do I light?

[Roxie]

Is that some kind of wild banana, really?

[Ianab]

This isn't a native, but a common tree in the area. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Rhododendron?  That is huge if it is!

[Texas Ranger]

Rhododendron?

[Ianab]

Rhododendron?  That is huge if it is!

Yup, that's it. The size isn't unusual for some of the Himalayan species, and the temperate rain forest climate here seems to suit them. Some of the bigger one can hit 45 ft or so. 
I grew up just down the road from Pukeiti Gardens which specialises in them, and has hundreds of different varieties. They have 65 acres of garden set in 890 acres of native rain forest. It's now owned by the Regional Council and free to visit. 

[tule peak timber]

Sure is a good looking tree.

[Texas Ranger]

In Texas those are called "shrubs".  :

[caveman]

There are still a few banana trees around.  They tend to grow in bunches.

[Southside]

Slippery slope there Caveman.... ;D

[Roxie]

 :D :D

[doc henderson]

I am at work but can barely peel myself away from this thread!

[Southside]

I am green with envy at how ripe for picking the puns are here. It's a real gas... ;D