Got bark?
Recently, I took an afternoon stroll around the Iowa State University campus with camera in hand in search of the beauty of bark. As I see it, bark is like the wallpaper of the landscape, always there even when the room is bare. A well-known contemporary horticulturist once remarked in a press release that the beauty of bark was lost on the general public. On the contrary, I think horticulture’s ability to convey the beauty of bark is lost on the general public, because we presently don’t convey much of anything about it! We otherwise malign and ignore bark. Boo!
Throughout the next 10 months while I work on my next book for Timber Press, I’m planning to leak some of the ideas I espouse in the manuscript–the essence of a kickass pursuit of plants. Today, it’s all about bark and summed up easily enough in the swatch I made below. Can you name all eight of these woody plants? How many do you grow?
 | Published on February 7th, 2012 | Posted by Kelly Norris |
February 7th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
From left to right:
Pinus bungeana
Platanus occidentalis
Picea abies
Pinus sp.
Acer sp.
Juniperus virginiana
Prunus sp.
Of course, the easiest tree to recognize even when it is not in bloom is Cornus florida (dogwood). You can tell it by its bark.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
ooo, delicious! Is that lacebark pine on the far left?
February 7th, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Pinus bungeana-yes
Platanus occidentalis-yes
Picea abies-yes
Pinus-yes for #5, not #4
The others are still up for game!
February 7th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
So my thought is:
#8 is Betula
#7 is potentially Sequiadendron
Struggling with #6, but going to say Styphnolobium.
#4 I can see but no name is coming to mind.
P. bungeana through me off a little. It doesn’t do well in SW Idaho.
February 8th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
#8 is Betula lenta, yes!
#7–think shrubby/small tree
#6–Styphnolobium, yes!
I’ve had a few email guesses for #4, we’ll see if anyone else comes up with it!
February 9th, 2012 at 7:25 am
number# 1 dogwood #2 cottonwood # 6 elm # 7 is shag bark hickory, #8 is poplar