Winter Dreams Summer Gardens, Ashland, November 3, 2012

How to Identify Woody Landscape Plants

Branches or leaves to show various characteristics:

• Simple Leaf:
Unlobed   Rhododendron, Rhododendron
Lobed   (American) Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua


• Compound leaf (palmate):    Horsechestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum


• Compound leaf (pinnate):    Black Locust, Robinia pseudoacacia


• Large compound leaf:    Kentucky Coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioica


• Alternate leaf arrangement:    Salal, Gaultheria shallon


• Opposite leaf arrangement, simple leaf:    Corneliancherry Dogwood, Cornus mas


• Opposite leaf arrangement, compound leaf:    Paperbark Maple, Acer griseum


• 2-needle pine:    Shore Pine, Pinus contorta var. contorta


• 3-needle pine:    Ponderosa Pine, Pinus ponderosa


• 5-needle pine:    Western White Pine, Pinus monticola


• Fir:    Grand Fir, Abies grandis


• Spruce:    Colorado Blue Spruce, Picea pungens var. glauca


• Needleless spruce branch:     Blue Spruce without needles, just “pegs”


• Branchlets of four native “cedars”, together to emphasize their differences:
  • Western Red Cedar, Thuja plicata
  • Incense Cedar, Calocedrus decurrens
  • Port Orford Cedar, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
  • Alaska Cedar,Chamaecyparis nootkatensis,

Master Gardener Training, Mini-College, Willamette Univ., Salem, July 28, 2012

Branches of plants used to show various characteristics:

• Simple Leaf:    Corylus cornuta var. californica, Western Hazelnut


• Compound leaf:    Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut


• Large compound leaf:    Gymnocladus dioica, Kentucky Coffeetree


• Alternate leaf arrangement:    Gaultheria shallon, Salal


• Opposite leaf arrangement:    Acer circinatum, Vine Maple


• Opposite, compound leaf:    Fraxinus latifolia,Oregon Ash


• 2-needle pine:    Pinus contorta var. contorta, Shore Pine


• 3-needle pine:    Pinus ponderosa, Ponderosa Pine


• 5-needle pine:    Pinus monticola, Western White Pine


• Fir:    Abies grandis, Grand Fir


• Spruce:    Picea pungens var. glauca , Colorado Blue Spruce


• Needleless spruce branch:     Blue Spruce without needles, just “pegs”


• Three of the native “cedars” branchlets, bound together to emphasize their differences:
  • Chamaecyparis lawsoniana,    Port Orford Cedar
  • Thuja plicata,    Western Red Cedar
  • Calocedrus decurrens,    Incense Cedar
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis,    Alaska Cedar

1. Acer saccharum,    Sugar Maple



2. Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea ‘Rose Glow’,    Rose Glow Barberry



3. Sorbus aucuparia,    European Mountain Ash



4. Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’,    Purple Beech



5. Itea virginica ‘Henry's Garnet’,     Henry's Garnet Sweetspire



6. Trachelospermum jaminoides,    Star Jasmine



7. Quercus phellos,    Willow Oak



8. Pseudotsuga menziesii,    Douglas Fir



9. Platanus × acerifolia,    London Planetree