I generally focus on the flora we discover on our walks in the Algarvian hills and saltpans, occasionally however I make myself stop for a moment to take a closer look at the trees in the towns and villages. And I am never disappointed as there is always something new and special to discover in the canopy above our heads.
The Brachychiton as with many of the cultivated trees in the towns and villages is not native to Portugal.
My next tree for today’s portraits post is also frequently planted in towns and villages in the Iberian Peninsula, and is also not native. Can you spot it below?
Nope not the palms, the ones with the green seed pods! They are from tropical America, and their name is Jacaranda mimosifolia.
A favourite of mine is the Cercis siliquastrum, more commonly known as the Judas Tree.
Another tree whose seed pods catch your eye at this time of year is the Indian Bead Tree. Amazingly I do not seem to have mentioned it before.
Indian Bead Trees are not the only trees full of fruit at this time of year, the palms are dropping their fruit everywhere and the bay laurel is full of colour. Well we think it is the bay laurel. I was really struggling to identify it but MrB had a search and is pretty certain this is the laurus nobilis with unripened berries as the stems are the wrong colour for the Portuguese Laurel (prunus lusitanica). Unfortunately I didn’t think at the time to smell its leaves to be 100% confident it is the bay!
I know there are numerous trees I haven’t mentioned such as the glorious magnolias in Porto, the invasive and problematic Eucalyptus and the Bottle Brush. But I’ll come back to them another day, and instead finish with a few photographs of some everyday trees – the lemons, oranges and satsumas.
By the way it was partly the picture below that inspired me to write an urban tree post. I am sure you like me tend to take them for granted as we rush past in our urban environments but maybe we should regularly take a moment to stop. Samuel N Baxter, a 19th/20th century American arboriculturist and landscape gardener sums up perfectly the importance of trees in his poem ‘I Love a Tree’.
When I pass on to my reward,
Whatever that may be,
I’d like my friends to think of me
As one who loved a tree.
I may not have a statesman’s poise,
Nor thrill a crowd with speech,
But I can benefit mankind
If I set out a beech.
If I transport a sapling oak
To rear its mighty head,
’Twill shade and shelter those who come
Long after I am dead.
If in the park I plant an elm,
Where children come to play,
To them ’twill be a childhood shrine
That will not soon decay.
Of if I plant a tree with fruit,
On which the birds may feed,
I’ve helped to foster feathered friends,
And that’s a worthy deed.
For winter, when the days grow short
And spirits may run low,
I’d plant a pine upon the ‘scape;
’Twould lend a cheering glow.
I’d like a tree to mark the spot
Where I am laid to rest,
To me ‘twould be an epitaph
That I would love the best.
And though not carved upon a stone
For those who come to see,
My friends would know that resting here
Is one who loved a tree.
I LOVE A TREE
by Samuel N. Baxter