Visiting the Americas and Asia at UC Davis
Yesterday I showed you some the wonderful African plants found at UC Davis. Today we’ll continue our walking tour of the campus with a bunch of fascinating plants from the Americas and Asia.
The first set of photos were taken at the Cycad Garden front of Storer Hall. But before we get to the cycads, let’s look at some of the other plants here, like this fantastic Acacia hindsii.
Acacia hindsii
This Mexican and Central American native has some impressive thorns!
Acacia hindsii
The only agave species I spotted was Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoria-reginae), easily one of the most beautiful agaves of all. And the specimen in the next photo had the most fantastic white markings of any Agave victoria-reginae I’ve ever seen.
Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoria-reginae)
Most of the cycads in the American section are dioons, primarily Dioon edule, a medium-sized species…
Dioon edule with a tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) that somehow ended up next to it
Dioon edule
…and Dioon spinulosum, a potentially much larger species.
Dioon spinulosum
Here is nice grouping of dioons with a Mexican grass tree (Dasylirion longissimum):
Dioons and Dasylirion longissimum
And here is the same Yucca rigida I already showed you yesterday. This species is very closely related to Yucca rostrata. The only difference is that the leaves are a bit stiffer. For those of you wanting to see this plant in person, it’s located in front of the Sciences Laboratory Building.
Yucca rigida in front of the Sciences Laboratory Building
Yucca rigida
For the final set of photos, we'll return to Storer Hall. Yesterday I mentioned that the Cycad Garden contains plants from Africa, the Americas and Asia. The only Asian representative I saw was the sago palm (Cycas revoluta). It’s not exactly a rare plant around here—quite the opposite—but what is uncommon is to see such a stunning clump.
Cycas revoluta
Another first for me: sago palm mixed with Daphne odora. Winter daphne is native to China and Japan so it’s possible that you might see this combination in the wild.
Cycas revoluta and Daphne odora
One of the sago palms had a cone. While not 100% certain, I’m fairly sure this is a male cone :-).
Cycas revoluta
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Gorgeous specimens and that Queen Victoria agave...wow!
ReplyDeleteYou got some wonderful shots! I too an envious of that Queen Victoria shot. And what a perfect specimen it was. I remember staring at it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThat Queen Victoria agave is easily the most stunning specimen I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteHello Gerhard, Those are some great pictures! There are a few photos of yours I'm wondering if we could use, or link to for a Google Map of the outside plantings we'd like to post. Would that be possible? I'd always link back to your website here as much as possible. Also, there are a few I'd like to help identify to the names we have for them. We have the Acacia as hindsii and the Euphorbia outside is atropurpurea... I think all our lambii died out. Thanks for your consideration, Ernesto
ReplyDeleteErnesto, thank you for your kind words! Means a lot, coming from you.
DeleteFirst of all, thank you for the corrections. I've made the changes above. Euphorbia atropurpurea makes sense; I'd been wondering why the shrubby habit instead of the the tree-like growth of Euphorbia lambii.
Of course you can use my photos for your project. What you're planning sounds fantastic!!
Hello Gerhard, Those are some great pictures! There are a few photos of yours I'm wondering if we could use, or link to for a Google Map of the outside plantings we'd like to post. Would that be possible? I'd always link back to your website here as much as possible. Also, there are a few I'd like to help identify to the names we have for them. We have the Acacia as hindsii and the Euphorbia outside is atropurpurea... I think all our lambii died out. Thanks for your consideration, Ernesto
ReplyDelete