Koelreuteria paniculata

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 1
  • Common Name: Golden raintree
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: e golden rain tree is a medium-sized deciduous tree. It is a great urban flowering tree that tolerates drought, heat, wind, and air pollution and grows 30 to 40 feet tall high and equally as wide. It has spreading branches but a rounded crown. This tree has a medium to fast growth rate and transplants and self-seeds easily.

Dimensions

  • Height: 30 - 40 ft
  • Width: 30 - 40 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun
  • Soil Texture: Clay, High organic matter, Loam (silt), Sand, Shallow rocky
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist, Occasionally dry, Very dry
  • pH Range: 8 - 4.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 5a - 8b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Summer, Fall
  • Leaf Retention: Deciduous
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow, Orange
  • Bloom Color: Gold/Yellow
  • Bloom Period: 5 - 7
  • Fruit Interest: Summer, Fall, Winter

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: Golden rain tree works well planted on a lawn or park or near a patio, though consider the flower and leaf litter if planted near any hardscape. Use it to shade children’s gardens where the flowers and fruits can be enjoyed. It may also be used as a shade tree or street tree. This tree can escape cultivation and naturalizes in various conditions. You may wish to consider a native plant alternative.

Wildlife Value

  • Nectar from the flowers attracts bees.

Cedrus libani

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 2
  • Common Name: Cedar of Lebanon
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: Cedrus libani is a evergreen conifer that is slow growing in it first 20 years. It may only reach heights of 20’ during that time period. However, its mature height will typically reach 40-60’, and occasionally taller. Heights of up to 120’ have been recorded. A trunk up to 10’ is common in mature trees.

Dimensions

  • Height: 40 - 60 ft
  • Width: 30 - 50 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun
  • Soil Texture: Clay, Loam (silt), Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist, Occasionally dry
  • pH Range: 5.5 - 8
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 5a - 7b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: Brown/Copper, Purple/Lavender
  • Bloom Period: 7 - 9
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Summer

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: Its stately stature makes it a great choice for estate gardens and public parks.

Wildlife Value

  • Squirrels are attracted to the cones.

Euonymus fortunei

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 3
  • Common Name: Wintercreeper euonymus
  • Growth Habit: Shrub, Vine
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: Climbing Euonymus is an evergreen woody vine or sprawling shrub. The juvenile form is a procumbent, vine-like groundcover; and the adult form is a shrub. In nature, it can often be found in woods and thickets in the low mountains of its native Japan. Some cultivars (see list) may be more of a vine and others more of a small shrub, but keep in mind that the vining cultivars and some shrubs can both be invasive. Climbing Euonymus readily escapes into native forests and has no trouble dominating medium-sized trees. Climbing Euonymus is listed as invasive in North Carolina and in other states of the southeast and northeast. When used as ground cover for the showy leaves, it tends to climb if given support. As a woody vine, this plant can form new rootlets when its branches contact moist soil. In addition, when this vine climbs trees, it produces aerial rootlets along its branches. As it reaches the tops of trees or a structure it is climbing, the plant will then become a flowering and fruiting plant which increases its invasive tendencies by producing seeds. This plant is frequently damaged by deer and is salt tolerant.

Dimensions

  • Height: 14 - 32 ft
  • Width: 2 - 10 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Dappled sunlight, Full sun, Partial shade
  • Soil Texture: Clay, High organic matter, Loam (silt) Sand, Shallow rocky
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist, Occasionally dry, Very dry
  • pH Range: 5 - 7.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 4a - 9b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: Green, White
  • Bloom Period: 6 - 7
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Orange, Pink, Red/Burgundy, White

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: NA

Wildlife Value

  • Birds are attracted to the seeds in the fall.

Picea omorika

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 4
  • Common Name: Serbian spruce
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: One of the most attractive and adaptable spruces, this coniferous, evergreen species has thin arching branches and a slender trunk.

Dimensions

  • Height: 50 - 60 ft
  • Width: 15 - 25 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun, Partial shade
  • Soil Texture: Clay, Loam (silt), Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist
  • pH Range: 5.5 - 8.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 4a - 7b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: NA
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: NA
  • Bloom Period: NA - NA
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Winter

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: NA

Wildlife Value

  • Attracts birds, provides cover for rabbits and birds.

Sequoiadendron giganteum

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 5
  • Common Name: Sequoia
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: L48(N)
  • Description: The giant redwood can grow 250 to 300’ in the wild and is among the most massive trees in the world. Its trunk diameter ranges from 15-20’. These long-lived trees have a lifespan of 2000 to 3000 years. They can be found growing on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. When planted in the correct climate outside its native habitat, success is possible, but heights may only reach 40-60’. When young, trees will have a pyramidal shape. As they age, they keep the same shape but will lose their lower branches.

Dimensions

  • Height: 60 - 275 ft
  • Width: 25 - 60 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: NA

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun
  • Soil Texture: Loam (silt), Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist, Occasionally dry
  • pH Range: 5.5 - 7.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 6a - 8b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: NA
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: NA
  • Bloom Period: NA - NA
  • Fruit Interest: Summer, Brown/Copper, Green, Red/Burgundy

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: The giant redwood requires a large space and the correct climate. They are attractive in large gardens.

Wildlife Value

  • The tree is a source of shelter for wildlife. Mature cones are collected by squirrels, and the seeds are eaten by chipmunks, sparrows, and finches.

Pinus nigra

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 6
  • Common Name: Austrian pine
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: The Austrian Pine is a medium to large-sized evergreen conifer that grows 40 to 60 feet tall and 20 to 40 feet wide. It has a pyramidal habit when young, but as the tree ages, the crown rounds and forms a dome shape. This ornamental tree has stiff dark green needles that occur in bundles of two. The cones are pointed directly out and away from the stem and are oval and brown at maturity. The bark of the tree is dark brown to black, furrowed, and plate-like. The branches are stout and spreading, and the trunk is straight.

Dimensions

  • Height: 40 - 60 ft
  • Width: 20 - 40 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun
  • Soil Texture: Clay, Loam (silt), Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist, Occasionally dry
  • pH Range: 5.5 - 7.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 4a - 7b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: NA
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: NA
  • Bloom Period: NA - NA
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Brown/Copper

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: The Austrian pine may be used as a specimen, screen, or windbreak.

Wildlife Value

  • This plant supports Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis) larvae which have one brood per season and appear from April-October in the south. Adult Imperial Moths do not feed.

Larix decidua

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 7
  • Common Name: European larch
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: European Larch is a large deciduous conifer with a pyramidal to irregular shape with drooping horizontal branches. Its size makes it an ideal plant for a large property. Its slender form when young becomes more irregular with cones and dead branches persisting as the tree ages.

Dimensions

  • Height: 60 - 100 ft
  • Width: 20 - 30 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sunn
  • Soil Texture: Loam (silt)
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage
  • pH Range: 6 - 7
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 2a - 6b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall
  • Leaf Retention: Deciduous
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow
  • Bloom Color: NA
  • Bloom Period: NA - NA
  • Fruit Interest: Summer, Fall, Brown/Copper, Red/Burgundy

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: NA

Wildlife Value

  • Attractive to birds.

Gleditsia triacanthos

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 8
  • Common Name: Honey locust
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)
  • Description: The honey-locust is a 30-75 ft. tree with a comparable spread and a “delicate and sophisticated” silhouette. Feathery, yellow-green, pinnately compound leaves provide filtered shade. Fall color is yellow. Greenish flowers are not conspicuous, but the twisted seed pods change from red-green to maroon-brown as they mature. Pods 30-45 cm long, curled, persist into winter. Most wild trees are not thornless; the long, needle-sharp thorns are extremely vicious and not suitable for a domestic landscape.

Dimensions

  • Height: 60 - 80 ft
  • Width: 60 - 80 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: FAC

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun, Partial shade
  • Soil Texture: Clay, High organic matter, Loam (silt)
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Mosit
  • pH Range: 4.8 - 8
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 3a - 8b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall
  • Leaf Retention: Deciduous
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow
  • Bloom Color: Gold/Yellow, Green
  • Bloom Period: 5 - 6
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Winter, Brown/Copper, Red/Burgundy

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: Coarse grained, hard, strong wood is moderately resistant to decay. Timber used as fence posts, railroad ties, furniture, shipping pallets, tool handles, and fuel. Native Americans used the dried pulp from the seed pods as a sweetening agent and used its wood for bows. The thorns have been used as pins.
  • Landscape Value: Honey locust is an excellent choice to plant in a native garden or as a street or security tree. The pulp inside the seed pod is edible which makes the tree an attractant for bees, moths, butterflies, and small mammals. It is the host plant for the larvae of the Silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) moth. This tree is highly salt, wind and drought tolerant once established and resistant to damage by deer and pollution.

Wildlife Value

  • Bean pods are eaten by white-tailed deer, squirrels, rabbits, hogs, opossums, and raccoons, deer browse young shoots in spring and bark of young trees in the winter. Butterflies, bees, and moths nectar at the flowers. It is the larval host plant for the Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).

Acer palmatum

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 9
  • Common Name: Japanese maple
  • Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: The Japanese maple is a short tree in the Sapindaceae (soapberry) family, native to southeast Korea and central and south Japan, and noted for having many aesthetically pleasing forms. Weeping as well as upright varieties exist, and the species is well noted for its beautiful deep red and orange summer color that deepens into the fall.

Dimensions

  • Height: 15 - 25 ft
  • Width: 10 - 25 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Dappled sunlight
  • Soil Texture: High organic matter
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Moist
  • pH Range: NA - NA
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 5a - 8b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Summer, Spring
  • Leaf Retention: Deciduous
  • Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow, Green, Purple/Lavender
  • Fall Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow, Green, Purple/Lavender
  • Bloom Color: Gold/Yellow, Purple/Lavender, Red/Burgundy
  • Bloom Period: 3 - 5
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Brown/Copper, Red/Burgundy

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: Use it as a woodland understory tree or as an accent or specimen tree along a walkway in an Asian or children’s garden.

Wildlife Value

  • Members of the genus Acer support Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis) larvae which have one brood per season and appear from April-October in the south. Adult Imperial Moths do not feed. Small song birds are attracted to this plant.

Sciadopitys verticillata

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 10
  • Common Name: Umbrella pine
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: The umbrella pine is a slow-growing evergreen conifer tree with a variable growth habit and a conical crown. It may reach a height of 30 to 70 feet in cultivation and over 100 feet in its native habitat. It provides dense shade when young, and its form is spire-like too broadly pyramidal. As it ages, the form is straight with horizontal branches in whorls. The branches become pendulous and spread. Its texture is medium to coarse and appears stiff and twiggy.

Dimensions

  • Height: 25 - 30 ft
  • Width: 15 - 20 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun, Partial shade
  • Soil Texture: Clay, Loam (silt) Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Mosit
  • pH Range: 4.5 - 8
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 5a - 8a

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
  • Leaf Retention: Evergreen
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: NA
  • Bloom Color: Gold/Yellow, Green, Red/Burgundy
  • Bloom Period: 3 - 5
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Brown/Copper, Red/Burgundy

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: The wood is used for building boats. The sap has been found to have antibacterial properties.
  • Landscape Value: The umbrella pine is a much-underused tree in the landscape. Consider this tree as a specimen in your home landscape in rock gardens, foundation plantings, or containers. It may also be used for bonsai.

Wildlife Value

  • NA

Ginkgo biloba

General Description

  • Plant Walk Number: 11
  • Common Name: Ginkgo, Maidenhair tree
  • Growth Habit: Tree
  • Duration: Perennial
  • Native Status: Not native
  • Description: Ginkgo is a long-lived, woody, deciduous, prehistoric tree in the Ginkgoaceae (ginkgo) family. It is native to south-central and southeast China and is often called a living fossil because the ginkgo has existed for hundreds of millions of years.

Dimensions

  • Height: 50 - 80 ft
  • Width: 30 - 40 ft

Wetland Status

  • Status: Not classified

Cultural Conditions

  • Light: Full sun
  • Soil Texture: Clay, Loam (silt), Sand
  • Soil Drainage: Good drainage, Occasionally dry, Occasionally wet
  • pH Range: 5.2 - 7.5
  • USDA Hardiness Zones: 3a - 9b

Aesthetic Attributes

  • Foliage Interest: Fall
  • Leaf Retention: Deciduous
  • Leaf Color: Green
  • Fall Leaf Color: Gold/Yellow
  • Bloom Color: Cream/Tan, Green, Orange
  • Bloom Period: 3 - 5
  • Fruit Interest: Fall, Cream/Tan, Gold/Yellow, Orange

Ethnobotany and Landscape Value

  • Ethnobotany: NA
  • Landscape Value: The ginkgo tree is tolerant of drought, heat, air pollution, and is moderately salt tolerant, which makes it an excellent choice for urban settings, streetscapes, recreational play areas, and walkways. It is also deer resistant. Its sculptural form makes it popular for use in bonsai.

Wildlife Value

  • NA