Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Roma on June 17, 2018, 04:17:20 PM
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This has been growing in a pile of brushwood in my ponies' field for a few years but had no idea what it was and was waiting to see flowers. I think it is a dogwood - Cornus and a very unexciting one too. Plain green leaves and green stems.
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Roma,
I learned a party trick for deciding is a plant is a Cornus when on a recent trip to RBGE. Take a leaf, holding it lengthwise, and gently pull it apart, to make a tear across the leaf. Some of the main veins will remain intact, and so it is a Cornus. Other leaves do not do this. You can see in the 3rd photo that the torn leaf is hanging by threads. Good, eh?
Well, it would be good if I could send the photos from this tablet, but the system is telling me my files are too big. Sorry.
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Odd problem with the picture size, Carolyn. Normally pix sent from tablets or smart phones load right away. Perhaps an idea to try loading them within the text as "Inline full-size image" option.
See here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg389856#msg389856 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg389856#msg389856)
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OK, here goes:
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This shows how to hold the leaf.
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And then, gently tear the leaf apart.
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Then the leaf hangs by a thread and you know it is a cornus.
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Thanks for the technical assistance Maggi, now I can get back to posting more photos.
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Very natty demonstration, Carolyn!!
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Thank you Carolyn. I haven't had time to check. Trying to make watering a bit simpler for my daughter when I go off on holiday and having workmen in the house replacing doors and windows. I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I have far too many plants in pots and it's been too dry to plant things out without having to water all the time. When we do get rain the wind gets up and everything is dry again.
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Have a good holiday, Roma!
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I am am a little bit surprised that there seems no objection against the identification as a 'Cornus'.
I guess it is a member of Caprifoliaceae - perhaps a Lonicera species.
Gerd
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No comments? :(
Gerd
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The leaf tearing test did not work in my garden.
I tried Cornus nuttallii, C. kousa and C. stolonifera. Clean breaks. No threads.
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I think it is Lonicera involucrata.
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Thank you Tiggrxx for confirming my assumption!
Gerd
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Roma is away right now.
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I asked someone here in the USA, and he confirmed:
Twinberry honeysuckle, Lonicera involucrata.
I tried the thread test, too, on Cornus mas - the only cornus I have. Didn't work on the first leaf, but I tried again, more carefully and pulled apart very slow. Yes, there are the threads that are just as Carolyn says.
Went around trying it on other things in my yard:
Hamamelis
Salix
Quercus
Liriodendron
Calycanthus
Betula
Dirca
Magnolia
Viburnum
Aralia
Epimedium
Lonicera
Euonymus
And some vines:
Clematis
Apios
None worked except one out of four spp. of Salix and one out of five spp. of Viburnum. Even so, threads never got longer than 5mm, and it wasn't consistent.
Viburnum
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Rick,
I wish you hadn't discovered that for the viburnum! I tried this method to help ID a Chris Chadwell seed collection shrub from the Himalayas which he described merely as "unidentified shrub with blue fruits". The cornus leaf test worked on it, so I thought I had at least narrowed it down to cornus.
My shrub is collection no CC7412, from Chris's 2013 expedition. Is anyone else growing this? It's rather nice, with its red stems - which made me think cornus. Does anyone know what it might be?
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Carolyn, the vein pattern is helpful in identifying trees. Could you post a close-up of a leaf?
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Photo of unidentified shrub with blue fruits, CC7412, from 2013 expedition to Himalayas.
By the way, Diane, the cornus leaf test does work on Cornus kousa - I've just tried it. You must have been tearing the leaf too violently. You need to pull it apart very gently.[attachimg=1]
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Looks pretty Cornus like to me, but I certainly don't know to many shrubs/trees beyond zone 5 hardiness. Any pics of fruit, flowers, inflorescence structure, winter buds?
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No, the plant isn't old enough to flower yet and I have no winter pictures of it. I haven't planted it out in the garden yet as I would like to know its growing requirements. I guess semi-shade might be a reasonable bet.