 |
A small evergreen tree from Pakistan through to South West China. Those I have seen in gardens have been
moderate sized shrubs. This one has spent a year or two in the greenhouse building up strength and has then been planted at the edge of the shade garden, to replace the Alder trees that currently protect it. It seems to be growing at a rate of about 5cm per year, so in 100 years I will be able to remove the Alders. That is something to look forward to then! Trees and Shrubs online says: "Quercus glauca is one of the most widely distributed oak species, spanning most of East Asia from the western Himalayas in Afghanistan to western Japan. Though described from Japan in 1784, it was introduced to Europe in 1804 as seed from Nepal; this was the earliest introduction of an Asian oak species ... E.H. Wilson collected Q. glauca in the early 1900s in China, where he found it to be the commonest evergreen oak in western Hubei and eastern Sichuan, growing from river-level to 1600 m. He described it as a ‘handsome tree with a bushy, flattened-round head of widespreading branches’ (Sargent 1917). The earlier introductions at Kew have not survived: the oldest surviving tree currently in Kew records is at Wakehurst, accessioned in 1969." |
|
| 4th July 2010 | ||
