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A lovely tree with pale silvery spring growth. It is an outstanding beauty but the name makes
yellow promises that are never delivered. Writing in 'The Plantsman' in 1981, David Wright said: "An outstanding cultivar of compact, conical habit, particularly striking in spring when the upper leaf surfaces are covered with a creamy white tomentum. The name 'Lutescens' probably refers to the sulphur tinge of vigorous young growths in late summer." Trees and Shrubs online says: "A tree of conical habit. Leaves elliptic to obovate, cuneate to rounded at the base, to 4 in. or slightly more long, densely coated with silvery hairs on both sides when young and then very striking. Fruits in rather small trusses. It was put into commerce by Messrs Simon-Louis with its present cultivar-name before 1885, and is doubtfully the same as the S. aria var. lutescens of Hartwig (1892). The inappropriateness of the epithet lutescens for the present tree was remarked on soon after it came into commerce, and it has been suggested that it refers to the sulphur tinge of the leaves on the late-summer shoots of vigorously growing trees. ‘Lutescens’ has been widely used as a street-tree." |
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| 17th April 2011 | ||
