Maybe somebody can tell me what tree it is that produces this kind of white "cotton" at this time of year. There are a few of them in the area — out on the edge of the vineyard and just over our fence on the north side of our property.
Could it be a cottonwood tree? I don't think so, after looking at Google images for that species — even though there is one (I think it's called un peuplier de Virginie) in a nearby neighbor's yard. I posted photos of this tree's catkins, then green but now white and cottony, back in April in this post.
The string of sunny, warm days continues. Flowers are bursting out all over. I'm working on potting and re-potting house plants. It keeps me busy.
This is day two of a four-day weekend, but there's no sign of our neighbors next door or across the street. The hamlet is almost eerily quiet. I guess I could go somewhere in the car, which I haven't started since Monday, when I drove Walt up to Blois to catch the train. He's in Albany now, by the way.
To me, these cottony flowers look like those of a common poplar, whether from Virginia or not.
ReplyDeleteOkay, thanks. So it is a poplar tree.
DeleteIs that populus alba? I was going to say that there aren't any leaves on it yet, just the fluff. I think that fits the description I just read.
DeleteThere are many varieties of Populus. Not being a botanist, I'm unable to tell which is which. Could be the very common Populus rufus, known as le tremble?
DeleteMe neither, of course. We have a lot of trembles around here, but I don't know if they produce that kind of cottony fluff.
DeleteCould it be that this tree, which fell a couple of years ago but is still hanging on to life, is producing a lot of cotton fluff because it is so stressed?
DeleteIt could be the case, but the cottony stuff is normal for trembles.
DeleteI think chm is right on the flowering tree.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the bearded iris, a lovely photo. You'd think they'd be everywhere here in sunny SoCal, but not so.
A friend of ours who lives up in Auburn in the Sierra foothills has hundreds of irises in her yard. Maybe it just doesn't get cold enough in SoCal in the winter for the irises to thrive there.
DeleteKen, if the third picture in the April post is the tree the catkins were on, then it is a wild Black Poplar...and not one of the very many hybrids planted for timber. The trunk of the wild tree almost always leans!
ReplyDeleteBut poplar it is!!
The iris looks lovely... The funeral lilies, tho', are not my cup of tea... They always strike me as plasticky
I once saw a bulk planting of them... From a distance that did work,however.!
No, that's not the same tree in the third April 18 photo. Neighbors of ours have a bulk planting of cala lilies and they are impressive planted that way. Ours were here when we got here. Sometimes they come up and flower, and other times they don't. I think it depends on how wet the weather has been. The irises always come back though.
DeleteKen, LOL !
DeleteDamn. That should be "calla" lily, with "two" Ls.
DeleteIn French, the tree is a peuplier. Wreaking havoc with the pool at this moment. We don't have any poplars, but the cotton flies far.
ReplyDeleteYou must see the clip of Katharine Hepburn's calla lily bit in the movie "Stage Door."
I just watched that scene from Stage Door. Thanks. The poplar fluff is everywhere here right now when there's just the least bit of a breeze.
DeleteOn Wednesday, I believe, CNN was taping outside of Trump Tower. Most people were wearing heavy
ReplyDeletejackets and scarves. Walt might be wishing he was back in sunny France.