Common name: Deciduous azalea, Chinese azalea
Rhodendron mollle flowers in late spring, and it is deciduous, unlike most of its neighbours along the Rhodo Walk. Many visitors ask what is the difference between an azalea and a rhododendron.
Common Name: Paperbark maple
This member of the maple family, native to China (and now endangered in its native habitat), is spectacular in winter when its thin copper-coloured bark peels away to reveal the cinnamon-colored wood beneath. The seed for this tree was brought back from China to England in 1899 by Ernest Henry 'Chinese' Wilson, and shortly thereafter it was introduced into North America by the Arnold Arboretum. 'Acer' is the Latin name for maple, and 'griseum' means 'gray', a reference to the greenish-gray down on the underside of new leaves. Unlike typical maples, the leaves are trifoliate (divided into three distinct leaflets) and coarsely toothed. Several specimens are found along the Rhodo Walk.
Common Name: Fragrant snowball
Viburnum × carlcephalum has very fragrant white flowers and provides a nice accent to the blooming rhodos along the Rhodo Walk.
You can find H. arborescens ‘Annabelle’ near the Visitor Centre and by the grotto.
It opens green, turns white and then turns green again.
(Photo by KENPEI [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)])
Common Name: Japanese snowball
Viburnum plicatum has ridged leaves ('plicatum' means pleated) and varying forms of round-headed white flowers. It grows to 3 meters and blooms in spring along the Rhodo Walk.
Common Name: Oyama magnolia
Magnolia sieboldii is one of the latest-blooming magnolias, flowering in early summer after its leaves have appeared. It is named after Pierre Magnol, French botanist and Philipp Franz von Siebold, German plant collector. The common name comes from the name of a town in Japan (not Oyama, BC, which was is named after Japanese Field Marshal Oyama Iwao).
Common Name: Leopard's bane
Doronicum columnae (also known as D. cordatum) blooms along the western end of the Rhodo Walk in late spring. Its spiky yellow flowers turn into interesting seed heads. Doronicum comes from the Arabic word for this plant. The common name refers to the practice of dipping arrows in its juices when hunting leopards.
Common Name: Satsuki azalea
Rhododendron 'Matsuyo' is a low-growing, densely flowered azalea that edges the Rhodo Walk. It is a North Tisbury azalea devloped on Martha's Vineyard from Japanese stock.
Rhododendron augustinii 'Hobbie' has beautiful purple flowers in mid-spring.
Common Name: Summer snowflake
Leucojum aestivum was first described by Linnaeus. It is a tall bulb native to Europe and has snowdrop-like flowers in mid-spring (even though the epithet 'aestivum' means summer!) Our plants line the Rhodo Walk and continue the bloom of the earlier snowdrops.Leucojum comes from the Greek word for 'white.'