I am breaking new ground here while I take you on a small tour of an area nearby where I live. In my hometown, Renton, Washington, is the Ben Coulon Memorial Park. It is one of the many parks that reside along Lake Washington. Lake Washington formed after the ice age and is named for our first president, as is the state. The Native American Duwamish tribe who are native to this area called it instead Xacuabs, which meant literally “great amount of water”. It is the second largest natural lake in Washington and the largest natural lake in King County.
What makes this particular park special to me is that there is a paved walk way flanked by several different types of trees, many of which have name tags. I always love it when someone takes the time to label what it is I am admiring. Another thing that is unique about this park, it is home to two species of deciduous conifers. To my knowledge there are only three types in this whole world — the Dawn Redwood, European Larch and Bald Cypress. Coulon Park houses both the Bald Cypress and European Larch. This means those evergreen needles drop off every late fall and every spring they are replaced with new evergreen growth. Very unusual!
You may click on any image for a close up view. So grab a cup of tea or coffee, whatever is your pleasure and sit back and enjoy the photo collage journey with me through Coulon Park.
Japanese roses
with noses
lady bug, lady bug
God’s pure delight
Part of a Quaking Aspen grove, what a find here! These usually grow in areas with cold winters and cool summers and much, much higher elevations. All we qualify for is relatively cool summers. In Colorado, in the fall there are traffic jams up in the mountains just to catch the sight of this one tree turn two colors. They are found in groves as they all have a common root system.
Ah, here we begin with the European Larch.
European Larch Lane
new European Larch baby green cones and notice the new needle growth in tufts
European Larch with mature cones, notice their small size and how they hang uniformly off the limb
And right across from the European Larch is the Bald Cypress
Bald Cypress just coming into her spring finery
Closer view of Bald Cypress new green growth. In the fall the foilage will turn a dark rust color and then drop off completely and the tree will appear to be “bald”.
*many thanks to my friend Marie, whose willingness to share her knowledge of trees has truly enhanced my enjoyment and love affair with trees.
Beautiful walking tour. I can’t believe I was giving Simon and Emma a bath instead of enjoying the park…..my dogs are clean tho :) I can’t tell you how much I love the phrase roses with noses :) Hugs, Maryellen
Thank You for the beautiful tour Beth…this world is so full of wonder and I truly love it people share things about their environment ! Lu
Love your tour bethie! You took beautiful pictures!!!
I think that there are more than 3 kinds of deciduous conifers. They may all be various species of Larch, Cypress or redwood though.
Some people count the Gingko Bilboa among them, but I think technically its not really a conifer.
Okay ….putting away my druid goddess hat :-) (for the moment)
Another time Me, and we’ll go again together. And, hey, what is more beautiful than the clean silky golden fur of a retriever?! xxxxo
Thank you Luana. I love it when you take us on a tour of your neck of the woods, too.
LOL, goddess druid, Amy. I know I saw that about the gingko, in some circles it is considered a deciduous conifer. I decided it wasn’t in my circle :) I think there are varieties of Larch, Cypress and Dawn Redwood that are deciduous, so technically it is more than three.
iPhoto and Lee’s advice on how to crop in thirds has really added to some of these photos. It makes it a lot of fun to work with the images.
Our “tree walks” have been a great pleasure to me, Bethie. You are becoming quite the horticulturalist! Thank you for this post.
Love, Hugs and Gold Stars,
Marie
How beautiful! I can really see why Jason loved it out there. I love the outdoors and enjoy seeing photos also. You did a great job on the photos.
Oh Marie you know I love those gold stars! xxxo
Thank you Monica. I’ve seen your photography and you have a real talent for it. I’ve only just begun to explore photography and only in the last few weeks have I put on any images of my own. The forested areas out here are amazing. If you like trees, you are in heaven in this area. I’m guessing Jason likes trees.