Liquidamber 14th September 2010

Beautiful despite it being winter's herald!

Very beautiful! And gorgeously caught! Just a perfect smudge of red across the greenery and reflected back in the still pool, wonderful. Went to my favorites. :-)

I could look at that all day and never get tired of it, its beautiful. should be in a frame.

I was quite lucky to catch it as I was feeling tired & the battery in my phone was coming to an end so I was about to leave. I looked on the board by the entrance & noted the position of the tree wasn't very far from there according to the cooridates on the plan of the gardens. So I went off in search of it. As you can see I found it but it was across the pond & I could see no way of getting any closer. I had to chance it with the distance & the little power left in the phone's battery & took just this one shot. I couldn't risk waiting another 14 days as by that time I expect most of the leaves will have fallen off.

I'm quite pleased about how it turned out. Shame that to get this "close up" I had to use the setting that makes the smallest files so as to be able to zoom in. If I had used my normal 1mb setting the tree would have been the size of a postal stamp :-(( & we wouldn't have been able to appreciate it. It's too small a file to do anything with. :-((

Well captured...it's a beautiful tree.

As I wasn't too sure if it was in fact a Liquidambar tree, or what I was seeing, I've just done a search & found a few photos for this tree. They seemed too tall for the one I photographed so I did a 2nd search, this time for "Cambridge Botanical Gardens". Up popped their home page & I clicked on "Plants of interest". Scrolling down the list I spotted it: "Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon' " It is by the pond in the Bog Garden. So it is the Liquidambar, aka Sweet Gum tree, on account of the sweet gum the leaves exude when crushed.

Oh yes, that is so beautiful !

Wow Balc! Stunning photo of a beautiful tree...such an amazing colour and quite early to be turning....thanks for sharing...:o))

During the coming week I'll make up a new blog on my visit to the botanical gardens & include some of the photos I have taken.

Good Balc....shall look forward to that...:o)

Brilliant shot of a wonderful tree,, not sure if I have seen one before, will have to look it up and maybe plant one here!!

Glad you liked it, Lulu! :-)) I'd like to do the same - but I expect it would be a bit cramped on my balcony!!! Lol! :-D

I expect it would Balcony!!!!

I found another shot of the same tree but from a different angle amongst the photos I took. It wasn't nearly as good as this one but then I wasn't looking at the tree but at the water lilies in the pond.