Nice!

First one is presumably Cupressus glabra (syn. C. arizonica var. glabra).

Yep, the fir is Abies pinsapo, with pollen cones (old and new).

Resin

Nice pictures,I hope you got a bunch of seeds

lp

Yeah, plenty of seeds, both cupressus glabra and sequoiadendron. I'll mail some cupressus glabra to whomever is interested.Sequoiadendron seeds just weren't that viable, I had to cut open thirty before I found a viable one (the one in the picture), so I'm guessing that the rest of that seed crop is probably not much better. There were lots of little cupressus glabra seedlings beneath the parent trees, so I know those seeds are most likely very viable.

That second pic (with Araucaria heterophylla) is a real spaghetti manufacturer's nightmare . . . what a hideous place!

Resin

I would love some of those seeds if you don't mind ;). I love conifers. Thanks! Ryan...

Resin's right. That 2nd pic is hideous. If there ever was a case for burying power lines, there it is. I would not want to be the backhoe operator that had to dig up the street to replace/repair the sewer or water mains. Or imagine if that Araucaria came down in a windstorm.

Bill

That is one big Norfolk Island Pine though........

"Resin's right. That 2nd pic is hideous. If there ever was a case for burying power lines, there it is. I would not want to be the backhoe operator that had to dig up the street to replace/repair the sewer or water mains. Or imagine if that Araucaria came down in a windstorm.

Bill"

That's Oakland, Baby! We're not in the suburban-lawn-and-cultivar landscape anymore! It gets kind of shoot-ey down around these parts, too, so I don't suggest taking the family down here for any sight-seeing! Better to stay safe at home...

Somebody, though, at one point must've had a keen eye for fascinating botanical specimens of the coniferous variety, though, for there are MANY, MANY nice trees around.

Ryan, hit me up on the email and give me your address and I'll send you some cupressus glabra seeds.

That was my guess on location. The concrete jungle. I drove around Oakland briefly while on a mission to get some Berkley paraphernalia for my ultra-conservative father-in-law and T shirts for my kids.

Thanks for the pics

Bill

That is some excellent photography! I particularly like the last picture. Looks like a shot for a national geographic magazine.
-Werner J Stiegler
www.binghamtonmemorialtree.webs.com

Thanks man. That picture was taken right on the california, nevada stateline. About three miles from the tacky casino that I lost $2.00 (not much of a gambler) on on new year's eve. Hard to imagine the contrast in locations.

Great stuff! Every picture is interesting. My two favorites are the Sequoiadendron in the front yard and the one that everybody thinks is ugly with all the wires. Maybe in the event of a storm, the wires would actually hold The tree up ;^)

For some reason, I always like seeing really big conifers in settings like these.

+oM

I know, seeing things like a 100+ tall Norfolk Island Pine growing in the middle of the hood is what got me into conifers in the first place. The more I learn about evolution, trees, the earth's history, and how life (plant life especially) has come to where it is on this planet, the more my mind is blown. I'm rarely ever disappointed. Almost makes it seem like all the terrible things going on in the world aren't really there.

And with that, here's a photo of "Retrophylum", the south american podocarpus species that strongly resembles coast redwood in it's leaf/needle arrangement...

{{gwi:632313}}

Also, finally scored a microcachrys, a female plant. Cloned at STrybing. Bought it for 5 bucks. If anybody's ever in San Francisco (I know how much some people on this list must hate that bastion of liberalism! ohhhhh my teeth are chattering!!!), it's worth stopping by the arboretum for their saturday plant sales, they have some really amazing, rare plants, conifers especially. They even have a good selection of lame stuff like cultivars.

{{gwi:632314}}

And santa lucia fir...

{{gwi:632315}}

Do any of those Norfolk Island Pines have seeds?

Thanks for the info stiffy,
One of these days I need to get out to the west coast and just reserve a month to see the fabulous trees. I see the pictures, and there simply isn't anything like it on the east coast. I might make the trip to San Francisco just to see the arboretum and get discount plants.

-Werner J Stiegler
www.binghamtonmemorialtree.webs.com

"And with that, here's a photo of "Retrophyllum", the south american podocarpus species that strongly resembles coast redwood in it's leaf/needle arrangement..."

Actually, very different in one unique way - notice how the shoots are not laterally symmetrical. The leaves on one side are twisted different to those on the other side of the shoot. No other plant does this!

"Also, finally scored a microcachrys, a female plant"

You sure? They look like pollen cones to me! The seed cones should be larger and red

Resin

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:632275}}

Great pictures. That was funny, when someone said what a hideous place, I looked at the picture again, in that it looked normal to me. Oops, thats cuz I live in Berkeley.

Since I have fallen in love with conifers, I marvel while roaming around, at how many stately conifers there are, sometimes in the most unlikely places. There are some huge old redwoods even crammed onto planting strips(fortunately on the side of the street where there aren't telephone poles, so they are not topped off by the phone co. crew)

Yeah resin I might be totally wrong on that one. i just assumed they were dried female cones because the seeds I've ordered in the mail before were always so tiny and seemed like they'd fit perfectly into those little vesicles. Still never had any luck getting those to germinate.

The Norfolk Island pine is stunning. Surely there are occasional freezing temps in Oakland -- apparently hasn't bothered it.

Re: Araucaria Heterophylla. It got down to 28 F for a short time (maybe two hours) last week in San Francisco, and the ones there get just as big as the ones here.

DOes it have any seeds with it? I have heard these guys are fun to grow. Amazing trees.

Do you know what species of Retrophyllum that is??
Also, A. heterophylla and A. columnaris get confused alot. It is nice to see a true A. heterophylla like that. I suspect (and hope) that A. heterophylla is slightly hardier than A. columnaris. I noticed in SF that there are lots of larger A. heterophylla, but few if any, large A. columnaris. Here in Florida, the A. columnaris drop out around Orlando north. A. heterophylla is extremely rare here so it can't be used for comparison as in California.