Whenever our staff go anywhere interesting, they always take the opportunity for some CPD. We are a dedicated lot!

During a recent visit to the @EdenProject whilst on holiday with his family in Devon, Liam took some amazing pictures of the project and set up a SG plant ID challenge for the team when he returned to the office. Not only does this aid Liam’s continual development and experience, it’s also a fantastic opportunity for the rest of the team to develop and hone their own plant knowledge too - there were some very unusual and unique specimens during this ID.

How many would you have guessed right from the images and corresponding clues? Scroll to the bottom for the answers.

1. Magnificent Acer with arguably some of the best autumn colour you can get. This variety’s name starts with an ‘O’;
2. Small deciduous tree or large shrub, with vivid pink flowers in spring on bare stems;
3. Tree commonly found throughout the tropics and sub-tropical regions. It has a wonderful blue trumpet flower, but was sadly not in flower at the time of Liam’s visit. It is not hardy enough for our UK climate and this species name starts with a J;
4. Evergreen perennial native to Australia with very unique flowers in a range of different colours. Its common name links to the world’s largest marsupial;
5. Triphylla variety of Fuschia;
6. Common name – Toothed _ _ _ _ _wood;
7. Common name – African Cork_ _ _ _ Tree
8. We can’t for the life of us work out why this was given its common name!!!!;
9. A ‘Pendula’ form of a commonly found UK native tree. Apparently seeds from these trees regularly grow true, usually reverting to the common form. We couldn’t find any details on how nurseries grow them reliably – presumably they grow a whole batch from seed then select out the specimens that have the desired form as the mature, and use the rest for hedging (clue there);
10. When you look them up, Gardeners World and RHS etc. suggest the flower spikes of this tender biennial can reach 1.5-1.8m tall. Liam saw these all over the south coast with many examples with spikes closer to 4m high!;
11. White Magnolia that flowers early in spring. We planted four of these at a local scheme earlier this year.

Answers are below this dashed line! 

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ANSWERS

1. Acer palmatum ‘Ozakazuki’
2. Cercis siliquastrum (Judas Tree – named derives from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged him- self from this tree species after he betrayed Jesus)
3. Jacaranda mimosifolia
4. Anigozanthos flavidus
5. Fuchsia triphylla ‘Thalia’
6. Pseudopanax ferox – Toothed Lancewood
7. Musanga cecropioides - African Corkwood Tree
8. Kigelia Africana – Sausage Tree
9. Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’
10. Echium pininanna
11. Magnolia kobus