Recent Questions: Leaves and Lights

Q. Are watermelon leaves edible ?

A.  would be carefull, that plant family can produce toxins. 

Poisoned by Bitter Squash, Two Women Lose Their Hair | Live Science There wasn't anything particularly unusual about the squash — just a slightly bitter taste. But that all changed when two women in France started losing their hair. The women didn't know each ... www.livescience.com

See:https://www.livescience.com/62158-toxic-squash-syndrome-hair-loss.html

The plant mentioned in the article above is in the same family as watermelon. The reaction seems to be fairly rare, but why take any chances?

Q. What's wrong with my nerve plant (see picture below). 

Nerve plant (Fittonia albivenis) showing etiolation.

A. It looks like your Nerve plant (Fittonia albivenis) is suffering from etiolation. 

Etiolation is a process where a plant, starved for light, produces hormones in its roots that cause the stems of the plant to elongate in search of better light. 

There are two things you can do for this:

1. Make sure the plant is getting lots of bright indirect light. The best place for it would be a curtained south facing window, followed by a west facing or east facing window. If this is impossible, then purchase a plant light (flourescent or led best) and illuminate the plant with it during the daylight hours. Make sure the light turns off during the day (examples of plant lights.)
2. Keep the plant cut back if it does start to stretch. This will cause the plants  hormone mix to favor leaf growth and not stem stretching. 

PS, after answering your question I had to get some of those lights for myself -things have changed since I first tried out LED lights for plants. The last set of lights I got burned the plants I used them on. These are much better. 

LED plant lights NOT burning plants in my office. 

It's A Postcard Perfect Fall Leaf Color Season

This has been an excelent fall leaf color season. Just the right combination of rain, cold, and sunlight has brought out the deep red, yellow, gold, and purple hues that these trees are capable of to. 

Here's a map of some of the best, and below is a list and pics if you somehow miss this beautiful display. 

Starting out near the entrance, head into the Celebration Garden (nee Sunset Demonstration Garden) and check out the fall color. 

Celebration Garden

Left: Wisteria Middle: Sycamore (Platanus sp.)

Platanus leaves floating on the fountain in the courtyard garden. 

Lagerstroemia subcostatas beautiful cinnamon bark ads a nice contrast to it's own fallen leaves. Located in the meditation garden. 

A bold Ginkgo biloba located in the Celebration Garden

Celebration Garden Ginkgo

Lagerstroemia indica (Crepe myrtle)

 Located on the northwest tip of the Bauer Lawn

Lagerstroemia indica (Crepe myrtle)

Lagerstroemia indica (Crepe myrtle)

 Located on the southern edge of the Bauer Lawn.

Grapevine framing blue tree lantern. 

 Around the Meadowbrook Section

Grapevines above the Tule Pond. 

A path winding through the middle of the Meadowbrook Section. 

A Japanese maple in full fall leaf in the middle of the Meadowbrook Section. 

 Growing out of mulch in many different locations

A Deer Mushroom

On the dirt path circling the Chinese-North American Collection

Sugar maple. 

In the Meadowbrook Section just south of the Kallam Garden

Liquidambar 'Palo Alto', 'Carnival', and 'Burgundy'. 

Liquidambar 'Palo Alto', 'Carnival', and 'Burgundy'.

Ginkgo trees on the stream that passes through the Meadowbrook Section. 

Cotoneaster with red leaves and berries. 

View looking north from a hidden bench. 

Looking north from Meyberg Falls. 

 Herb Garden and Meyberg Falls

Ginkgo in the Herb Garden

Meyberg Falls. 

Looking out from inside a small Ginkgo grove near the Herb Garden. 

 Other Fall Color Sites

Crepe myrtle in the Water Conservation Garden

View from Tallac Knoll

Persimmon Tree located on the southern edge of the Arboretum. 

Fall Leaf Color Tour Links to Items Mentioned During Tour

Leaf Color Change

Crepe Myrtles showing both yellow and orange leaf color changes. 

Links for Fall Color Change Tour

1. Temperate Deciduous Forests: Biome Information, Facts
2. Why are autumn leaves mostly yellow in Europe and red in North America? | Environment | The Guardian
3. Illinois Forestry - Why Tree Leaves Turn Color in Autumn
Unravelling the evolution of autumn colours: an interdisciplinary approach. - PubMed - NCBI
4. Photosynthesis: what color was its origin? | Genome Biology | Full Text
5. Evolution of plant senescence | BMC Evolutionary Biology | Full Text
6.  Why Do Leaves Change Color? What Makes the Leaves Fall? FreeSchool - YouTube
7. Are Autumn Foliage Colors Red Signals to Aphids?
Microsoft Word - 33.2 TUKARAM 540-546.doc
8. Why More Autumn Leaves Are Red In America And Yellow In Europe: New Theory -- ScienceDaily

Fall Color at the Arboretum -Includes Map

The Arboretum does get displays of fall color, however unlike the east coast and the high mountains where the displays are fast, furious and massive, our display is slow to unfold, varied and spread out among our 127 acres. Right now the color is peaking because the combination of cool weather and almost 5" of rain in the last several weeks has created conditions favorable to bright red, orange and yellow leaves. Below are some pictures taken over the last three days. Here's a map to them and other great fall color here at the Arboretum. 

Freeman's maple with dayglo pink leaves -these are located on the north side of the event lawn. 

Smoke trees, Cotinus coggygria, located across from the Crescent garden. 

Liquidambar trees located just south of the Kallam garden. 

Looking south from the entrance of the Kallam garden. 

Looking north from the top of Tallac knoll. 

Left: Mexican marigold. Right: Ginkgo biloba -in the Herb Garden

Closeup of the Mexican marigold. 

Tracing the Destructive Beauty of Beetles

I was honored to assist California State Long Beach art professor Brittany Ransom with a particularly fascinating project: making 3d laser point cloud scans of Eucalyptus Longhorned Borer galleries. These galleries were seen as sinuous, beautiful depressions in the wood located just under the bark of the fallen logs.

Beetle damaged Eucalyptus log being laser scanned. 

Computer representation of the resulting scan. 

 Below is a video of Brittany discussing her project.

Fall Leaf Change Preview

The best time to come here for Fall leaf color can occur anywhere between early November through mid-December. The several weeks before and after this date range, although iffy, may be good as well.
It's not a bad idea to call either myself at Plant Information, (626) 821-3236, or the Arboretum general number, (626) 821-3222, at least a week before you come to get in idea how the Fall color change is proceeding.
Here's a nationwide animation of the fall color change courtesy of recreation.gov:

Here's some Fall color shots from years past: