Fall at the UC Davis Arboretum

Last Sunday, after exploring the Australian Collection at the UC Davis Arboretum, I continued my walk around Lake Spafford, the somewhat misnamed bulge in the old northern channel of Putah Creek. This is where much of the fall color is concentrated.

However, there are quite a few trees that don’t need colorful foliage to stand out. Here are some of them:

Bigberry manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca) with particular dark coloration

Greek strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne)

Greek strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne)

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in T. Elliot Weier Redwood Grove

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in T. Elliot Weier Redwood Grove

A very large California buckeye (Aesculus californica)

California buckeye (Aesculus californica)

Interior live oak (Quercus wislizenii)

Squirrel doing what squirrels do best

From the south side of Putah Creek I caught glimpses of the colorful trees across the way, like this Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’…

…and another Taiwanese rain tree (Koelreuteria elegans ssp. formosana):

The reflections in the water were beautiful:

Crossing one of the many bridges across Putah Creek, I got to the north side of the creek (and lake). Some trees were already bare…

…which didn’t prevent people from enjoying them anyway.

Finally I got to the Taiwanese rain tree (Koelreuteria elegans ssp. formosana), or Formosan flame tree as the interpretive sign calls it.

This is the same tree I featured last week as my plant of the week.

It really is a stunning tree that deserves to be planted much more often.

Nearby I came across another Koelreuteria.

It’s Koelreuteria bipinnata,aka Chinese flame tree.

Another stunning sight was this Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’, which I had already spotted from across the lake:

The grasses planted along Lake Stafford were glowing in their fall glory:

This large toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) was looking more like Christmas than fall:

Succulents aren’t a major component of the plantings in this part of the Arboretum, but I found a few:

Since Thanksgiving is just a few hours away, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! Have a great time with family and friends, and enjoy the flora you might encounter on your postprandial stroll.