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Odd fruit causes a fall doubletake
Sometimes we see odd growths on trees and ask "What is that?" If we're told, "Those are seeds," we may say, "Then how come I've never seen them before?! I think this shaggy redbud has a problem, and that this may be a mutant magnolia!"
In this article we give you a look at normal attachments on:
Magnolia
Redbud
Beech
Catalpa
Clematis
David maple
Douglas fir
Ginkgo
Hardy mimosa/ Hardy silk tree
Hophornbeam
Horsechestnut
Katsura
Kentucky Coffee tree
Linden
Osage orange
Stewartia
Sweetgum
Those shaggy redbuds and mutant magnolias are in evidence this year but are no worry. They are just the result of a long, frost free spring when lots of pollinators could help plants set lots of fruit. Even those that you've grown for 20 years and never seen set seed.
Magnolias, for instance, are famous for blooming so early that cold often kills the flowers before seed sets, or before bees can warm up enough to gather and spread the pollen. When gardeners do see these fruits they often think they are a tumor or gall on the twig.
Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) sometimes alarm gardeners in fall. That's when leaf drop may reveal a plethora of pods -- they were there all summer but now can't be missed, hanging like the shag on a deerskin shirtsleeve.
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). The cones have distinctive prongs hanging from the scales.
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, right) fruit is produced in orchards in some countries, a valuable crop. However, it's pomum non gratum on North American street trees where it's not harvested but falls on walkways below, overripe and stinking. Often when it's ripest the untrained observer doesn't know where the fruit is coming from because it's hidden among the ginkgo's golden fall leaves.
Hardy mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) pods curl as they ripen and pop open.
Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) seed pods are there through winter and spring, often described by worried gardeners as "little claws growing on my tree."
Linden (Tilia cordata, T. americana) seed pods have pale "wings".
Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) The warty fruits look other-worldly almost anywhere. The color and size make them such stand-outs that drivers often notice them littering the grasssy verge along the road. Where they lie under a straight line of these trees they are a link to the plant's use as a pasture hedge in the 1800's before barbed wire.
Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia)
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) seed pods can be painful underfoot.
Pardon our dust; still posting more odd fruits here. And based on some of the additional inquiries we're receiving we may add a second page titled "Nope, that one's not a fruit!"