Marilayne

I was in Paris a few weeks ago and there were these huge trees with large cone shaped flowers all over the whole tree all across the city. They reminded me of flowering Buckeyes. Does anyone know what type of tree they are?

ira

Hi M,

"April in Paris/
Chestnuts in blossom/...."

jody

You were pretty close with your buckeye guess..the chestnut and buckeye are in the same family,Aesculus

enzian

It's the horse chestnut, actually. That and the Ohio Buckeye are the same genus, Aeschulus, but different species.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b700/b700_56.html

baldworth

Allright tree experts, what are the evergreen trees in Bavaria with the low hanging boughs called? They are common in the area around Linderhof and Neuschwanstein and I have found one in my area here.

Baldworth

AnthonyGA

FWIW, you can find out a great deal about trees in Paris (which the city takes very seriously) by visiting

http://www.paris.fr/portail/Parcs/Po...t?page_id=5368

It's only in French, though.

enzian

Probably Silver Fir, Abies alba. Can you describe the cones? Do the stand up on the branches or hang below?

BTilke

Baldworth, is it possible you mean a weeping larch? They are pretty common in Germany. My husband used to complain about how weeping willows in the U.S. never looked as good as the ones in Germany, while we were in Baden-Baden, he pointed one out to me and I said that's not a weeping willow, it's a weeping larch!

Marilayne

Thank you to all
I would love to plant one in my
own yard.

baldworth

Definitely not anything like a willow. They are evergreen with cones and boughs that hang. In fact, the guy who has one a couple of miles from my house doesn't even mow around his because he would have to have someone hold up the branches to get to the area around the bottom. They were all over the roadside area in the lower mountains in Bavaria and in the foothills around Linderhof. Very Pretty trees!

Baldworth

enzian

Hmmm. . . if the cones hang below the branches, it can't be a fir; more likely a spruce or a pine. How long are the needles? Are they attached to the branches singly or in little bundles?

enzian

OK Baldworth, I think it must be a so-called "Norway" spruce (Picea abies), which is native to most of Europe and the dominant evergreen tree in Bavarian forests. The branches on mature trees can droop to the ground.