muckefuck: (Default)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2007-11-07 10:47 am

Red is the berry

An image from my stroll through the park with [livejournal.com profile] monshu last Sunday:



I'm not really sure what this is. Although they look like berries, the fruits are actually quite firm, so they're actually pomes. They're the right size to be haws, but the tree has no thorns. Moreover, notice the shape of the leaves: They're not serrated at all. So I suspect we're really dealing with some species of crabapple despite the small size.

This was in the eastern part, where the trees were pretty blah. I wanted to drag him down to the point to photograph some of the prettier ones, but the light wasn't great and he wanted to get back to his pot roast.

[identity profile] parisgreen.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes crabapple I think. Many of them do have very small fruit. We have one in our yard with fruit of this size, although not clustered quite that way, and yellow.

[identity profile] areia.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Some Google image searching came up with this link. I somehow always thought crabapples were bigger than that, closer in size to walnuts.

[identity profile] muckefuck.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that's the image that convinced me crabapples could be that size. I've always thought of them as larger, too, but I didn't really learn to distinguish various Maloideae species until relatively recently. It's a pain because there are so many cultivars and natural hybrids; my guide to trees of the Eastern US basically throws up its hands when it comes to the hawthorn genus (Crataegus), saying it's difficult even for trained botanists to tell individual species apart.

[identity profile] nibadi.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
hast du dir jetzt eine digitale Camera zugelegt?
Gibt es denn noch was aus China zu sehen?

[identity profile] muckefuck.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Der [livejournal.com profile] monshu hat sie vor einer Woche angekauft. Nach dem Wochenende hoffen wir ein paar Fotos aus China hier zeigen zu können.

[identity profile] lhn.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
The berries (or pomes) look really striking against the yellow-green leaves.

(These look a lot like some berries I took pictures of in Millennium Park a few weeks ago; I'd meant to ask you about them as my resident botany expert. If I remember, I'll post them when I get home.)

BTW, tell [livejournal.com profile] monshu to set the clock on his new camera. :-)

[identity profile] lhn.livejournal.com 2007-11-08 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
Here it is. I'm now not sure if they're the same or not-- the leaves on mine seem more serrated, and the berries/pomes may look a bit different:

Berries