Identifying Evergreen Broadleaves

A surprisingly large number of broadleaf species are evergreen; many are rare exotics, grown precisely because they retain their leaves. Key features of some of the more common species are given below:

Large trees are likely to be either Holm Oak with dark foliage (or possibly some other evergreen oak) or a eucalypt, most commonly Cider Gum with hanging, or at least mainly downward-pointing leaves.

Opposite leaves are most commonly seen with Box, which has small round leaves, or occasionally the long-leaved and rather tender Olive.

Pinnate leaves suggest one of the Leguminosae: the commonest evergreen species is Mimosa with very fine leaves and yellow flowers in late winter; Kowhai is another possibility, with shiny leaves rather like a cotoneaster.

Large unlobed leaves probably belong to either a magnolia or a laurel: Southern Evergreen Magnolia is common and has very large leaves with red wool beneath; Cherry Laurel has rather similar leaves, but they are broadest towards the end. Both this and Portuguese Laurel, which has smaller red-stalked leaves, are usually encountered as bushes or hedges, but they can grow into fair-sized trees. Many of the less common eucalypts have large, long but narrow, hanging leaves.

Small serrated leaves are most likely to belong to Strawberry Tree whose foliage can be a little hard to identify if the ‘strawberries’ are not in evidence.

The remainder have unserrated leaves, but may have lobes or spines: Holm Oak has spined juvenile leaves; Common Holly usually has distinctive spined leaves, but unspined and sparsely-spined forms occur; Highclere Holly has larger and thicker leaves than Common Holly, often without spines. Both hollies have variegated forms.

Bay with narrow, flattish leaves is sometimes seen as a fair-sized tree; and finally, Kohuhu, with rounded, undulant leaves is quite frequent.

 
 

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Copyright © 2007 Philip Brassett