Umbrella Pine

Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys Verticillata) - A stately evergreen tree attaining a height of upwards of 100 feet in its own land, and forming a dense pyramid of verdure of remarkable beauty. It is not clearly allied to any other known tree, and seems, like the Salisburia, to be a last trace of some long-past geological period. Though fully hardy with us, it grows slowly and only thrives in moist open soils rich in humus. Where Rhododendrons do well the Sciadopitys also flourishes, but it fails completely on wet heavy soils and on those that are poor and dry, and until established is much tried by cold winds. The finest trees in the country are not yet much over 20 feet high, and are to be found in Cornwall, where the rainfall is heavy and the atmosphere moist; all the same, there are good ones at Kew, Bagshot, and many other places. The leaves vary in length from 2 to 4 inches, coming as whorled clusters of twenty or thirty together, radiating like the rays of an umbrella, each whorl continuing for three years and separated from its successor by the length of the annual woody growth. The branches are also whorled, making this one of the most characteristic of conifers. The cones are 2 to 3 inches long, borne at the tips of the shoots, and composed of thin imbricated scales. They yield fertile seeds in this country, ripening in their second season. The young leaves are usually a pale yellow green, but when in full luxuriance the mature foliage is of a rich deep tone. The young trees vary in size of leaf, rate of growth, and in habit—some being dense and rigid, and others freer and more luxuriant. There is also a variety in which golden or striped leaves mingle with the green ones in a pretty way, but this variegation is apt to disappear. The growth outwards is almost equal to that in height, and this spreading tendency is fostered when stock is grown from cuttings instead of seed. With their passion for the miniature, the Japs increase it in this way for their temple gardens, and these trees seldom approach the fine proportions of those growing untended on the mountain slopes of Nippon. Like all conifers, the Sciadopitys should be planted finally while small, larger trees being averse to removal.