Charleston Tour Guide Training Test Preparation Botany with Q and A

Charleston Tour Guide Training Test Preparation Botany with Q and A Ligustrum ANSWER Ligustrum japonica. Small evergreen tree or shrub with glossy medium-dark green leaves and fragrant white blooms in the early summer. Useful if pruned as a topiary or limbed-up container specimen. Good for screening, takes shearing well. Multiple Ligustrum planted in a row form an excellent dense hedge in sun or shade. L. lucidum keeps large clusters of blue berries until spring. Introduced mid-1800s from Japan and Korea. Live Oak ANSWER Quercus virginiana. Majestic tree with massive trunk and spreading horizontal branches. Drops its leaves in March as catkins and new leaves are appearing, therefore always appearing green. Good examples are in White Point Gardens and Hampton Park; perhaps the most famous is Angel Oak on Johns Island. Evergreen, but old leaves are regularly replaced by new ones, especially in the spring. This native tree was highly favored for its strong wood during the shipbuilding era. Loquat ANSWER Eriobotrya japonica. Small upright fall-blooming tree. Dark green leathery and furrowed leaves are evergreen. Fragrant white panicles develop in winter, followed by orange edible fruits that ripen in spring Fruit used in pies and preserves. Native of China and Japan, introduced here in late 18th century. No relation to kumquat. Loropetalum ANSWER Loropetalum chinense. A.k.a. fringe flower. Purple green leaves, profusion of bright, crimson strap-like flowers. Shrubs to trees. Blooms in late winter through early summer. Magnolia ANSWER Magnolia species. Magnolia grandiflora is the traditional evergreen southern magnolia, with leathery dark green leaves with fuzzy brown undersides