Here is a pic of my nature garden trail. It is protected by land conservation. If you notice the little white blossoms on the path in the forefront, these are Gordonia lasianthus blossoms, or Loblolly Bay. It's a slow growing evergreen and can grow up to 70 feet tall. I have dozens of them in the forest, but they are all very tall, so I didn't recognize a volunteer that ended up in my butterfly garden. I thought it was magnolia of some kind. I left it there because native plants are best. Yesterday, it blossomed, and it is indeed a baby loblolly bay. It's too close to the house and should be moved. The issue is that this tree hates to be moved and is extremely difficult to cultivate. So for now, I will leave it and decide later how and where to move it.
There is lots of building happening in my county, and it upsets me when they bulldoze these beautiful trees. The pollinators depend on them. Last month, they took down a whole forest and put up storage units.ðŸ˜
Loblolly is an old English word for porridge or thick gruel. Since this tree grows in bogs or thick mucky soil, it was nicknamed Loblolly bay by the English settlers. It likes a maritime swamp forest.
This genus honors James
Gordon (1728-91), a British nurseryman. The Latin name means "hairy-flowered."
The flowers resemble camellias and, although, grow singly at leaf axils, they are concentrated at the branch tip looking like clusters.
It's hard to get a good pic of the tall trees in blossom. The last slide is the best zoom I could do on my phone.
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