[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XXXIV

Five green pictures, five orange pictures.

As I write this, I have no idea how yesterday's election went, but the odds are that I was pleasantly surprised by something and unpleasantly surprised by something else. Since bad news always hits me harder than good, this means I'm probably in a bad mood today. I mean, I saw a "vote no on retention of activist judges" sign¹ yesterday in someone's yard while walking Sheba, and it ruined a good chunk of my late morning / early afternoon. And that was just one guy. So today is probably not a good day for me. Be gentle.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Persea americana. We started a couple avocado trees from seed during the winter, less because I had a burning desire to grow avocados than because the husband likes to eat them. One is doing pretty well; I'm having trouble communicating with the other. I pinch it, it grows back one replacement growing tip. I pinch that tip, and it grows one replacement. The first plant understood that it was supposed to branch; I'm not sure why the second one is having such a hard time with the idea.

Unknown Cirsium sp. I was more certain about IDing this as a Cirsium then than I am now.

Salvia elegans, dead(ish) leaf. Arguably closer to pink than to orange, but whatever. When I first put the Salvia elegans outside last spring, some of the leaves turned weird colors from the cold. This is one of those. Not really pretty, exactly, but it's something I didn't know this plant could do.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Rustic Orange.' Not especially pretty, but I think the irregular red spots on the underside of the leaf were odd enough to call your attention to.

Populus deltoides. Fairly similar to yesterday's Liriodendron tulipifera photo.

Ambrosia trifida. Probably the prettiest ragweed-related photo you're going to see all month. Lucky you!

Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana.' Pretty much what you'd expect it to look like, I suppose. The main motivation for taking the picture was that this is a plant we cut back, and the newly-sprouting leaves, once they reached full-size again, looked very pretty.

Malus sp. My favorite from this batch. For some reason, I even kind of dig the blurry bits on the sides.

Zingiber malaysianum. The range of colors I get out of this plant continues to please me. I wish there were some way to do them all at once.

Heuchera 'Venus.' I prefer this to yesterday's Heuchera photo, though not by a lot. There are some very nice Heuchera varieties that are really plain by transmitted light; this isn't one of them.

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¹ (Translation for non-Iowans: "How dare the Iowa Supreme Court try to tell me f*gg*ts are people!")

Pretty pictures: Flowering Trees

I'm seeing tons of trees in bloom on the walks with Sheba lately, and some of them, in fact, have already peaked and have moved on to the next thing. So I figured if I were going to use the photos I've taken -- and I have way too much time invested in the photographing, selecting, cropping, and color adjusting of the pictures, at this point, to want to file them away just because they're no longer timely. So you're going to see them whether you like it or not.

I don't know what most of these are. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I have a genus, but that's about it. I'm not the tree guy. I don't have to care.

Tree number 1. I'm moderately sure this is an apple or crabapple (Malus sp.).
UPDATE: No solid consensus has emerged in the comments, but I'm more inclined to think Malus than the other suggestion, which was a plum (Prunus), as Malus would be the more common tree around here, and this more closely matches the fuzzy image in my head of what apple blossoms look like than any of the other flowers in this photo set.

Tree 1 again.

Tree number 2. The leaves coming in behind the flowers give it away as a maple of some kind. (Acer sp.)
UPDATE: Fairly definite consensus from the comments that this is a Norway maple, Acer platanoides.

Tree number 3. Pretty certain this is a Magnolia of some kind.
UPDATE: And people agree. Possibly Magnolia x soulangeana.

Close-up of a single flower from tree number 3.

Really really close to a single flower from tree number 3.

Tree number 4. I have no idea. Not even a guess.
UPDATE: Also thought to be Acer platanoides, though I would not have taken #2 and #4 to be the same species, so something about this ID is not setting well with me. This picture is somewhat earlier in the season than the photo for #2, so maybe this changes into that and they're the same tree.

Tree number 5. I'm pretty sure I ought to know this one, but I don't. Cherry (Prunus)? Crabapple?
UPDATE: Seems to be Prunus cerasifera (confusing common name: cherry plum, purple cherry plum), perhaps the cultivar 'Nigra.'

Tree number 5 again.

Tree number 6. No clue what it is, but the flowers are wicked cool.
UPDATE: Perhaps an ash (Fraxinus), maybe even specifically F. excelsior, though nobody sounds terribly confident.

Different angle on tree number 6.

Tree number 7. I don't have a guess on this one either.
UPDATE: Pretty definitely Boxelder (Acer negundo).

Tree number 8. I suspect a maple again, but I'm not sure.
UPDATE: Yep. Probably a maple. I'm thinking it might be another Acer platanoides, maybe 'Crimson Sentry' or some other dark red/purple cultivar. There appear to be a lot of those around town.

Tree number 9. Or maybe this is cherry. Or dogwood (Cornus). Crabapple? I don't know.
UPDATE: Probably a crabapple, Malus sp.

Close up on tree number 9.

Tree number 10, I'm pretty sure, is a redbud (Cercis sp.).
UPDATE: People agree; Cercis canadensis.
If anybody can help with my embarrassing case of tree blindness here, it'd be appreciated.

Thanks to everybody for their suggestions; if any commenters want to weigh in on the still-not-entirely-resolved cases of #1, #4, or #6, beg to differ strongly with any of the others, or just want to tell me the pictures are pretty, feel free.