Picnic crumbs

One day, two parks, two mysteries to bring home.

At Queen's Park, in New Westminster, we sat at a picnic table having lunch. A young tree provided shade, and provided the first "What's that?".


There were only a dozen or so of these flowers on the tree. Here's a closer look:


It's a "Handkerchief tree," we discovered after going through a stack of books. Otherwise known as "Dove tree" or Davidia involucrata. It's an import from China, and still relatively rare here. The flowers are in that little cluster in the centre; the white things, always one larger than the other, are bracts.

We had supper under another tree, in Central Park, Burnaby.


This is just the lower branches; I really should have backed off to get a full-scale photo. We were not able to identify the tree.

What intrigued us was this:


Little red spikes growing straight up from some of the leaves.


Leaves with too many "spikes" get all wrinkly.

Some sort of a leaf gall, possibly caused by an insect.

I forgot to turn the leaf over to check the bottom. I didn't think to bring one home. In my defense, I will say that the entire family was congregated, and the food had just arrived. First things first!
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