All photos taken by the author. Last updated February 2, 2021.
A flowering witch hazel tree in Queen’s Park, New Westminster. In the back left of the photo is another witch hazel tree with red flowers.
Flowers in January? Yup, look no further than Hamamelis which are native to Asia and Eastern North America. These unique flowers have a refreshing floral scent that is usually described as containing notes of orange but I did not detect much citrus when I sniffed them (See Feb. 2 update at bottom of post!). The yellow flowers definitely had more aroma than the red ones. There are four species of witch hazel, with many cultivars and crosses so that I will not attempt to label the trees I observed with names. Learn more about Hamamelishere and here.
A red-flowering variety of witch hazel. These flowers are just starting to open up.
A quarter next to a cluster of red witch hazel blossoms just starting to open.
A cluster of yellow witch hazel flowers next to a quarter for size.
The scented blossoms of the witch hazel are spread along the branches and twigs.
This tree had many of last year’s brown leaves still clinging to the branches. At the tip of the flower cluster is a leaf bud.
Looking up at flowering witch hazel twigs. Notice the alternate arrangement of twigs and flowers.
Last year’s leaf still attached to the tree.
A fallen witch hazel leaf. The ground under the witch hazel trees I observed in January was littered with brown leaves.
Witch hazel trees can be multi-stemmed like this one.
The fruit are often still attached to the tree when the following years blossoms start to open. Inside the brown pod are seeds.
When taken inside, the seed pod dried out and opened up to release a seed.
Looking inside the dried opened seed pod.
The bark of the witch hazel trees are home to lichens and mosses.
So head over to Queen’s Park in New Westminster soon and catch a glimpse and a whiff of the beautiful January-flowering witch hazel trees. Or, if you’re lucky, maybe you can spot some closer to home. Wherever you find them, these introduced non-invasive species are definitely worth the effort to observe in person.
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Here are some more pictures taken in sunnier weather a few weeks later:
These are flowers that are just starting to open. At the top right you can see some flower buds still very closed up.
When I paused to look more closely at the structure of the flowers I realized the 4-petaled flowers were in groups of 3-4. This flower had a small insect crawling inside.
Witch hazel leaves mixed with a few oak leaves and other park plant debris.
Like the yellow flowers, the red flowers each have 4 petals and are found in groups. Notice the yellow pollen in this flower.
Two dried fruits near this year’s flowers.
Fully-opened and still-closed witch hazel flowers. There were two shades of yellow-flowered tree. This bright pastel colour and the darker more school bus colour in the earlier photos.
