Horticultural Highlight
Number 65 on Mount Auburn's "Most Unusual Trees"
map, the Parrotia persica is a small,
slow-growing deciduous tree native to the Alborz
mountains of northern Iran and is more commonly
referred to as Persian Ironwood.
Named after Friedrich W. Parrot, a
German naturalist and the first European to climb
Mount Ararat in 1829, the Parrotia persica
belongs to the Hamamelidaceae or Witch Hazel
family and shares the low branch structure and
alternate, 3-5 inch-long oval leaf shape of that group of
trees.
Throughout the autumn season, the Parrotia
persica displays a spectacular array of fall foliage -
with leaves changing from bronze to crimson, to
purple, pink, peachy-orange and finally to gold. With
leaf-drop in late November and early December, the
twisting and overlapping patterns of the trees smooth
and sinuous branches are revealed.
As Parrotia persica assumes age, the smooth
bark begins to exfoliate, creating a striking patchwork
of flaking, mottled color - pale grays, tan-greens,
rosy-pinks, creamy-whites and cinnamon-browns -
not unlike the calico or camouflage-like patterns seen
on the branches of the Platanus × acerifolia or
London Plane Tree growing a few yards to the
north on Chestnut Avenue (number 84 on Mount
Auburn's "Most Unusual Trees" Map).
Similar in other ways to members of the
Hamamelidaceae family, Witch Hazel in particular,
Persian Ironwood is a late-winter, early-spring
blooming specimen tree. In late February and
early March, unusual, apetalous "flowers" - small
reddish-lavender colored powder-puff stamen
clusters - emerge on leafless stems and create a
glowing, purple-haze effect around the otherwise
bare branches of the tree.
Learn more about Mount Auburn's
horticultural
collections.
"Big Trees at Mount Auburn" and "Unusual Trees of
Mount Auburn" maps are available for purchase at the
Entrance Gate to the Cemetery.
