Friday, January 31, 2014

January surprise


I was out and about desperately trying to find some interesting shots in all the grayness, when I happened upon this shrub (or tree?) with these wonderful bright yellow flowers.  As usual, I cannot identify it even with extensive searching on the internet and my book of French flowers.  I will add that it has leaves that look a lot like the hollies that I know in the States (but it does not look like the holly, or houx, I found in my search).  100 points to anyone who can identify.

OK here's an update to the original post.  Below is an image of the leaves.


23 comments:

  1. What a bright colour. Sunshine on a gray day. Where did you find this shrub in january ? 100 , 200 or 1000 points. I do not know the name of this beautiful flower.
    Tess

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    1. Well, it's almost like it found me as I was walking through a public area with many plantings by the town of Amboise.

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  2. A lovely colour.

    I have no idea what it might be.

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    1. Yeah, that yellow was like a beacon in the night on this cloudy day.

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  3. Could it be a kind of berberis vulgaris? Check this out: beberis vulgaris

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    1. The drawing at that link looks exactly correct... the leaves have that pointy, holly-looking way to them and the flower looks the same. What is a mystery, is that if I search berberis vulgaris on Google or Wikipedia, the leaves look different... not spikey, but somewhat rounded. And the flower appears to hang down, not stand up. In any case, I award you the 100 points !

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  4. Ooooo! I want those 100 points :) unfortunately I don't know the answer but I don't think its the beberis vulgaris the leaves look a little too spiky don't you think ?

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    1. I think I should probably only offer points when I know the answer !

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  5. I am feeling a tad jealous! Winter is very different here. ;)

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    1. I was thinking the same thing about your snow ! Maybe we could trade a week's worth of weather.

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  6. ...and what a delightful surprise indeed! Lovely!!

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  7. I wouldn't have known and I'll probably forget the name by tomorrow but it is very, very pretty! I'm trying to remember where I last saw one and think it might be in Hood River, OR...

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    1. It might be a mahonia. I added a new comment to the post to explain why I think so.

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  8. P.S.: why would a first birthday depress you? It's great as long as you are having fun!

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    1. No, no, I mean depressed to think of all the work required to publish every day for five years as you have ! But you did it... so maybe I should be inspired instead !

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    2. It isn't THAT much work and after a while you find you have a stock of photos for THOSE days when you don't feel like it or when there's nothing happening! :-)

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    3. I suppose I should "lighten up" and not fret over every post. I guess it's just my nature. I do have a stock of photos, I just often don't think they're good enough !

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  9. what a great surprise, it's spring time!!

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  10. OK, here's the latest... and maybe the last. A friend emailed me the suggestion that this shrub may be genus manhonia, family berberidaceae, which (according to Wikipedia) is "closely related to genus berberis". The flower is not shown there but here is one I found: http://viou62.over-blog.com/article-24699853.html

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