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Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans’

This is not a new photograph, I admit, but I was reminded of it when I saw a young tree the other day that had turned precisely this colour; a sort of brilliant maroon.

This sport of the Sugi, the Japanese redwood I pictured in September, is unique in reacting to cold by turning a completely different colour. It is not the most satisfactory tree, being as it were soft in all its parts. Its foliage is almost furry in its intricate texture, and the wood, even of the main trunk, often so pliable that it won’t stand up straight at all. I know of a monster in south west Ireland that proceeds along the damp ground, layering itself as it goes to make a vast bush.

This relatively upright specimen is in an arboretum on the North Kent Downs.  The photograph was taken the last time it was this cold, in 2003.

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