My move to Oregon, back in 2004, coincided with my (now) husband and I becoming engaged. To celebrate the news his Aunt and Uncle took us on a wine tasting adventure through Oregon wine country and as a wedding gift assembled a mixed case made from our favorites. That was eleven years ago, a return visit was overdue!
Our first stop was at Cana’s Feast Winery. Since I’m tree ignorant I’m not positive on the ID, but for the sake of atmosphere I’m calling those tall, thin, exclamation points Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). They certainly set the mood for a winery that describes itself as “Tuscan-inspired.”
A Bocce Ball court I presume?
Of course there were olives, Olea europaea ‘Frantoio’ perhaps?
For reasons I can’t quite explain I found this sad little thing to be quite beautiful.
The tasting room for Ken Wright Cellars is located in the old Carlton train station.
The raised bed edging makes use of old rails.
That tree! And the purple berries…
One of our group saw the berries and exclaimed “those are beautiful” – the plant nerd in me loved telling him they were indeed Beautyberry (Callicarpa).
But my focus was on the tree…the leader went straight up, almost pencil straight, while the others all seemed to swirl around it.
And the tiny cones were perfectly arranged decorations.
Since, as I mentioned, I’m tree ignorant I started in wonder, but had no idea what it was. The congested trunk…
And swirling branches….
Only added to the mystery…then my husband spotted a couple of remaining leaves. Sequoia? Metasequoia? Or as Tim Vojt suggests (below, in the comments) do we have a bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)? The ID saga continues as Evan Bean points out the cones are a match for Metasequoia glyptostroboides, I have to agree, it looks like this most likely is our tree…
I couldn’t help but pick up a handful of the fallen cones to bring home. The other day I noticed they’d cracked open. The swirling pattern continues…
Isn’t nature grand?
