Trees and Shrubs
I am so excited to make this post! One of the things I was most looking forward to in coming to Korea was seeing all of the different plants, trees, insects, and birds that you wouldn't normally see in America.
So yesterday Sam and I arrived to work a little early and we decided to visit this really pretty park that is directly across the street from the building we work in. That's the great thing about Sejong--because it was a planned city, there are so many parks and dedicated green spaces everywhere. It makes the city feel very open and honestly, I feel like it's a beautiful city. It is still growing, even the trees are all propped up to grow straight. And so it can be quiet in some places (due to lack of people), and very noisy in other places (because of construction noises), but I think one day this will be a destination for people to visit when they come to Korea.
So yesterday Sam and I arrived to work a little early and we decided to visit this really pretty park that is directly across the street from the building we work in. That's the great thing about Sejong--because it was a planned city, there are so many parks and dedicated green spaces everywhere. It makes the city feel very open and honestly, I feel like it's a beautiful city. It is still growing, even the trees are all propped up to grow straight. And so it can be quiet in some places (due to lack of people), and very noisy in other places (because of construction noises), but I think one day this will be a destination for people to visit when they come to Korea.
Panorama of the Park area. We are on a bit of a hill, so behind Sam there is actually a trail going to a river/stream area.
As excited as I was to post about trees and plants, I thought that it would be a while before I was able to because identifying the plants might be challenging. Fortunately for us, many of the trees and shrubs in this park are labeled and marked in both English and Korean! Basically a jackpot. Here's what we found:
Disclaimer: Each plant I have linked to either wiki or plantfinder in case you want to learn more about them. Enjoy!
This species is native to Japan and a small island in Korea
Mountain Ash (Sorbus commixta)
Sam and I had a huge mountain ash tree next to our apartment when we lived in Moscow, Idaho. It was cool for us to see it here too ☺
This is a shrub that was at the base of a lot of trees
Rhododendron yedoense poukhanense, Korean azalea
The flowers of this one are a beautiful lavender color
Native to Japan, this tree apparently emits a caramel smell during the fall, so we will be back to verify this soon!
Katsura tree
Zelkova serrata, Japanese Elm
Euonymus alatus, winged spindle or burning bush
This shrub gets really red, like bright red, so I'm excited to see it later in the fall.
Prunus mume, Chinese plum or Japanese apricot
This tree will bloom in the spring
Syringa dilatata, Korean early lilac
This plant needs some time to grow a bit
Callicarpa (sp.), Beautyberry
These shrubs have beautiful, bright purple berries and are native to Korea. This shrub was not marked, so I'm not sure what the species is, but it was really easy to figure out the genus because of the distinctive berries.
Berberis koreana, Korean Barberry
This shrub will flower in the spring
That's all for now! Thank you for reading. There were definitely cedar trees and some other conifers we didn't have time to explore, so look forward to more in the future!
♥ Zoë
So cool!
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