In message , Nick Maclaren
writes

In article ,
Sacha writes:
| On 7/2/08 20:23, in article , "Stewart Robert
| Hinsley" wrote:
|
| http://www.stewart.hinsley.me.uk/Images/Dicot19.jpg
| http://www.stewart.hinsley.me.uk/Images/Dicot20.jpg
|
| A Stachyurus?

If so, it's not S. praecox. It doesn't look right to me. Not that
I am a Stachyurus expert.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I hadn't thought of Stachyurus, but it's a reasonable suggestion.
However the photographs were taken in early May, and the flowers are, if
I interpret the photographs correctly, still in bud (a photograph a
couple of weeks later would have helped).

Hillier says that only two species are hardy in the UK - S. chinensis
and S. praecox - and it's neither of these. (It flowers too late, and
when in leaf, and it's too low growing.)

I've taken a look at the Stachyuraceae treatment in the Flora of China
on Harvard's web site - apart from habit and height there's very little
(short of taking a close look that possible from the photographs) to
distinguish the plant from Stachyurus. However the leaves of Stachyurus
are finely serrate (I think that the plant has entire margins), and
Stachyurus flowers are tetramerous (it's hard to tell, but I think that
plant is pentamerous).

Similar objections would hold to an identification as Corylopsis.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley