Of green things not green

Fagus sylvatica purpurea. That, my friends, is the plant of the week. Or more like "tree until the next time I post" . . . T.U.N.P? Maybe "tree until the next post about a tree". . . T.U.N.P.A.T? Or how about "current awesome tree". . . C.A.T. Ok. That one wins. I took a good two hour walk through Longwood Gardens last week, and was just amazed by the the copper beeches they have. They are huge trees. Up in Washington we have some really tall trees, and even some big-leaved ones. But the coniferous trees are usually skinny:

 and Big Leaf Maples (Acer macrophyllum) are huge in a clumsy way. . .

So the copper beeches are just amazing. It's organized volume. A ton of organized volume. And the color is spectacular. In the late spring/early summer season when everything is that same shade of newly-opened-green, it's so refreshing to get a jolt of deep purple-red.

And when you walk under them, the purple/red turns to copper/green!

*Ooooo. . . Ahhh. . . *

You have to admit, it's a pretty cool tree. Totally worthy of being the very first C.A.T. :)