Field Elm - Ulmus minor

A tree native to southern Europe the Field Elm (Ulmus minor) has a wide range of subspecies and hybrids. The images in this post come from two different trees. The first is of a mature Field Elm was photographed in the "Quinta del la fuente del Berro" botanical park in Madrid. The second is a young Field Elm in the botanical garden of the University of Malaga.
These trees are quite commonly used in Madrid as an urban tree that can be found along many streets and avenues.
While the native range of this tree is southern Europe it can be found in natural habitat as far away as Asia minor.
The Field Elm can grow quite large. The image above from a botanical park in Madrid is of a tree that has a trunk about one meter in diameter.

Umbrella tree - Schefflera actinophylla

The Umbrella tree is native to Papua New Guinea which gives it a special importance for me because I grew up there until the age of 19. The pictures in this post were not taken in PNG however, they were taken where I currently live, in Malaga, Spain.
It turns out that this tropical tree is widely used here as an ornamental tree for avenues and gardens. I have also seen it used commonly as an indoor tree, valued as it is for its ornate leaves.
The flowers of the is tree are quite large, spreading out about two and a half feet (60-75cm). The flower has multiple arms like the legs of a long spider that branch out in all directions. Along these arms are multiple short offshoots where a cluster of bright red balls blossom into small red and yellow blossoms. The flowers end up turning black and the arms fall form the trees.
Although this tree can grow with a single trunk (below) it is far more common to see it split into multiple trunks right from ground level. The image above is the shape that most of these trees form in maturity which makes them more valuable as ornamental trees than as shade trees.
The leaves are palmatly compound and measure about 50 cm in diameter.

External links...

http://www.tenthousandtrees.com/Tropical/Tree%20-%20Schefflera%20actinophylla.html

Pine nuts from the Stone Pine tree

I went of a hike in the hills above the town of Mijas (Spain) and found myself in a forest of Stone Pines (Pinus pinea). Seeing some mature looking pine cones in some of the trees I decided to try and climb one. I was curious to find out how hard it is to extract the pine nuts from these cones.
I found a tree with some fairly low branches and managed to climb up to the top (this tree was only about 20 feet tall). When I reached the pine cones I found that they were full of pine nuts that were ready to fall. So much so that as I reached out to grab the first cones a bunch of its pine nuts fell out. In the end I gave up on trying to break off the pine cones without spilling the pine nuts and started throwing a few to the ground. Then I had to search around on the ground for all the pine nuts that had dislodged from the cones. I took home about 6-7 pine cones.
I think there were about 50-60 pine nuts in each cone. As you can see from the image above there were two nuts nested on each scale of the cone. All I had to do to get them out was to shake the cone a bit and then pry out the stubborn ones with a knife.
From five cones I filled a dinner sized plate with pine nuts (still in their shells). At this point the shells are covered with a black powder than rubs off on your fingers.
This is where the hard part started. These shells are not easy to open!! I tried a hammer but between hitting my fingers and having the little guys go shooting off in all directions decided that there must be a better way.
In the end I settled on using a pair of Vice-Grips that I had in my tool box. If you set the grip depth just right you can crack the shell without destroying the pine nut. Even then it was quite a bit of work to get though that plate of pine nuts!
Once the outer shells were off there is another very thin shell of the nuts similar to that of a peanut. You can eat these nuts raw or, like I did, you can roast them in the oven for a few minutes and eat them roasted. They are a real treat! They are also good in cookies, cakes, bread etc.

external links...

http://www.tenthousandtrees.com/Pinaceae/Pinus%20Pinea.html

Rubber tree - Ficus elastica

The Rubber tree (Ficus elastica) is one of the "figs" that is popular as an indoor potted tree. In the right growing conditions however it can grow to become a large tree. I have seen this tree reach heights of 20 meters with a broad spread.
The fruits of the Ficus elastica are small, measuring only 1-1.5 cm in length. The leaves however are large and showy. They are tough leaves with a shiny dark green color. I´ve seen some of these trees with such a dark green color almost reaching a dark purple green (see below).

The image above was taken in the town of "Rincon de la Victoria" east of Malaga in Southern Spain.
I took the picture below while waiting for a bus in central Malaga. As I waited I noticed the roots that this tree was dropping down from is lower branches. When these roots reach the ground they become additional trunks that help support the weight of the large branches.