trees in taiwan

from time to time, i'm so struck at how jungle-y taiwan is. it's like i don't notice it for a while, and then all of a sudden - BAM - it's all i notice. this weekend was one of those times. do you ever notice how HUGE the tree leaves are? (sometimes those huge leaves make me think about how it must have been in the garden of eden). and have you paid attention to how cool-looking some of the palm trees are? some of them look almost jurassic to me. and do you ever notice how plants just can almost grow anywhere, even blooming up out of the asphalt? even on our little alley, there are colorful plants and palm-type leaves bending and reaching all along the apartment buildings. little spots of natural jungle within the concrete jungle.

around this time every year, there is one tree that ALWAYS catches my eye. i've been meaning to blog about it for a while now. i tried to take a picture of some of them when i was riding on the back of my husband's scooter today but i couldn't snap it in time.

this tree catches my eye because the blooms actually look like fall leaves. if you squint, you'd almost fool yourself into thinking you were seeing a tree with yellow and red leaves in 85-degree weather.

my husband said the name of this tree is 欒樹 (luan shu). here's a couple of pictures of what i'm talking about:

if you look closely, like i did the other day, it actually looks like the blooms are kind of velvety looking. 

i tried to find the english name online and came up with "goldenrain tree". that's a pretty name. but i'm not sure if it's the real name. i love this tree.

another tree that i always notice this time of year is....well i don't know what it is, because i only notice it's smell. it's intoxicating. truly. my husband said he thinks it's some sort of citrus tree. i tried googling and thought it might be the ylang-ylang tree but i don't think it's that because every time i smell this amazing fragrance, i don't see any blooms around. it's like it's coming off of the leaves. i have no idea what it is but the smell is one of my absolute favorite things about this time of year! 

and finally, you can't have a post about trees in taiwan, without mentioning the native camphor trees. both times i've been to ji-ji, in central taiwan, i've been struck by the smell of the town's camphor trees. they give off the faintest odor that will certainly make you think of mentholatum or campho-phenique . :)