Originally Posted by
Velo Vol
We have a normal, quasi-north climate, and our trees season normally.
Our native trees are either evergreen, or drop leaves in July/August. That's mostly the California Buckeye. After the leaves drop, their seedpods keep growing, eventually looking like a bunch of scrota hanging on a tree.
When our development was built back in 1946, the developer wanted big leafy trees like Back East, so he planted a bunch of Liquidambars. Swamp trees. Grow fast, send roots everywhere. Colorful foliage in the Fall. And they drop something every season - first there's stuff like sand, followed by little black seeds. Then the leaves. Then seedpods an inch in diameter with spikes on them, which fit PERFECTLY into a Greyhound's foot, between the main pad and the toe pads. We'd be walking along and suddenly one of the dogs would slow down and limp. There'd be a spiky ball from a Liquidambar stuck in one of their feet.
We used to have TWO of the damn things, but we got the city to let us cut one down because we were putting in new hardscaping where it was, and the other one based on our agreement to replace the old tree with one of the Approved Trees, none of which are native. That was 8 years ago and they haven't tried to make us do it. And what with droughts and such, they likely won't.