Tree ID?

[Deleted]

I collect firewood from an arborist, in southern California, and I came across something that looked like exactly like this, today.

The wood is very heavy and has a tight grain.


(Not my pic.)

Unfortunately, the large leaves weren't fit to be photographed, after the windy ride home, in the back of the truck, in 100F heat.

But, the long switches are still very green and might be cloned.

Is anyone familiar with this?

[mjc]

Southern CA...it could be just about anything.

Got some more ID characteristics...general shape? bark color? bark type? fruit? flowers? anything else?

My first thought was a catalpa...but I don't know if that one made it or can 'make' it in SoCal.

[atash]

It's a Bauhinia.

Note the cleft leaf. Named for the Bauhin brothers of Switzerland, who were identical twins.

Exotic. The nearest native Bauhinias are in northeastern Mexico, maybe into southern Texas. There are several others in tropical Asia and Africa.

If that is the leaf size probably one of the tropical Asian species. They occur as far north as south-central China (Bauhinia faberii). I have one from Yunnan in my yard, which, alas, has consistently frozen back every recent winter (we've had a string of severe winters) and has never bloomed.

Most of them have quite showy flowers, some blooming more than once a year but most typically blooming late winter. Some are deliciously fragrant. A few are evergreen, most are briefly deciduous.

[Deleted]

Thanks. I've occasionally seen blossoms, like those in images.google, in local parking lots.

I am in short driving distance of places, which never really freeze. People's yards get very tropical looking but would probably be badlands if it wasn't for the sprinklers.

[Deleted]

New buds are already forming, where there were never any leaves.

[grunt]

I have another tree that needs an ID for a friend.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Northern Catalpa?

[grunt]

You were right on the Northern Catalpa = got any ideas on this one?

[canadamike]

Gosh are you frustrating me in the north with those exotic looking trees...

we had 2 catalpas in Rockland, a lil north of Ottawa, but both, although perfectly, go cut. One was on a land with an old falling down house, it was bought , everything was cut down for the new structure, the other one was on the post office property, looking amazing, then it got cut for absolutely no reason but the fact it was a tree and budgets were probably low, it is expensive to pay for the guy who cuts grass circling around a georgous tree...

The friggin stump was still there the last time I looked at the post office, years after the cut...

[steev]

Kousa dogwood, I think.

Up the block from me when I moved in, there was a 60-80' gingko by this old house; stunning in the Fall, a geyser of golden yellow, then the leaves would drop over just a few days, so not like it was a lot of clean-up, just one big load (very attractive to me as clean mulch, as well as a pretty carpet).

So the house was converted to offices and the tree was cut down so they could pave the yard in asphalt for parking. I think they got two spaces where the tree had been for 80 years or so. Don't know that I've ever seen all that parking full.

[grunt]

Steev: it is Kousa Dogwood, or Japanese Strawberry Tree. Thankyou.

[grunt]

I have another ID request, put to me by the people in the lodge here = they see these trees along the streets, and because you have managed to ID the others, they ask me what everything is.



it has seed pods like this


which turn to this:


and break into these:


Any ideas?

[atash]

"Tulip Tree". Liriodendron tulipifera.

Closely related to Magnolias (note the magnolia-like seed head). The flower superficially resembles a Tulip, hence the common name. Native to the eastern USA.

Like Magnolias, it is tolerant of urban stress, hence a popular street tree.

[steev]

Some years back, I took on a client who'd had one cut down. She regretted its loss, but thought it a big job to get the stump out (which was suckering with abandon) and was afraid it would take too long for a new one to amount to anything. So I told her I'd triage the suckers over time to select the most vigorous one, which would grow much faster than a new tree, being fed by that large root system. Today she's 98 and her tulip tree has no suckers and an 11" diameter trunk. It took 7 1/2 years to regenerate to that size.

[grunt]

Thank you again!!