Just another tree id. Looks easy to id, but it wasn't.
- Thread starter pdqdl
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IDK but sure is purdy.
No. Much more common than you think. Special variety.
Chinese Empress, (Paulonia) is about the same thing as a catalpa tree. BIG leaves, not pinnately compound. I never heard of a foxglove tree.
EDIT: Ha! A foxglove is just a synonym of the Chinese Empress. BTW: I have an "Empress" tree down the road from my shop. They are rather pretty when in flower, but they suffer from too much winter kill in our area. I have found them at other locations, but they are only stumps that keep sprouting new suckers. The stem dies each winter.
They have been promoted in mail order catalogs as beautiful, rapid growing trees to unsuspecting homeowners that didn't really know what they were buying. These trees are weak limbed, they can grow invasively from all the germinated seeds, they are a pretty messy tree, and they simply don't survive too far north. The mail order catalogs always seem to forget that little problem.
The tree I posted above has a few special problems, too. If you look real close, you will see them. You may not spot the thorns, but they are not important to the ID.
Chinese Empress, (Paulonia) is about the same thing as a catalpa tree. BIG leaves, not pinnately compound. I never heard of a foxglove tree.
EDIT: Ha! A foxglove is just a synonym of the Chinese Empress. BTW: I have an "Empress" tree down the road from my shop. They are rather pretty when in flower, but they suffer from too much winter kill in our area. I have found them at other locations, but they are only stumps that keep sprouting new suckers. The stem dies each winter.
They have been promoted in mail order catalogs as beautiful, rapid growing trees to unsuspecting homeowners that didn't really know what they were buying. These trees are weak limbed, they can grow invasively from all the germinated seeds, they are a pretty messy tree, and they simply don't survive too far north. The mail order catalogs always seem to forget that little problem.
The tree I posted above has a few special problems, too. If you look real close, you will see them. You may not spot the thorns, but they are not important to the ID.
Crepe myrtle..
Jeff,,
Jeff,,
Crepe myrtle..
Jeff,,
Not even close.
I've got it but I'm not telling!
But here's a hint.
Sugar Snap peas have the same flower but white.
Dave6390
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The reason I suggested the Foxglove is for the fact that I had several of them at my house in CA, they wouldn't make it for 1 winter here in WI. They are gorgeous almost all year long on the west coast. I planted 4 of them 16 years ago less than 250' from the Pacific, they loved the summer fog and the winter heat. Temps stayed relatively 55*-75* year round. Planted Avocado trees along the eastern property line (behind the Foxglove).
Can't believe I didn't see the resemblance of the Crepe Myrtle! Good call, Jeff! Bravo [emoji848][emoji855]
Can't believe I didn't see the resemblance of the Crepe Myrtle! Good call, Jeff! Bravo [emoji848][emoji855]
JeffGu
Antagonist/Heckler
Bristly Locust... 
Thanks, it probably is a crepe myrtle,, but knowing him, it will probably an africana purpulosis ,,
Jeff
JeffGu
Antagonist/Heckler
No, I'm serious. Believe me.
Crepe myrtle..
Jeff,,
No. Look at the leaves.
Crepe myrtle leaves are opposite and simple. The flowers are quite different too, although the appearance from a distance is quite similar to this tree. Quite frankly, I immediately thought of crepe myrtle when I drove up on the tree, and then I started getting confused when I looked closer.
Bristly Locust...
Close! So very close. But Bristly Locust is a plant that is just a shrub. This will be a full sized tree once it outgrows the tree stakes that haven't fallen down yet.
Robinia pseudacacia
Absolutely. This is just a plain ol' Black Locust, except for the strange variety. Robinia "Purple Robe"
Read more here: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c142
This tree has all the traits described at the link above, including the lower limb that shredded off at the lower trunk (zoom in on my first picture). There are a number of thorny suckers coming up in the landscape around the tree, also. Oddly, the thorns on the suckers are about twice the size as a normal black locust in our area, yet I couldn't find any on the tree.
Because the suckers are thorny and the the tree is not, I thought that this might be some sort of grafted variety, but it apparently isn't, according to MoBot. I am going to make some cuttings of this tree and see where I can grow some more. It really is a beautiful tree, and it is listed as a tree well suited for reclaiming ground. Black locust is one of my favorite trees: we get solid groves of them along the highways in our area. When they are in flower, the fragrance downwind is heavenly.
