What is this? Please, what?

[Winch]

I've tried using keys, to no avail. So I come to you, fellow treebuzzers, asking for help. I have a bunch of photos coming, and a video once I post it to youtube (too big for here). I live in Asheville, NC, and this tree is pretty common. I've seen some get pretty medium-sized, not huge, but this trunk is maybe 15" dbh, one of the larger ones I've seen.

But I can't figure out what it is.

What you can't tell from the photos is that it has a very pleasant smell in the summer when flowering. Not sure if there are male and female plants, but I'm guessing so since I saw some today with fruits and others without.

To whomever solves this mysterious tree dilemma for me, I will buy one beverage of your choice, at your establishment of choice.

Must be in Asheville for drink coupon redemption.

Thanks!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Try using the iPhone app called: Leafsnap

 

[Winch]

Here's the video I promised, and sorry but I don't have a smart phone Tom, so no apps for me. Perhaps I could download one to my Itouch, but that won't work outside without wireless....

Thanks anyway, though!

http://goo.gl/sFTRF

 

[MisterSir]

The leaves and trunk look like a mulberry, but the flower/fruit is not.

 

[RopeShield]

Try the Diospyros family?
maybe Celtis?

 

[robinia]

Looks a bit like Euonymus. E. europaeus?

 

[tomthetreeman]

I think that's right, Rob.

 

[Winch]

Rob, thanks for the suggestion, but the leaves don't match up, and the fruits are the wrong color - orange in the pics, mine are blue,

I'm going to look into Ropeshield's suggestions next.

Thanks for the input, maybe we'll get this...

 

[Winch]

Well, I googled "Diospyros blue drupes" and this came up:

http://goo.gl/JtID4

The "Harlequin Glorybower"

I'm pretty sure this is the tree, but it doesn't really mention being an invasive exotic in NC. Then again, I don't feel like it's all that invasive, though I didn't invite it into my garden and it's there. I really like the tree, though, it smells really good in spring/summer and has neat flowers right now.

Thanks for the help, glad to have solved this, it's been bothering me for quite some time.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Have you contacted someone at the NC Arboretum? Maybe Susanne?

 

[cmw]

The fruit is def Clerodendrum trichotomum

 

[robinia]

[ QUOTE ]

http://goo.gl/JtID4

The "Harlequin Glorybower"



[/ QUOTE ]


That sure looks like your tree. Mystery solved!

 

[robinia]

This was fun! Obviously I'm jonesing for more i.d./TFAD...

 

[Blinky]

The leaves in the first and last image are almost certainly from mulberry. My guess is paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) or a natural cross. The blooms look nothing like that though so I'm stumped.

 

[Winch]

Chip, definitely not a mulberry, we figured it out, see above.

I definitely did not know this tree before, but now I am trying to retain the (weird) name, as there are lots of them about Asheville.

 

[NickfromWI]

Broussonetia papyrifera