It looks so familier to me I just can't place it, At first I thought it was chestnut from the flower but I looked at the seed pods and its a new one on me. I thought we had every tree on the planet at our farm in ontario. Gramps loved trees. Try taking the seed pods and a good sample leaf to the local arboretum. Sorry I wish I could have been of more help
Thank you very much for your help! I am completely a layman in plants; only enrich the retire life like watching the plants in the neighborhood. I don't know how to further know the plants.
Yet again the tropical trees book is out of the library here, so I don't have that crutch. My guess is something in the Myrtaceae in the subfamily Leptospermoideae, but that doesn't give too much help when searching.
Be reasonable!! More realistically, send a sample by post. My nearest "local arboretum" (RBG Edinbugh) is 200km away, an hour and 40 minutes by (expensive) high-speed train. If Popo is anywhere near average, s/he will likely have similar difficulties.
How about the Australian Lophostemon confertus (a.k.a. Tristania confertus) or Brisbane box? It is a species known to be a good, low-maintenance street tree and it is planted by the City of Los Angeles. http://www.lacity.org/boss/streettree/TristaniaConferta.htm.
