I don't know, but I love the veining pattern of those leaves. Could there be a name to describe a pattern like that?
I agree with Wendy. This tree has most unusual veins on the leaves. Quite unlike that of Fagus sylvatica. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=fa...=136&tbnw=183&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=0CEMQrQMwAA http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=Fa...=134&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=0CF0QrQMwBQ I wish I could help to id this tropical tree from Colombia.
Wendy, those are semiplicate cordate leaves. If I hadn't seen the flowers, I'd say Erithryna, but those are not the right flowers at all....
Thanks, lorax. I'm not finding the word "semplicate" anywhere, but from "cordate", I came up with Tilia leaves that look like that. Wikipedia described it as "... the base cordate; the venation is palmate along a midrib". I can't tell about the flowers. They're not so different from Tilia that I could reject that immediately. [Edited]I can't believe I thought I'd never seen leaves like that, yet I know I've seen Tilia here. Now I'm looking at my photos, which I posted because of the lime gall mites, and I do not see that venation on the leaves. Anyway, the inflorescence structure doesn't seem right and I don't see any mention of them in South America. [edited again, because I still don't think this is it]I just saw a Clerodendrum paniculatum leaf with the same venation - not as rare as I'd thought. That's also something I've photographed. [Edited again]Sorry, I'm doing my own thing here, so I didn't want to make a separate posting of it. Another description of that leaf venation, from a search on Pterygota cordate leaves, "base cordate, apex short-acuminate".
Looks to me like something in family Sterculiaceae (or Malvaceae in a newer family classification). The genera Pterygota and Sterculia come to mind, but this family is quite diverse in Andean South America. Looking for resemblances to trees of north-temperate regions won't get you very far in South America.
Thanks all. Sorry for the delay in responding I was out of town taking more photos and will likely have more plants to ID. It does have some resemblance to Sterculia but I could not find a match.
I am inclined now to rule out genus Sterculia. Although it has species with compound, lobed and unlobed simple leaves, they all seem to have flowers with calyx of sepals fused into a cup (petals absent), whereas the flowers in Colombia's photo have apparently separate sepals. But I still think it is most likely family Sterculiaceae.
I was hoping you'd figure that out for us! :) I'm amazed that you did. There are not many photos of the flowers. Here are two links about that tree that were worth looking at: Edited 2022-Feb-19 by wcutler: both the links I posted no longer work. Here are Bing search results: Reutealis - Bing images The first image that comes up for me appears to be this photo(!), on a site with no bona-fides at all, but tons of excellent photos. So I would not consider that confirmation of the ID. How did you figure it out?
Someone from another forum told me. I know next to nothing about the scientific aspects of plants. I simply enjoy their beauty and I am trying to build a collection of quality photos of flowering plants I have seen growing in Colombia.
Well done - however you got the answer. It's a beautiful tree, love the leaves especially. Thanks for posting it.
