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Tree & Shrub Gallery

Miscellaneous Trees #1

              

Sapindaceae - Soapberry family
Western Soapberry (Wild Chinaberry) Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii (Sapindus drummondii)

This plant's species name has changed from the one mentioned in most guide books.
Tree shown about 20 feet tall but can grow to 50 feet tall. Female tree have off white flowers that produce berries, which have a translucent yellow covering around a hard black seed. Fruit is poisonous. Tree spreads by rhizomes.
Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, May 2004, June & December 2005
(Native of Texas - Taylor, etc.)

              

Meliaceae - Mahogany family
Chinaberry Melia azedarach
Tree generally grows to 36 feet tall. Purple/lilac flowers produce drupe (berries), which have a translucent yellow to white covering around a hard grooved seed. Tree spreads by seed. Leaves and fruit are poisonous to people, birds eat the fruit. Wood is light brown to dark red, dries without cracking or warping, resistant to fungus. Bees and butterflies are not attracted to the flowers.
Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, April 2006
(Introduced, native of southeast Asia and Australia, invasive - Brown, Coke)

                             

Sapotaceae - Sapodilla family
Gum Elastic (Gum Bully, Chittamwood, Iron wood, False Buckthorn) Sideroxylon lanuginosum (Bumelia lanuginosa)
Trees grow about 20 feet tall and about a foot wide, in limey sand. There seems to be three kinds of bark: rectangular scales, rough fissures, narrow fissures. Those with rectangular scales have the reddest under bark. Very pretty! The wood is yellow white, close grained, semi-hard. The leaves are semi-evergreen. Multiple leaves grow out of the same node and on older twigs a new twig grows from the same place. It is perpendicular to the main twig and is tipped with a thorn. Leaves are up to 3" long, leathery, dark green on top, lighter and furry underneath. The shape is spatulate to oblanceolate with an entire margin. Flowers are tiny and white, clustered in leaf node. (no photo) Fruit is 1/2" long and matures to black. Sap from bark wounds and the bark (dried & ground) can be chewed like gum. Fruit is edible and is eaten quickly by birds.
Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, December 2005, September 2009
(Native of Texas - Taylor, etc.)