What is this tree? (Los Angeles)
March 14, 2015 1:54 PM   Subscribe

I went on a walk today and saw these great trees flowering. The flowers are about the size of an orchid flower, and kind of look like one, too. On the same street, there were different trees with white flowers and with pale pink striped flowers, maybe light purple ones, too. What are they?

They might be a shrub that just got big. I'm not certain.

Here is a picture of the sprouts at the base, which shows the flowers and leaves. The photo doesn't show it very well, but the leaves are kind of apple shaped. They dip in both at the tip and the stem. They are very symmetrical and are palmately veined.

The google street view imagery of the street show the trees more bare in May 2012 than they were today, but they were in full foliage in September 2008 (those were the only street views). The leaves look really old, so maybe they do put out much later in the year.

The trees aren't too tall; about the same height as the houses. Here's the May '12 street view.
posted by rubah to Home & Garden (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Maybe Magnolia
posted by Long Way To Go at 1:57 PM on March 14, 2015


Best answer: Orchid tree. It's that green spike in the center that's so distinctive, and they come in white, pink, and purple.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:11 PM on March 14, 2015


Response by poster: Ah, perfect! Thank you!
posted by rubah at 2:13 PM on March 14, 2015


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