Exotic tree question

We were at the Animal Kingdom at Disney World recently and I saw a very unusual tree. The best way to describe it is that it looks like an umbrella. One trunk and huge (@ 12") round leaves in a dark glossy green. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Carica papaya?

A Cecropia species?

Resin

Thanks Resin, but the leaves are solid round dark green shiny and about 12" diameter.

What is the A in A. cecropia?

Cecropia is the genus.

The species of Cecropia listed in the DG plant files don't have round leaves, and at least one couldn't take Kissimmee cold. Maybe other species have round leaves and can, but a quick search on Google suggests that the best-known species are compound-palmate and tropical.

Mark., trees are umbrella-shaped, though

Oh well, if no one knows I will just have to go back to Disney's Animal Kingdom and check it out again (tough job but someone has to do it). lol.

Could it maybe be some sort of Ficus? I'm not familiar with all the different species so I don't know if any of them have big enough leaves, but some of them do have leaves that are somewhat round.

You might also try posting in the Tropicals forum--if this is something that wouldn't grow many places in the country besides Florida you may run into more people over there who might have some ideas.

You could ask on the WDW Resort forum on mousepad.mouseplanet.com perhaps. Are these solid round leaves? The Animal Kingdom has "the largest collection of flowering trees in North America" and "the largest collection of African species outside of Africa" and a large cycad collection as well. One impressive somewhat umbrella-ish tree is a weed tree, an Enterolobium cyclocarpum that was found on Disney property, but its leaves are compound pinnate leaves, not round.

I wonder whether Disney has an address that accepts e-mail inquiries about their parks. Might be worth a try.

Never been there myself. I may have to go just for the gardens.

Mark., I FEAR THE MOUSE

It looks very tropical, maybe African. I will try the tropicals forum, thanks for the idea.

I looked at the Disney websites but none of them allow for inquiries of this kind.

The yearly garden show begins at Epcot on April 5 and goes through sometime in June. It is usually very worth seeing (despite the fact that they have cut back a lot on what they do there over the past 15 years).

My favorite place at Epcot is Mexico, because the surrounding foliage is so lush and tropical. There are tons of unusual plants there. But the Animal Kingdom is the best all around for unusual plants.

thanks!