Can anyone help me identify this tree? I love my "cupcakes with icing" pix, but it would be nice to know what kind of tree this is. I can tell you the name of dozens of flowers, but darned if I can remember trees. :D
Thanks
This message was edited Feb 2, 2009 4:11 PM
Looks like Tulip-tree seed heads to me, just the outer segments left after the seeds have fallen, and then filled with snow.
Resin
Bingo!! Thank you so much. You are right on target. I cross referenced against this link since I obviously don't have leaves to compare at the moment and they were nice enough to have posted both bark and seedpods
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://treehunter.info/Alternate/magnolia/tuliptree/tuliptree.jpg&imgrefurl=http://treehunter.info/Alternate/magnolia/tuliptree/tuliptree.html&usg=__ZTczdRpY9W3aWSUY2K5Mb3yv0sA=&h=566&w=364&sz=70&hl=en&start=23&um=1&tbnid=KZTvC4TSsObzqM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtulip%2Btree%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
I guess I should mention we were lucky. Our region just went through one of the worst ice storms on record. The beauty was luminous but deadly. It sounded like we lived in the middle of a firing range for about three day with all the falling trees and limbs coming down. We didn't lose anything but small branches from the above tulip tree. Friends all around the area however lost entire trees. It looks like a war zone. This pix used to be a gorgeous ornamental pear that ended up looking like a peeled banana. (One of the reasons I won't plant them - the smell in the spring is the other reason.)
I wondered how you got a picture of the seeds / old flowers - they're usually too high to see well.
