In article et,
[Bob Giel] wrote...

First, I must apologize because the two areas of knowledge that have always
been impossible for me to learn are Botany and any foreign language (i.e.
not American English). So, I am really out of my element here.

No problem.

I have been trying to find the correct name of a tree that used to be found
on the campus of El Camino Junior College in Torrance, California about 30
years ago. At the time I was taking a class in landscape design, (thank
heaven for "The Western Garden Book" by Sunset or I never would have
survived that class!) It is very obvious I was given the wrong name for
that really beautiful tree, and would really like to find out what it is
called, in hopes of growing one or two.

Again, this plant was a full-blown tree about 15 to 20 feet tall. In other
words, it was NOT an herb or spice, fern, brush, bush, flowering plant, etc.
It provided wonderful shade, and was truly a beautiful tree just for its
structure alone. When it bloomed, however, it became even more beautiful
having the strangest "exotic" flowers. The five central structures
(stamen?) of the flowers really drew attention by actually looking like a
five-fingered skeletal hand (like something out of "tales from the crypt").
It fascinated me and when I asked my instructor what it was, he told me it
was called a pentaphylanges (five fingers). This made sense, considering
the beautiful (if not just a bit eerie) appearance of its flowers so I found
no reason to doubt him.

You're obviously thinking of _Chiranthodendron pentadactylon_
[note your very close miss on the name], formerly of Sterculiaceae,
and now included in the redefined & expanded Malvaceae.

The genus name translates as "hand flower tree" and the specific
epithet does refer to "five fingers", much as you recall.

http://www.malvaceae.info/Genera/Fre...#pentadactylon
http://www.mediterraneangardensociet...tadactylon.cfm
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/66985///
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plan...ndron_pen.html
http://www.smgrowers.com/products/pl..._id=2472&page=
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/showimage/43348.html/

It's native to S. Mexico and Guatemala, and is frequently cultivated
in California. It's closely related to the much smaller California
native shrub in the genus Fremontodendron, and I do recall seeing
plants of their hybrids for sale in nurseries. You may be able
to find commercially-available plants of the "Mexican hand flower"
tree, but you might have to search for a specialty nursery.

http://www.nativeson.com/griff.html

Of course, one-word names don't help much when trying to find a plant.
Unfortunately, the campus was "enhanced" just after that semester and all
these wonderful trees were lost to construction. Since then, all attempts
to find or identify this plant in any botanical source, library, or internet
has been unsuccessful, (but remember my inabilities here). I tried
"pentaphylanges" and every possible combination of "five-finger" but only
find cinquefoil and a fern of some kind. Nothing even remotely like the
tree I am looking for.

If my description is adequate, or anybody knows this tree, please help me
out with the proper botanical name and/or where I might find the name with
the limited information I have. I can live without knowing, but this has
been driving me nuts for decades!

TIA for any assistance.

Hope I've helped.

cheers