Gyorgy Sajo wrote:
Greetings,

On my last trip to Israel in October 2006 I saw a very interesting tree in a
garden in Jerusalem. The tree itself did not look that special, but it had
some very peculiar capsules which I collected from below the tree. I have
since asked some botanist friends about it but they could not tell me what
kind of tree it is.

If some of you could help me to identify this tree, I would be very
thankful.

Here is a picture of the tree itself (it is the one with the grey bark in
the middle):

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/gyury/Tree01.jpg

...and here are two pictures of the capsules:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/gyury/Tree02.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/gyury/Tree03.jpg

Thanks again,
Gyorgy



A wild guess from this non-botanist: Brachychiton acerifolius. My guess
is based on the appearance of the seed pod and the bark. A good picture
of the leaves would pretty well verify this guess. This is a commonly
grown garden tree in semi-arid areas around the world and when flowering
it is spectacular since the flowers appear without the leaves to obscure
them.

Don't forget, I warned you that this is a _wild_ guess!

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com