On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 16:37:15 GMT, (Babberney)
wrote:

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:25:36 -0600 (CST), (will)
wrote:

Around town today I have seen several trees with magnificent lavender
flowers on them.

They aren't big flowers, but rather small "clyindrical shaped" flowers.
I am not sure whether or not they will open up more, but they were
amazing compared to all of the dull boring colors everywhere else in
austin.

Does anybody know what I am talking about?

I asked 2 people who had them in their yards what kinda trees they
were.....they didn't have a clue. I don't really think that they put
them there. They probably were there when they moved in.

Ok I'll try.... Scarlet buckeye (_Aesculus pavia_)?
http://www.marysplantfarm.com/_photo...ulus_pavia.jpg

They grow wild in the creek bottoms around here, and I've seen
several in front yards (including mine :-) They're early bloomers.

How big are these flowers? One tree I see blooming now looks a lot
like this:
http://www.nmessences.com/healing/ma...h_house_h.html

I heard John Aielli refer to it as a "tulip tree" although if you
search for that you will find a very different tree than the one I'm
thinking of. I don't know the species of magnolia pictured in the
link, but I'm fairly certain the tree I've seen is some magnolia.

Right. That's _Magnolia liliflora_, a cultivated Asian species. Quite
a stunner around town with those big flowers on bare blanches. The
flowers look to me even more like tulips than do true tulip trees' (of
course neither are even remotely related to tulips.)

KUT John Aielli... loved his crow theme show a while back.