Chinese Parasol Tree
Firmiana simplex · Malvaceae · 벽오동
How to spot it
Identified by green trunk and green bark, and large, bright green lobed leaves.
Look
- Leaves
- Large, bold simple leaves 20 to 30 cm wide, palmately lobed with 3 to 5 lobes, bright green, turning yellow in autumn.
- Flowers
- Petalless flowers made of white to cream or yellow-green star-shaped sepals appear in terminal panicles in late spring to early summer, faintly fragrant.
- Fruit
- Leathery pod-like capsules 8 to 10 cm long split into four petal-like pieces, with pea-sized seeds attached.
- Bark
- The bark is thin, green with pale greenish-white stripes, and becomes smooth gray to chalky with age. Young stems are also green.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native from central and southern China to Vietnam, and from southern Japan to Taiwan.