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Can you ID my backyard tree?

I live in the Phoenix, AZ metro area.  I have a tree in my back yard, that was there when I bought the house, and I'm trying to figure out what kind it is.

It has ~30cm bipinnate leaves, with ~6cm sub-leaves and a dense thicket of ~.5cm long, kind of pointy leaflets.  It doesn't seem to have any spines or thorns.  It's evergreen (at least in this climate, if it's from somewhere else it might be deciduous there), and about as tall as my (1-story) house.  No unusual coloring (green leaves, grey-brown bark), relatively smooth bark that kind of has furrows/ridges in it.

It doesn't currently have any flowers or fruits on it, and my memory is kind of crappy, but I seem to remember it having purplish, normal-looking flowers (that is, flowers with petals, not the tassel-looking flowers of acacias or mimosas), though I could easily be mixing its flowers up with the flowers of one of the other plants in my yard.

I can answer other questions, if you have any.

Update:

I can't seem to add a photo from my phone, and I don't have any on my computer.  The leaves are not serrated, they have smooth margins, with pointy tips on the end (basically, think squashed football, in terms of shape...)

Update 2:

Looking at the pics, jacaranda looks right.  I have a terrible memory, but those flowers look like the ones I have to fish out of my vaguely pondlike object at least once a year.  Thanks.

2 Answers

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  • 2 months ago

    I have actually had the house (and thus the tree) for several years now.  I mostly just needed to know if a dead branch I cut off recently would be safe to burn.  Looks like it is.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    2 months ago

    Would you be willing to pick and photograph a set of leaves and perhaps a close up of the bark if you're worried about giving away too many details of your private life?  If not are the leaves serrated or smooth?

    My first thought was a jacaranda tree, but those are spectacularly purple when in flower, so I doubt you'd forget that.

    How about a locust tree (robinia)?  There's a cultivar called purple robe.  They do have trails of flowers in a good year but they're finicky and some years only produce a few flowers.

    Actually, I think I'd skip the not very good yahoo hivemind altogether and browse the local nurseries in your area and if you still can't find it email one and ask.  Nurserymen tend to know their area like the back of their hand.

    Here's one to get you going:

    https://www.elginnursery.com/product-category/tree...  

    Good luck!  It's always exciting finding out what your "new" garden has in store for you.

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