Please help ID this tree

mongoose

Hi, I live in Queensland Australia, and I have a large tree in my yard and I have no idea what it is.

These are 2 photos of the leaves. It's hard to get photos of the leaves because most of them are out of reach.
Attachment 17666

Attachment 17665

The bark has a cracked appearance and is a grey/brown colour.
Attachment 17667

I'd estimate the tree is 20m+ tall and reasonably spread out, it's taller than it is wide but it's not very bushy.

It is deciduous and I've seen small green berry type things on it. The berries from memory were about the size of marbles. It doesn't have any berries at the moment otherwise I would take some photos.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression that it produces something edible as every other tree in that part of my yard produces food (eg: citrus, stone fruit and passionfruit).

Craig de Denus

the links for the images don't work could you post them again?

mongoose

My bad.

Craig de Denus

I think it could be a Persian Lilac (Melia azedarach but I am not positive, what do the berries look like are they sphere shaped also what do the flowers look like and what colour?

mongoose

The tree didn't flower or fruit this year. I only vaguely recall what I saw on it last year, the berries when I saw them were green, so I'm not sure what colour they turn when ripe. I only vaguely recall seeing flowers on it too, they were small and I think pale in colour. Sorry I can't be much help in regards to that.

The persian lilac looks about as close as I have seen to what it looks like so far. Thanks for your input.

Craig de Denus

No worries, the only thing that makes the think it isn't is the leaves - they look serrated around the edges.. but the bark and leaf formations look the same ..

Davo The Terrible

Craig D is right - definitely Melia azedarach (White Cedar).
It has poisonous berries, and generally if you have more than 1 tree in your yard, you will get a yearly visit from hundreds of "itchy grubs" which will defoliate your trees.

mongoose

ok, I'm more convinced now. Last year I had a plague of itchy caterpillars! What is it about this type of tree that the moth/caterpillars like? I never saw any on the tree(not that I was looking) but they were absolutely everywhere around my house and in my house. I only have the one tree though.

The only discrepancy I could see in the description is that the leaves on my tree are only very small, whereas the description I read says they can be very large. I don't think any of them would be over 10cm long. Or is this variable between individual trees?

Thanks

Eric Frei

PDF attached and also this link.

Leptocneria reducta

Just makes your skin crawl eh.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Attached Files

White Cedar Moth.pdf (268.9 KB, 73 views)

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