Brachychiton rupestris? In St. Petersburg, Florida.

[carver]

Some Brachychitons I found a few years ago in a neighborhood median in St. Petersburg, finally took some pics today. I think they are rupestris, the largest must be 30" diameter at its biggest bulge. 

Discovered a nice acerifolia at a customers house last year, it was blooming last time I checked in on the home owners, but didn't have my camera. A genus you don't see planted around Tampa bay very often.

 

[The Silent Seed]

VERY nice! I love Brachychitons and have about 6 species growing here. 

[RedRabbit]

Nice, thanks for sharing! I saw one down at St. Armands Cir recently, but that's the only one I knew of.

[Silas_Sancona]

...very nice specimens indeed..  aside from the acerfolius specimens i came across, thinking i also saw a couple B. Populneus around St. Pete, and a single, albeit half-dead looking, B. discolor in Bradenton as well.

Agree that Brachychiton as a whole are relatively unknown anywhere in the Tampa Bay/Sarasota area compared to here where B.  populneus is planted extensively. Grackles scatter seed off a neighborhood tree that pop up in pots in the yard. 

[carver]

There use to be a nice discolor in Gulfport, don't think it's there anymore though.

[Matthew92]

I've done research on Brachychiton species. Discolor and rupestris seem to be much more cold hardy than some of the others. Even upper teens possibly. Would like to try both up here.

[Tropicgardener]

On ‎12‎/‎1‎/‎2016‎ ‎4‎:‎42‎:‎05‎, Opal92 said:

I've done research on Brachychiton species. Discolor and rupestris seem to be much more cold hardy than some of the others. Even upper teens possibly. Would like to try both up here.

B.discolor and B.rupestris are both generally inland species here in Queensland and as such have some cold resistance. In my local area I we have B.acerifolius (currently in flower) in the coastal and mountain rainforest and B.compactus (Whitsunday Bottle Tree) which is locally endemic to some of the Whitsunday islands and adjacent mainland coastal areas.

 

[5150cycad]

On November 29, 2016 at 2:45:43 PM, carver said:

Some Brachychitons I found a few years ago in a neighborhood median in St. Petersburg, finally took some pics today. I think they are rupestris, the largest must be 30" diameter at its biggest bulge. 

Discovered a nice acerifolia at a customers house last year, it was blooming last time I checked in on the home owners, but didn't have my camera. A genus you don't see planted around Tampa bay very often.

 

These are one of my favorite trees. Awesome pictures. I have one and it is only a juvenile. Can't wait till mine get this big. 

[SubTropicRay]

6th Avenue north!  I've stumbled across those myself.

[carver]

38 minutes ago, SubTropicRay said:

6th Avenue north!  I've stumbled across those myself.

Those would be the ones. Probably came from the old Palmers nursery down the street, some neat trees planted on that property too, or what's left of it.

[iwan]

I have wanted B. rupestris for some time but was concerned about the mixed reports of cold tolerance.  After seeing a large, probably 20+ year old specimen in a rural garden near Hanford, CA that had survived 18F and many low 9A freezes, I found a great deal on some 24" box trees and took the plunge.  B. populens shows no damage down to 18-20F for me, so hopefully rupestris will perform similarly.