Mystery Tree

I'm not sure if this question goes in this section or in the Plant ID section, but I'll give it a try here.

I saw the little flowers on the ground while walking my fence line and looked up to see the flowers in this tall (about 40 feet) tree. No leaves, so I can't ID with my tree book since it is based on leaves.

There were lots of leaves on the ground, but with the wind we've been having, they were from a lot of different trees. The property is in Willis, Texas, Montgomery County - 70 or so miles north of Houston. It is mostly pine, with scattered hardwoods that I am trying to identify.

Can anyone here ID the tree based on the flower?

Thanks,
Patti

Probably a maple since they are in full bloom here.

Well I'm jealous. We have 0 signs of spring here :(

I do agree that it does look like a maple variant.

Red Maple Acer rubrum - the old leaves are visible, lower left on the first pic.

Resin

Wow. You are all awesome. I didn't have a clue. Now I have a genus and species.

Thanks so much to all.

Patti

Agree with Acer rubrum - additional images of twigs to show opposite arrangement of branches, buds, and future leaves would add to the confirmation.

I'd suggest getting another ID book which offers information about plants in the dormant season - it'll make you a champ at recognizing what you have growing around you, any time of year.

Do you have a suggestion of a book that gives that type of information?

Hunting around my shelves since I typed that - glad you asked!

Woody Plants in Winter by Core and Ammons (The Boxwood Press, 1958) is an old standard.

How to Identify Plants by Harrington and Durrell (Swallow Press, 1957) is another really good text that describes all those great plant part terms, as well as other stuff.

These are probably available very inexpensively online - and there are likely plenty of online keys/information too, but those would be hard to take out in the yard or the woods.

Here's what those books look like...pardon the clear evidence of excessive use.

Thanks so much! I will see if I can find them in print anywhere. They must be good because a good reference book will look like it has been used.

Yes VV, I'm going to be looking for one or the other now too...thanks!

Found them on Amazon and ordered. There were several other similar ones too. None that I found specific for Texas area though.

These are the kinds of books that make great presents for friends with similar interests, that aren't "flashy" enough for people to usually buy for themselves. They find that the information becomes invaluable with time. Picking them up online relatively inexpensively (esp. the "lightly used ones, which I always imagine belonged to a student that changed their major after a semester) makes the gift-giving easy.

I'm sorry I don't know as much about the south and southwest, but the process used in plant identification is (or at least can be) universal, especially in the temperate regions I'm most familiar with.

I bet if you spent some time on the TX-based forums, there might be someone there (or who will soon chime in here) that knows of a text that has even greater value for your specific region. Yours is a big diverse state, as far as plants go. You might need an assistant to tote it into the field with you...