The flowers are small, but attract a lot of insects and bees. If you look closely you can see a carpenter ant looking down on a flower searching for something only an ant would understand.
cinnamon flowers close up view
Saw a documentary on Discover Home Theater. They claim, and I believe it, there are more ants on this planet than all of the other species combined. Think we are outnumbered.
Christi
The ants we take for granted but just like the bees, we would be in big trouble without them. I hate the fire ants though, but they stay away from my growing areas thank God.
are the flowers close enough to smell? do they have a fragrance?
Yes, the cassia flowers produce a light sweet & spicy fragrance!
I was given this tree, and have had Carol and a couple other people try to help me i.d. it. so far no luck..but it did bloom, it kind of reminded me of your cinnamon tree.
some of the leaves will turn bright red before falling off...like one or two..every now and then.
The plant is not in the Lauraceae. Can you show better pictures of the flowers.
(Any chance that the flowers appear in pairs?)
Sorry, no better pictures...there were 2 star like flowers on an extended bloom stalk. It's the most curious shrub/tree I've seen. I don't know what mango blooms look like which is what I suspected it to be..but it's back in the I have no idea category.
Randy, I almost hate to post this because it seems too simple - but could it be a star jasmine? They have a habit of turning splotchy red, then full red before falling...the flower looks right, and the leaves are big, smooth and glossy. I'm sure you probably already thought of this, but just thought I'd throw it out there.
No Shari,
I had not thought of it. In fact, have never seen Jasmine with such large leaves. We do have the star Jasmine vine- this is a shrub, the leaves are in excess of 6 inches long, mango like- the flower, no scent extending out on a long stalk. I did wonder if it might be some kind of jasmine, but doesn't seem to fit the bill of what I know about jasmines. Having said that, there is alot I don't know about them and who knows?
If the flowers come out in pairs it may be a member of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.
Jasmines are vines or decumbent shrubs.
I think your on to something there...it does fit that description rather well.
My DD's star jasmine down the street is shrubby...looks just like your plant, but with flowers...but her's are heavily scented. Of course, we could have a wierd hybrid out here, it has happened before.