Native Plants

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Monday - May 23, 2011

From: McKinney, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of small tree in McKinney TX with puffy red/pink bloom
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Looking for info on McKinney area sm/med size tree found at water's edge that has a puffy rd pink bloom. Thanks.

ANSWER:

If I interpret your description correctly, the tree has puffy round (or could it be red?) pink blossoms. Here are some small native trees that occur in or near Collin County, Texas that have pinkish blooms that are somewhat round and puffy.

A tree that is often found at the water's edge that has round, puffy white blooms and buds that are reddish pink is Cephalanthus occidentalis (Common buttonbush).

It is possible that the tree you saw is a non-native tree introduced as a landscape tree such as the invasive Albizia julibrissin (mimosa) from the Middle East and Asia or Lagerstroemia indica (crape mrytle), another introduced (but not considered invasive) tree. Crape myrtle comes in a variety of colors including red and pink.

If none of the above appears to be your tree, please visit our Plant Identification page where you will find links to several plant forums that have a plant identification feature that allows you to submit photos of plants for identification.

Here are photos from our Image Gallery of the native trees listed above: