Brachychiton 2...

This my aunt's front yard in Port Lincoln, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. The tall tree on the right is Brachychiton acerifolius, Illawarra Flame tree. Unfortunately it is not flaming at the moment, although it is almost the early summer of its purported flowering. This tree is a relative of B. populneus, mentioned in an earlier post. The flowers are particularly startling, bright red flowers on bare branches.

Leaves under shade are large, lobed palmately, bright green and very shady. On the sunny side, the leaves suffer some damage from dry winds and too much sun.
The trunk of this tree, showing the bark. These are good, solid trees, quite unsuitable for timber because the trunk begins branching low down.
Old fruit, very like B. populneus, is encased in a similar leathery capsule. The fruit appears to ripen once the capsule has hit the ground. The seeds are small-hlf a cm- and pea like. Didn't taste them. Not likely too, but other animals might be keener. They call this type of fruit drupes, for obvious reasons. My aunt is very fond of this tree, and says she can see it in her garden from many streets away when it is in flower.