Trochodendron aralioides - Flickr - peganum (4)

Description:

Description: This is the only species in it's family (the Trochodendraceae), and its closest relative is another obscure Chinese tree - Tetracentron, also in it's own family. Both trees are close to the root of the flowering plant family tree and are apparently remnants of the warm-temperate forest that covered much of northern Asia and America more than 40 million years ago. Other remnants are the Ginkgo, Metasequoia (the dawn redwood), Daphniphyllum and Cercidiphyllum, Liriodendron, Euptelea, Sciadopitys and other phylogenetically isolated (without close relatives) forest trees. I don't know if they were around with the dinosaurs, but this was not long after that. Of course, they would have had a lot more relatives back then; all extinct now. I don't know if it's just me but these facts make having this tree in the garden somehow even more satisfying. Date: 19 January 2010, 12:48. Source: Trochodendron aralioides. Author: peganum from Small Dole, England.