Hi all,

I received this with a bunch of other mystery trees from Arbor Society (you know, the 10 free trees deal) and while I'm pretty sure the others are various apple or pear trees, this one has me flummoxed.

It's stems are reddish and square, the leaves are alternate and even though it's almost the end of summer, it's just now put out a bloom (could be stress bloom, it's very dry here currently). The photo shows the bloom, I just now saw it, I think it probably started out as a complete circle of these little orchid-like flowers. The flower is about an inch or more across, the leaves are about 3/4 inch long, smooth both sides, no teeth and hide a bud under the stem.

I have been through every tree book I own and used the Arbor Day site's (useless) identifier and nothing comes up correct. My feeling is that it's probably not native. Seems to be a shrub since most immature trees would not bloom as a sapling, this is most likely year two or three for this plant, it arrived as a whip.

Anyone? Anyone? Ferris?

Picture links below:

http://www.itsallart.com/unknown1.jpg

http://www.itsallart.com/unknown2.jpg

http://www.itsallart.com/unknown3.jpg

http://www.itsallart.com/unknown4.jpg