Ramona: Can you post a photo, or a link to a photo? It'd be interesting if peanuttree is right on the medlar guess. Incidently, do you know what William Cobbett said about the Medlar in his 'American Gardener' (which was first published in London in 1821)? He said: 'MEDLAR. A very poor thing indeed. The Medlar is propagated by grafting on crab-stocks, or pear-stocks. It is, at any rate, especially in this country, a thing not worthy of a place in a garden. At best, it is only one degree better than a rotten apple.' Here is a link that might be useful: The Heirloom Orchardist

A friend of mine has what appears to be a bush or shrub. It is growing upright from a single stem. The bush produces purple berries and the berry are attach to a bright pink >> fushia vine (like the vine when you buy grapes in the store). But, not in full clusters. Then the green foliage moves downward to the ground. I'm sorry I really should have examined it more to see if it was woody. He said it is called (sir-mack) how he pronounce it. In which I know I have the wrong spelling. Also, he said the berries are poisoness to humans but, the robins, finches and blue-jay eat them. the bush stands about 4-5ft. Can anyone please tell me the correct spelling or have a correct name?? Thanks for any help..

A picture is worth a thousand words, HU-659273525. But I'm glad your tree is doing well for you. They are one of my favorite BLEs although mine in zone 7a has been almost killed to the ground before and surely will be again someday, it came roaring back to life. I haven't seen any drunk birds yet, and in fact they seem to avoid mine. [Haha I now spot a mistake on that thread. The huge cyclamen blooming in September in Rye had to be something like C. graecum, not C. coum. Although now I seem to recall having a sidebar convo with someone on GOTE and finding out those cyclamen were some brobdingnagian hybrids that had just been introduced to the UK market, bred to make plants that looked a bit like C. persicum hybrids but were hardy enough for milder parts of NW Europe. Totally forget the name now, and I googled at the time to find they hadn't been brought to this side of the pond yet, as is so often the case. I'm still waiting for Clematis X 'Advent Bells', whose hybrid vigor might give it a better chance fighting my winters]

I was surprised at just how very common the Delonix regia or royal poinciana is in SW Florida. I'd known of a few specimens, but this time down there, in my travels, they're just everywhere. Certainly not a bad thing....if I had sufficient property down there, I'd be teaming them up with the related (also in Fabaceae) jacaranda. It would seem the floral display between these two species would tend to knock one's socks off, and of course, most days in S. Florida, socks are unnecessary anyway!