Quick guessing game

[WoodPorn]

Two trees pictured; first one should be fairly easy, it's a beautiful specimen at 70-ish feet tall and about 5' at the base.
Second one I actually do not know and can't seem to find any reference on it. The third pic is of the seed pods that grow profusely on this tree. I'm sure someone on here will come forth with the info!

Good luck

 

[trafick]

The first looks like a sycamore. The second looks like a paulownia.

 

[Duetech]

#1 = +1 sycamore. Definitely. Almost as good as black cherry. #2 ????

 

[r_d_gard]

Kapok ?

 

[WoodPorn]

I forgot to add..... flowers in spring are a dark purple and clustered like wisteria

 

[Wood Duck]

First one is Sycamore, probably American Sycamore (not London Plane tree) as indicated by the white (not yellowish) inner layer of bark. Second is Paulonia aka Princess Tree.

 

[WoodPorn]

Wow gentleman, great call on the Paulownia! I would have never found it.
I guess this was not as hard as I had anticipated!

 

[trafick]

We have a lot of both around here.

 

[Wood Duck]

The Sycamore was a gimme, and Paulownia may be rare, but it is distinctive. At least it is rare around here. I have seen some places where it is quite common and actually sort of a weed. I think near Newark, NJ is one such area. As an aside, because of its very fast growth rate Paulownia is one of the trees proposed for carbon sequestration projects where they would grow biomass to sequester Carbon Dioxide. However I bet the wood is very light. I wonder if a denser tree might sequester as much carbon by creating denser wood, even though the tree grows more slowly in height. The carbon would be more permanently sequestered, I'd think, in a solid wood than it would in a lightweight wood like Paulownia.

 

[WoodPorn]

I read that this species is VERY invasive, can produce something like 20,000,000 seeds over the course of it's life. Also the wood is highly prized in Asia and is often imported to them.

Great call, you guys obviously have some experience with tree ID.