Albizzia - but which one?

It has been a good many years since I last grew Albizzia lophantha and
seeing that it seemed to succeed quite well locally, decided to grow
some from seed last summer.  Now I know it can be a troublesome pest
in certain mediterranean climates, but here in the UK it rarely sows
itself about much and newly germinated seedlings will often succumb to
the combination of cool winter wet.  Furthermore, instead of becoming
a medium sized to large tree, here it tends to remain as a large shrub
or small tree and its near luminous greenish cream 'bottlebrushes' of
flower in late spring make it a most ornamental subject.

Only a few plants germinated from the seed which was sown  - this
alone was a surprise since my recollection is that it germinates
quickly with almost embarrassing ease.  The best plant was selected
for growing on and by the end of the summer, had reached a moderately
respectable 5 feet on a single stem with a few lateral branches just
starting to develop.  It was overwintered out of doors, in a wind
sheltered spot and potted on into a large, glazed ceramic container in
late spring.  Since then, growth has been vigorous with the plant now
just over 9 feet high with several branches, thus forming an elegant,
nicely headed, small tree.  

Now I'm not so sure that this may be A. lophantha.  Growth is more
sparse and 'airy' from what I can remember with a fair distance
between the leaves and already, juvenile flower clusters are beginning
to form in the leaf axils.  Again my recollection is that this
normally never took place until very late in the year and several of
my old plants rarely indicated they were about to flower until very
early spring - a month or so before the buds opened.  

I remember it as a small tree with densely leafy shoots clothed in
deep sea green, finely bipinnate leaves.  The plant I have has long
reddish purple shoots with mid to light sea green, bipinnate leaves
which are quite widely spaced along the branches.  It would seem the
flower spikes may well turn out to be short and cylindrical as in A.
lophantha.  Are there any know variations of this species - possibly
one which flowers earlier than normal?  I could be wrong, but this
just doesn't look like lophantha to me.  

Dave Poole
TORQUAY  UK
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