Puzzled by a tree

I have been puzzled of late by the tree growing just beneath my window. With limited knowledge of trees but access to large numbers of gardening obsessives, I thought it would be relatively straightforward to identify the thing. After each ID proved to be different – Sumac, Ash, Varnish Tree etc, we resorted to taking the scalpel out, carefully hacking a stem off (if hacking can ever be “careful”) and wrapping it in wet kitchen roll before delivering it to an arborist. He identified it as Aralia Chinensis.
Having looked on the web for more information it appears that this is quite the most wonderful tree. Whilst it is not on the level of Yggdrasil, the ancient Norse Tree of Life, it does have a lot going for it. It has leaves all year round, green shoots of a flower that turn into green, then purple berries and is an explosion of colour. Having seen photos of it and looking out of an upstairs window I can now see that “my” tree has the beginnings of a flower in the crown.
There is a selection of really good pictures of this tree and many other plants and animals from Asperupgaard in Asperup, Denmark. Visit www.asperupgaard.dk to see them.