What is this??

crisco10

Have had this plant establish itself over the last year or so in a sunny corner of the garden. It first appeared last year, and I left it to see would it survive winter.

It's still there, so curious what it is before I pull it out or leave it there.

looksee

Its a bit difficult to gauge the size, I thought it might be hydrangea but the leave of hydrangea are opposite. I think it could be a lime tree? I suspect whatever it is it will get big, so be sure you want it there if you leave it.

crisco10

well it's currently about 18 inches tall..for scale, you can just about make out the lines of the cement between the standard breeze blocks on the wall behind.

google suggested elm.

tbh, it is right at the end of the garden, in a corner dominated by ivy, so I would be open to a bit of diversity.

magicbastarder

not a hazel, is it?

DellyBelly

Definetly some sort of tree...probably a sapling...

MacDanger

magicbastarder wrote: »

not a hazel, is it?

Looks like a hazel to me too

looksee

Ah yes, and I was looking at hazels earlier, didn't even think of it, I reckon you are right.

Edit, hazel would be a better bet than elm or lime for that situation - in terms of size, and pretty catkins in spring.

crisco10

Yeah, googling images of Hazel leaves and comparing makes Hazel look like a good fit.

Now, next step, have a look at what a hazel looks like in years to come and how intrusive it would be etc ! :-)

thanks guys.

Slasher

There's an app for that :-). The app is called "Picture This". You take a photo of the plant and it tells you what it is.

I don't know how accurate it is.:D

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

crisco10 wrote: »

Yeah, googling images of Hazel leaves and comparing makes Hazel look like a good fit.

Now, next step, have a look at what a hazel looks like in years to come and how intrusive it would be etc ! :-)

thanks guys.

They can be up to 10 metres high, with quite a spread and prone to throwing up suckers. I have a couple in my woodland but would not consider them for a standard garden setting.

crisco10

Slasher wrote: »

There's an app for that :-). The app is called "Picture This". You take a photo of the plant and it tells you what it is.

I don't know how accurate it is.:D

Did try a few apps but no real success.

Holy Diver

crisco10 wrote: »

Did try a few apps but no real success.

Picture this is the best one I’ve come across. Surprisingly accurate

standardg60

Looks like a cherry tree sucker to me.
Have you a cherry tree in the garden or nearby?

New Home

Nah, the leaves are too crinkly and too round to be a cherry - I'd be for hazel, too.

standardg60

I'll stick with cherry..
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wlpihrrORQc/TevsIVSMLiI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/YlkqTavlH_0/s1600/IMG_3929.jpg

bb12

looks similar to knotweed also...make sure not to touch roots if it is!

New Home

The leaves are all wrong for Japanese knotweed, too.

Here's what it looks like. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=110145577&postcount=4

Roen

The leaves are the perfect spear point hazel for my money.

crisco10

Well there is a cherry tree about 10 feet away...so was my first thought also.

Putting leaves side by side they just aren't the same. The new one is hairy but cherry is more shiney.

standardg60

crisco10 wrote: »

Well there is a cherry tree about 10 feet away...so was my first thought also.

Putting leaves side by side they just aren't the same. The new one is hairy but cherry is more shiney.

They won't be the same, cherry trees are grafted so the sucker will be from the rootstock.
There's a couple of suckers from a flagpole cherry in my own garden which are similar to yours.

New Home

Would you please post a picture? 'cause I'm still convinced it's a hazel.

crisco10

See attached.

The leaf I'm holding up is off the cherry tree. It doesn't really come up in the picture, but the colour and texture are somewhat different.

my3cents

From a botanical point of view I can see at least 5 differences between the two leaves.

Edit> Just the serrations at the edge of the leaf is enough to make them from different species. Hazel has unequal serrations, the cherry has equal serrations. The cherry leaf has a much more waxy (looking) upper surface compared to the hazel. The base of the hazel leaf is subcondate (it goes in a bit where the leaf stem joins it) and base of the cherry is acuminate (pointed). Then there's the overall shape the hazel is much fatter (not a botanical term ).

Turn them over and I bet that the hazel is hairy doubt the cherry is.

If anyone is looking for a book to identify trees then keep an eye out for Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe long out of print but acknowledged as one of the best works on the subject - page 394-5 has pictures of all the main differences in leaf shapes

my3cents

Stefan Black Fungus wrote: »

They can be up to 10 metres high, with quite a spread and prone to throwing up suckers. I have a couple in my woodland but would not consider them for a standard garden setting.

The twisted stem one and the one with extra large purple leaves are garden worthy. Only real reason to have the native one in the garden is as pea sticks or bean poles.

my3cents

Sorry I might be misleading people, a bit of googling indicates that a better more current book on identifying trees is The Collins Tree Guide which I've just ordered as my "Mitchell" (the author of A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe) is falling to bits after years of use.

New Home

Sorry Crisco, I meant for Standardg60 to post a picture.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

my3cents wrote: »

The twisted stem one and the one with extra large purple leaves are garden worthy. Only real reason to have the native one in the garden is as pea sticks or bean poles.

Agreed, provided you cut the straight suckers out of the contorted hazel. That said I've a contorted Hazel 20ft by 10ft.

my3cents

Stefan Black Fungus wrote: »

Agreed, provided you cut the straight suckers out of the contorted hazel. That said I've a contorted Hazel 20ft by 10ft.

They native one grows further upstream from us along the river bank and produces good nuts but the contorted one we have has never done well.

standardg60

New Home wrote: »

Sorry Crisco, I meant for Standardg60 to post a picture.

Here you go new home..just happened to be removing some stems from a contorted hazel today too so handy to have for comparison.

standardg60

Cherry sucker

standardg60

Sorry that last post was supposed to include a pic..first one was hazel and this is the sucker

standardg60

And leaves side by side

New Home

Call me stubborn (or worse! ), Standard, but those to me look very different - the leaf of the cherry sucker is larger near the stem, whereas the hazel is larger near the point (and it's rounder). To my eyes the hazel you posted looks a lot like the pic of the op.

standardg60

Sorry here!

standardg60

New Home wrote: »

Call me stubborn (or worse! ), Standard, but those to me look very different - the leaf of the cherry sucker is larger near the stem, whereas the hazel is larger near the point (and it's rounder). To my eyes the hazel you posted looks a lot like the pic of the op.

I wouldn't dare!
Pics are merely to show the similarities between the two. I was pretty convinced earlier by the op's second pic that it was indeed hazel but there are definitely differences between it and the hazel leaf I posted.

New Home

Maybe Crisco's isn't a contorted hazel, but just a "normal" one. It definitely looks different to the cherry leaf you posted (even ignoring everything else, it's much different colour-wise).

(And don't worry, I've been called much worse! )

crisco10

Ha, quite an active discussion! thanks guys!

looks like the great Hazel or Cherry debate will rage on. :-)

New Home

Wait until the fruits appear. I call dibs on your first jar of Nutella.

finla

New Home wrote: »

Call me stubborn (or worse! ), Standard, but those to me look very different - the leaf of the cherry sucker is larger near the stem, whereas the hazel is larger near the point (and it's rounder). To my eyes the hazel you posted looks a lot like the pic of the op.

I'm with you on this, New Home, first one definitely cherry and other one hazel! Leaves are very different.

New Home

\o/ Nutella tree!!

Varta

New Home wrote: »

\o/ Nutella tree!!

Just to confuse matters further, I have all three: A Hazel producing nuts, numerous Wild Cherries, and the tree pictured in the OP. A botanist informed that the tree pictured is a Hazel but not one that I will ever get nuts from. When I moved in it was about three metres high with a bole of about 30cm. I cut it to the ground and now it produces a cluster of shoots from the base every year that look really nice. At the end of the season I cut it back again. Looking at the pic, however, the OP's tree looks like it is growing beneath a wall so best pulled IMO. I'll post a pic shortly.

New Home

No-Nutella tree.

Varta

Pics

New Home

See, to me that second pic looked more like a lime.

my3cents

Lime all the way! But that is the sort of (re)growth I'd expect to see after a lime tree has been cut down?

New Home

No wonder you wouldn't get any hazelnuts off of it, then.

Varta

New Home wrote: »

No wonder you wouldn't get any hazelnuts off of it, then.

Last time I ask a botanist for advice:D And a good thing I didn't let it grow - 5 metres from the house:eek:

New Home

If it's any consolation, I know of people who had an alpaca farm who told foreign tourists who were asking about the animals that they were cow-sheep. :rolleyes: (they do say "moo", but with a question mark, so it sounds more like a "moo?")