collected tree id help

chappy56

Mame
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I collected this tree and another just like it in mid February and still have not been able to identify them. For what it's worth, I'm in central Illinois, and they were collected from an old, abandoned railway.
Thanks for your help.
 

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Kirk

Mame
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I'm having a hard time getting a close look at the leaf arrangement but at first glance it looks like a Prunus serotina (Black cherry). They have the pronounced lenticels on the trunks, have a wide range in the U.S. and can be found in wild/abandoned spots.

Kirk
 

treebeard55

Chumono
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Prunus serotina is my first guess, too. Everything I can see in the pics fits that conclusion.

Beautiful trees. I'm interested to see how well they adapt to bonsai culture for you. In my experience, they bleed for days after a major pruning; that's why I stopped working with them. But that was long ago in my bonsai experience, and very possibly I was doing something wrong.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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That's a good guess

I have had one as a bonsai for about ten years. I collected it myself. It's finicky about top pruning and tends to drop branches that have taken years to build. It suckers prolifically from the root crown.

It also draws borers and tent caterpillars. It is a pest magnet.

You cannot snip new growth back in the spring, as it can result in complete shoot die back. Pruning shoots too hard can result in winter die back.

Best time to hard prune is early spring. Trimming back hard on the apex results in a ton of new shoots below.

I managed to collect a rather old naturally dwarfed specimen with rough pine like bark. I would not collect this species if was the typical form
 

Kirk

Mame
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Aside from its infestations of tent caterpillars, most of the mature trees I find in the woods or along landscape margins have black knot (black, warty galls). It still wouldn't stop me from giving it a go if I found a really interesting one, but there are some pest and disease considerations to be on the look out for.
 

apisto

Seedling
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You know people say those self same things over here about one of my fav trees the silver birch.

And it does drop off branches and attract Aphids and leaf burrowers.

Does not stop me keeping the though ;)
 
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