ID help please!

[Mike Hennigan]

So I was out scouting today in this wooded area within a cow pasture and came upon this tree with this really interesting contorted trunk. The picture of the trunk is pretty poor and doesn’t show the movement from the best angle. But anyways... I can’t quite figure out what species this is. At very first glance at the leaves I thought maybe crabapple but the bark tells a different story. You can see it has some thorns that remind me of something in the rose family. The lenticil covered bark and the leaves make me think it’s possibly a prunus of some kind?

Here are the smaller leaves down where the cows can reach the foliage (leaf reduction at work!). You can see that the youngest twigs are still this bright green...

Larger leaves up high where the cows can’t reach:

Bark and thorn:


Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Warpig]

Is it an American Bittersweet? Celastrus Scandsens.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Is it an American Bittersweet? Celastrus Scandsens.

Interesting suggestion, but definitely not. Bark is different and theres nothing about the growth habit that suggests that this is a vine.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I suppose the lower movement looks a little vine like, but most likely caused by getting beat up by cows.

 

[CasAH]

Glossy buckthorn Rhamsas cathartica non native invasive.

@sorce has one or two started as Bonsai.

 

[Warpig]

Yea its the leafs that are really throwing me off here.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Glossy buckthorn Rhamsas cathartica non native invasive.

@sorce has one or two started as Bonsai.

Good guess, it seems similar in a number of ways. But I’m very familiar with buckthorn. Actually there’s a lot of it growing right in the area of this tree and I did collect one 6 years ago or so. By this size the bark towards the base should be getting that black roughness. And the leaves are similar but they’re not buckthorn. And the young bark of buckthorn is a little more grey in color, not this tan.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Oh, another thing that should be noted about buckthorn is that they have a sort of almost opposite, but not quite leaf arrangement. Whereas this is plain alternate.

 

[TN_Jim]

Buckthorn like almost everything in Rhamnaceae have a veination that looks like it was etched into the leaf surface.

Thorns, big horizontal lenticels, serrated leaves seem like something in the rose family.

Maybe a plum or something similar..!?

 

[Warpig]

Buckthorn like almost everything in Rhamnaceae have a veination that looks like it was etched into the leaf surface.

Thorns, big horizontal lenticels, serrated leaves seem like something in the rose family.

Maybe a plum or something similar..!?

Yea, its looking alot like common plum.

 

[Woocash]

Buckthorn like almost everything in Rhamnaceae have a veination that looks like it was etched into the leaf surface.

Thorns, big horizontal lenticels, serrated leaves seem like something in the rose family.

Maybe a plum or something similar..!?

Yep. Looks like a prunus to me. Bark has the “eyes” on it, leaves are prunus to a t. I’d go with a subspecies of prunus domestica, if it were in the UK.

 

[just.wing.it]

Spent a bit of time looking....
Maybe Prunus Americana?

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I was actually thinking maybe some plum species! I think we’re on the right track. Not sure about P. Americana, I bought 7 p.americana from the native plants nursery I work at recently to put a forest planting of them together next spring. The leaves on those seem... a little more slender. I’m going to work my way down a list of prunus species that occur in NY state and see if anything jumps out at me.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Yep. Looks like a prunus to me. Bark has the “eyes” on it, leaves are prunus to a t. I’d go with a subspecies of prunus domestica, if it were in the UK.

Not out of the question, we’ve got plenty of naturalized European species around here. I’ll look it up.

 

[just.wing.it]

I was actually thinking maybe some plum species! I think we’re on the right track. Not sure about P. Americana, I bought 7 p.americana from the native plants nursery I work at recently to put a forest planting of them together next spring. The leaves on those seem... a little more slender. I’m going to work my way down a list of prunus species that occur in NY state and see if anything jumps out at me.

With that bark.....it must be some prunus....as @Woocash said.

 

[Woocash]

Ran a picture through my PictureThis app this morning and this is what it came up with. It’s not always 100% correct but it backs up what we’re saying

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

It gives off a prunus cerasifera vibe.

 

[Dav4]

The first thing I thought after seeing the trunk and bark was a prunus of some sort.

 

[M. Frary]

Looks like wild cherry.
Leave it.

 

[just.wing.it]

Looks like wild cherry.
Leave it.

Serotina?
Leaves are wrong.