The ID game

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So about 8 years ago, at my job we were clearing out some land. The Skid-steer was brought in, and it was chugging along with the bucket in the ground. When I noticed something; and I reached down, and literally ripped this tree out of the ground. Right before the bucket took out it’s parent and brothers and sisters growing in the area.

any ways 8 years later here is the tree, it’s always been in this pot. And originally it was about 4” feet tall with branches only on one side. Then I chopped it and was gonna make one of the lower branches the main trunk, then it back budded and now I’m undecided of what to do...but that’s another thread, sorry to ramble.

anyways at first I thought it was a birch, then a elm, now I’m kinda thinking it might be an Alder.

would any of you have any suggestions on what it could be?
 

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Messages
12
Reaction score
11
Location
New England
So about 8 years ago, at my job we were clearing out some land. The Skid-steer was brought in, and it was chugging along with the bucket in the ground. When I noticed something; and I reached down, and literally ripped this tree out of the ground. Right before the bucket took out it’s parent and brothers and sisters growing in the area.

any ways 8 years later here is the tree, it’s always been in this pot. And originally it was about 4” feet tall with branches only on one side. Then I chopped it and was gonna make one of the lower branches the main trunk, then it back budded and now I’m undecided of what to do...but that’s another thread, sorry to ramble.

anyways at first I thought it was a birch, then a elm, now I’m kinda thinking it might be an Alder.

would any of you have any suggestions on what it could be?

oh and I should add , the tree and I both come from, and live in central Massachusetts,
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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I'd call it a Siberian Elm.

Sorce
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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Its hard to see in your photos, you need a better macro lens for closeups.

You decide, if the proximal end (nearest the trunk) of the leaf blades, where they join the leaf petiole (leaf stem) if they join asymmetric, then it is an elm. If the two sides of the leaf blade are exact mirror images, then it could be a hornbeam.

Leaf shape is wrong for alder or birch.

Just from the photo, chances are good it is an elm, and if could be a Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila. They work well as bonsai if you give them full sun. If they get shaded, they tend to drop branches.
 
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