Tree identification

[Beng]

Anyone recognize the leaves and bark of this tree. I dug it up in my families yard growing over a overhang near the Chesapeake bay.

View attachment 33901View attachment 33902View attachment 33903

 

[Poink88]

Looks like Plum to me (just a wild guess).

 

[rockm]

I'd lean more towards Black Cherry (prunus serotina). The leaves, however, are a little on the ovalish side for Black Cherry, BUT leaves can be distorted when the plant is stressed, or by environmental conditions--like lower humidity, damage to the bud before opening, etc.

 

[nathanbs]

the bark and leaves look similar to a flowering plum that we have here in California. The leaves turn dark purple as they mature and the flowers are pink. To clarify I dont think that it is native to california

 

[Dav4]

I'd lean more towards Black Cherry (prunus serotina). The leaves, however, are a little on the ovalish side for Black Cherry, BUT leaves can be distorted when the plant is stressed, or by environmental conditions--like lower humidity, damage to the bud before opening, etc.

My guess, as well.

 

[Beng]

Thanks, these leaves are relatively new, they started red then changed to green, I believe they're still growing. The bark as you can see is black and cracked. My dad has a giant cherry tree in his backyard that must be several hundred years old falls out over the water. Although those leaves are a little more serrated then these. I found this one on the bank opposite it and as the bark seemed similar and the trunk had good movement although still fairly small I collected it. Had no bonsai soil with me upon collection so it's in a mix of peat and some kind of high fired granual my dad had this year.

Ben

 

[Mike Westervelt]

I vote Apricot, any orchards around?

 

[nathanbs]

I vote Apricot, any orchards around?

Its leaves are not like any apricot leaves that I have seen

 

[Beng]

Will post another pic of the leaves in a week or two once they've had a chance to grow more. I'm pretty sure we can rule out apricot although the bark is similar to a pear's the leaves are too round and not very pointed. My apricots have pretty pointy leaves. However I only have japanese apricots.

His house is on an inlet off brown cove. You can search Brown cove, Virginia beach, VA and you'll see the location. I doubt there's any orchards near there, although he has some unique cherries, shimpakus, pines in his yard. Probably planted by someone a long time ago. View attachment 33924

 

[rockm]

Here's a photo of my Black Cherry bonsai (only pic I had handy of it and the photo was more of the pot than the tree)

Same crackled black bark. That kind of aged bark is NOT all that common for Black Cherry as their bark is usually a monotonous gun-metal grey all over the tree. The leaves on many trees come in red and change to green, as do those on Black Cherry.

 

[Beng]

Here's a photo of my Black Cherry bonsai (only pic I had handy of it and the photo was more of the pot than the tree)

Same crackled black bark. That kind of aged bark is NOT all that common for Black Cherry as their bark is usually a monotonous gun-metal grey all over the tree. The leaves on many trees come in red and change to green, as do those on Black Cherry.

The top of the tree is more a gun metal color a bit metallic looking that bark is younger. Do you have a picture of your leaves?

 

[rockm]

No photo of this tree that's that's handy. But these are pretty typical of the species:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_serotina
http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/herbarium/trees/pruser01.htm


For this year, the leaves on my tree are just emerging this year and aren't distiguishable yet.

 

[Beng]

It's indeed a black cherry. I just cut back to it's lowest shoot and noticed the underside of the leaves had the white midrib hair described in this link http://www.friendsofeloisebutler.org/pages/plants/blackcherry.html. Thanks for help on the identification! Looks like an exciting species to grow into a nice bonsai.