Name That Leaf

timkru · Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:37 pm

[img]https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wy01Qo381NQ/SsD69Yf-x3I/AAAAAAAAKL0/b746wMvPq24/s200/TK0328.JPG[/img] [img]https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wy01Qo381NQ/SsD7XnQ_SJI/AAAAAAAAKME/wl-rMnM3zd0/s200/TK0320.JPG[/img]

I'm sure all the time this forum receives questions as mine, "what is this?" but I've searched everywhere and can't figure out what this tree is. I live in Arizona and have this sprig (now 2.5 ft tall) growing my by back yard. I have every intention on replanting it but I really need to know what it is. I've searched high and low online and can't find find it! At first glance it seems like a maple (maybe a silver leaf) but it doesn't have an opposite growth pattern like all the maples I know of and the back is only marginally lighter than the top. Due to the shadowing, it isn't quite as dark as the pictures show.

It has:
1. Simple, flat leaf (not complex)
2. Multiple balanced lobes, primarily 5 (not unbalanced)
3. Bends between lobes seem u-shaped (not v-shaped)
4. Is palmately lobed (not pinnately)
5. Edges are jagged (not smooth)
6. Alternating leaf pattern (not opposite)

My hope is to transplant this in a more suitable place as it made it's home next to a palm in a pot of mine. Any help would be great!

bullthistle · Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:30 pm

No where near a Maple, close to a Sassafras, but too warm. Don't have a clue but something that likes it hot and dry.

cynthia_h · Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:56 pm

Maybe you can take these photos to a nearby independent garden-supply store or nursery for identification.

The staff in the independent places are usually excellent gardeners and absolute fonts of information on local plants.

Good luck!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

timkru · Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:01 pm

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll take it to them!

bewildered_nmsu · Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:27 am

Mulberry. No question.

applestar · Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:56 am

INTERESTING! At first glance, I thought those leaves look kind of like fig leaves.... The mulberry trees in my area have more of a heart-shaped leaves with occasional mittens and fingers like sassafras. So I was curious and did a Google Image search and sure'nuff -- same kind of leaves as posted came up.

I love internet searches (does that sound geeky?) because I almost always stumble on something new and intersting. Just for fun, I'll include two of the more really intriguing website that came with this one:

[url=https://www.mobot.org/gardinghelp/plantfinder/IPM.asp?code=226&group=25&level=c]This Missouri Botanical Gardens website[/url] has some great photos of different caterpillars and adult moths and butterflies. One of them is a soon to eclose Monarch Butterfly chrysalis on a regularly lobed mulberry leaf.

Ah oh. I WAS going to post another link describing how to make mulberry leaf juice, but it has a couple of questionable links to Chinese websites on the bottom so I won't. Basically, you wash the leaves and run them through a wheatgrass juicer (I don't have one of those). Based on the description, I gather you'll like mulberry leaf juice if you like wheatgrass juice.

rainbowgardener · Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:33 pm

Yeah, mulberries are interesting trees because they have several different shapes of leaves on the same tree...

timkru · Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:46 pm

Thanks all! I totally hope it is a mulberry as I've been enjoying eating whatever my garden produces! Thank you for your help!

Diane · Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:30 am

rainbowgardener wrote:Yeah, mulberries are interesting trees because they have several different shapes of leaves on the same tree...

A Mulberry sprouted in one of my pots. It's the one I'm trying to give away. Small yard, no space.
My leaves are the kind you're talking about. Three or more different leaves on the same tree. It took a bunch of searches to find out what it was.

bewildered_nmsu · Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:18 am

Mulberries grown from seed are kind of undesirable. They quickly become a BIG tree...flowers (not ornamental) make a mess in spring then fruit makes a huge mess in summer. If you can deal with those things they make a decent shade tree...sorry to rain on your parade. A fruitless variety is available but it still produces the messy flowers.

rainbowgardener · Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:43 am

Well you don't want mulberries where the purple fruit will drop on your car or your patio and then be tracked into your house, it can indeed be messy. But we love our mulberry tree, because so many birds love the fruit. Not to mention very entertaining watching the woodchuck climb into the tree for them. Who knew woodchucks could climb!

Only time they ever do (at least ours) but they sure love mulberries! We do get purple bird poop in mulberry season...

GardenerX · Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:02 am

Hello,

I have that same thing in my yard if it makes a huge mess should I dig it up, I mean while it's still a baby???? I have alot of open space in the back I could plant it there, it would be nice to have a flowering fruit tree....

bewildered_nmsu · Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:33 pm

GardenerX wrote:Hello,

I have that same thing in my yard if it makes a huge mess should I dig it up, I mean while it's still a baby???? I have alot of open space in the back I could plant it there, it would be nice to have a flowering fruit tree....

The flowers aren't ornamental at all. They're green, fuzzy and make a huge mess. If it's in a place where it would be bothersome but you have a better place for it, move it next spring while it's still young.

timkru · Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:27 am

Thank you for your input! My tree may well be the non-fruit bearing variety as I have a neighbor a few miles away who said she has exactly that. She also told me they are fairly common here (which I never knew). Shade is a primary factor in Arizona. However, after looking at the space I have, it may well be too big and people say online that it will tear up any near by pavement due to it's shallow rooting. I may not be able to plant this one. Bummer. Thank you all for the insight though! I probably would have planted it and had issues a few years down the line.