Nik0le
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:57 pm

Is this an Apple Tree?

Hello everyone! Just curious what everything thinks this is. We moved in late September last year and at that point in time we couldn't even see the tree because everything was so overgrown. We've since gotten rid of all the brush surrounding. Everyone keeps telling me it's an apple tree, however I've been waiting and waiting for it to flower, and nothing! Today we noticed these....any ideas what the tree could be? Please ask any questions that might help identify, I'm clueless!
TIA!!
Attachments
IMG_0312.JPG

User avatar
!potatoes!
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1938
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

The vein pattern on the leaves and the way the stem flares as it nears the fruit are pretty un-appley. What's your location?

Nik0le
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:57 pm

!potatoes! wrote:The vein pattern on the leaves and the way the stem flares as it nears the fruit are pretty un-appley. What's your location?
I'm in Rhode Island
Last edited by Nik0le on Fri Jun 30, 2017 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nik0le
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:57 pm

Here's another photo
Attachments
IMG_0311.JPG

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Isn't it Celtis? -- Common hackberry? I've been wanting to get a male/female pair for the front yard, but I think I might have run out of room.... I might be able to plant in the sidewalk strip but maybe not if the "berry" causes problems for parked vehicles.

Nik0le
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:57 pm

I know this isn't the best picture, but this is the the best picture of the tree itself
Attachments
IMG_0315.JPG

jeff84
Senior Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2017 10:38 pm
Location: southwest indiana

no its not the greatest picture.. if you could take a picture of the bark at the main trunk of the tree. the bark will say for sure if its a hackberry (that's what my money is on) or a crabapple

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Probably not an apple or crabapple the berries don't have a blossom scar on the round end.

jeff84
Senior Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2017 10:38 pm
Location: southwest indiana

even from the poor pic, it does appear to have the bark of a hackberry tree. if it has standing flaky ridges, or nodules that can broken of in layers, its a hackberry.

thanrose
Greener Thumb
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:01 am
Location: Jacksonville, FLZone 9A

I have lots of hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) growing around me, in my yards over the last thirty years, from seed and in old growth and transplants given to friends. Would love it if the fruits were ever that big. They are more in clusters and only 3-5 mm roundish, or less than a 1/4 inch. The venation is wrong, the base of the leaf is wrong (should be uneven), the habit is wrong... Now same species can sometimes have different looks in different climes, but I'm pretty sure this is not hackberry. All my native plant books and tree field guides are packed away so I can't look it up there.

And Applestar, the fruits are not a staining problem, but critters like them. They dry very quickly to a red-brown leathery skin over a yellow sweet pulp that thinly robes a hard seed. I like to walk on the seeds on concrete, like playing hopscotch, making one or two at a time crack or snap with each step. The fruits would probably persist past leaf drop for you in Jersey. They are not a significant littering problem.

I'll think about this interesting tree some more. Something may come to me, but it doesn't look familiar enough to send me in any search direction.

thanrose
Greener Thumb
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:01 am
Location: Jacksonville, FLZone 9A

Okay, this *is* a hackberry, just not a native one. Botanical research says it's Celtis sinensis v. japonica most likely. https://www.carolinanature.com/trees/cesi.html
Hackberries of any stripe will have compound leaves, but it's less obvious on the Chinese hackberry. The fruits are less in clusters and generally appear ovoid rather than round.
This one was probably planted intentionally at one time. RI is a little cold for it, and it doesn't naturalize all that readily.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Thanks @thanrose! Now I DEFINITELY want to get them -- I have a nice long stretch of empty sidewalk strip that could accommodate a pair.

Nik0le
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:57 pm

thanrose wrote:Okay, this *is* a hackberry, just not a native one. Botanical research says it's Celtis sinensis v. japonica most likely. https://www.carolinanature.com/trees/cesi.html
Hackberries of any stripe will have compound leaves, but it's less obvious on the Chinese hackberry. The fruits are less in clusters and generally appear ovoid rather than round.
This one was probably planted intentionally at one time. RI is a little cold for it, and it doesn't naturalize all that readily.

Thank you so much!!



Return to “All Other Fruit”