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!!
- !potatoes!
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I'm in Rhode Island!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?
Last edited by Nik0le on Fri Jun 30, 2017 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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!!