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I live in the DFW area (Texas, Zn 8a). My neighbor has this plant growing right next to a Bradford Pear; fast growing, hardy in our heat and drought conditions; leaves are serrated, and stems & leaves pinnate.

I have an opportunity to grab a smaller plant from my neighbor's yard (lower right of first picture) and transplant it to my yard, but I want more research data regarding it.

Thank you! Help would be appreciated

Here are some pictures, it's a pretty plant.

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/whatisit1.jpg[/img]

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/whatisit2.jpg[/img]

It might help if I could spell, sorry about that

None of us are perfect. The plant reminds me of sumac but that may not be the case since I have been away from them for decades.

Did you happen to see any flowers or fruit. Just a guess but could the smaller tree be a root sucker of the pear tree. The smaller tree looks some what like a Mountain Ash. I believe Mountain Ash is sometimes used as a rootstock. I know for sure Mt Ash and pear are crossed - hybrid. I own one called Shipova.

Eric

Sumac or Tree of Heaven

Thank you all for your quick responses. Sumac seems like a good lead, however I can't find any tree/branch/leaf images (google) that really match up.

Interesting, the leaves are pinnate off the main leaf stem, but the leaf branches off the main branch are alternate pinnate in a spiral (?). The leaf branch cluster's overall shape is sort of tear-drop shaped.

What I don't want to do is plant this in my yard, then regret it because it is some known nuisance plant. Right now, the neighbors' is a pretty tree.

DoubleDogFarm wrote:Did you happen to see any flowers or fruit. Just a guess but could the smaller tree be a root sucker of the pear tree. The smaller tree looks some what like a Mountain Ash. I believe Mountain Ash is sometimes used as a rootstock. I know for sure Mt Ash and pear are crossed - hybrid. I own one called Shipova.

Eric

Eric - The big one represents about 1½-2 years of growth; it took off when the neighbor's Bradford Pear split and about 1/3 of the tree was lost. We have not seen any flower or fruit at all. Yet . The smaller one is exactly the same plant, just came up in the spring. They are going to take it out, if I don't want it...

I took some more pictures, larger size below

Moley wrote:Sumac or Tree of Heaven

Thank you - After looking at images of various "Tree of Heaven", I've ruled that one out because the leaf serration and branch configuration just doesn't match. However, I've seen plenty of those around here growing wild - especially out by the creek in our "back 40"

Here are some larger images that may help (click for large image):


[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/small%20one-2.jpg][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/small%20one-2.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/small%20one%20close.jpg][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/small%20one%20close.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/big%20one-2.jpg][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/big%20one-2.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/trunks.jpg][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2442679/trunks.jpg[/img][/url]

At another site, someone identified this as a Chinaberry tree

Melia azedarach

Although we've seen no flower or fruit yet, it really looks like it and the description fits - propagates by root and seed.

Invasive? Hmmm....

I should have provided more data on this

The pictures and description on these pages below match the plant very closely; the bark on the trunk and leaf configuration are a very close match

[url]https://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/meaz.html[/url]

[url]https://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/meaz1.htm[/url]

I don't think I want this plant in my yard, even as pretty as it is.