Identify This Tree Please

BargainHunter

Does anyone know what the name of this tree is? It looks like a Wych Elm to me, but it hasnt produced a flower yet, so I am unsure. The photos were taken in the last couple of weeks as the leaves came out.

Judgement Day

BargainHunter wrote: »

Does anyone know what the name of this tree is? It looks like a Wych Elm to me, but it hasnt produced a flower yet, so I am unsure. The photos were taken in the last couple of weeks as the leaves came out.

Hazel?

wildlifeboy

i googled a hazel leaf to confirm..id love a hazel tree..get any saplings i could take off your hands?

BargainHunter

Judgement Day wrote: »

Hazel?

Thanks for that suggestion. Youre probably right. But as you can see from my photos, the leaf buds were pinkish, but the below reference suggests that hazel buds are green and produces a flower/catkin around this time of year.

http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/hazels/nbnsys0000003839.htm

BargainHunter

wildlifeboy wrote: »

i googled a hazel leaf to confirm..id love a hazel tree..get any saplings i could take off your hands?

Sorry, those trees were photographed in a Coillte forest so theyre not mine to give away. However, it should be easy enough to purchase a few.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

wildlifeboy wrote: »

id love a hazel tree..get any saplings i could take off your hands?

They grow like weeds! Take a slip off any you can find. Ask anybody who has some and they will be able to dig out a rooted sucker. Grow them from nuts. The verges are full of Hazel so no excuses but make sure you have room for them.

210

Come next autumn gather up a few hazelnuts and plant in a small pot of peat over the winter - keep the pot cool & well away from frost. Come the spring you should have a nice sprightly seedling. These have to be very easy to grow as even I managed it.

http://www.treeforall.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/08FEC65D-B1E9-4002-BE69-50FBBADBA746/0/growingseeds2trees_3348.pdf

wildlifeboy

this may sound stupid because you would have noticed the white bark but the leaf is very similar to a silver birch!

Poll Dubh

BargainHunter wrote: »

Does anyone know what the name of this tree is? It looks like a Wych Elm to me, but it hasnt produced a flower yet, so I am unsure. The photos were taken in the last couple of weeks as the leaves came out.

With the assymetrical base to the leaves and the dark buds I think you're right that it's the leamhán sléibhe - wych elm.

Ettna

I think thats Beech, Fagus sylvatica. There is another tree which is very like that also , Carpinus sylvaticus, or hornbeam.

Mothman

Who would have a thought a few leaves would give so many options?

It isn't beech. The leaves are too pleated and the bud is not long and slender.
Hornbeam did cross my mind but I think the point on the leaf is too long.
I have a mass of Hazels here and I didn't find any with the pink bud covers.
Wych Elm seems to me a good suggestion butI wanted to cross reference with a Wych Elm nearby before venturing here but I haven't managed this yet

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The pink bud covers put me off Hazel as well. I can tell Elm from hazel in an instant when I'm beside them but the photo denys me the texture of the leaves. I think, on balance, that its Elm.

Mothman

I don't think Elm leaves/buds are alternate

Edit: Just looked and they are, but I've plenty of elm and it really doesn't look like Ellm.

Okay I need to wake up

Srameen, are you agreeing with Wych Elm

Because when you mentioned Elm I was thinking you meant the Elm and Dutch Elm took down, I sort of don't consider Wych Elm as an elm.

If this post does not make any sense at all, ignore because I think i should just delete and start again when my brain is working

Ettna

The flowers on Elm appear before the leaves as do the catkins on hazel, we need more information and the op said that no flowers had appeared yet. Elm, hazel and beech have alternate leaves so that does not help.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Perfect sense:) When you get to my age some stange things oddly make sense.

I did mean Wych Elm. I've not seen a Dutch Elm in years. Or an English Elm for that matter.
Our only native Elm is the (Ulmus glabra) Wych Elm, so I tend to just call it Elm. But you are right. I should be more clear when it comes to names in the oft confusing natural world.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

A young sapling won't have flowers and I thought that this seemed very spindly. But I have been known to be wrong. I'd like a wider view of the tree.

Ettna

good point about flowers on young sapling, would like to see more of tree also

BargainHunter

Thanks for all the answers. I am concluding that the tree is a Wych Elm. The following information clinched it as it matches the bark I observed. See the attached picture.

Bark Description - Smooth and grey when young becoming grey-brown with shaggy ridges after 20 years

http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/elms/nhmsys0000464701.htm