Hi, need help identifying a tree *PHOTO UPDATE* We just bought a home and would like to know what kind of tree we have in our backyard. I'm fairly sure we have an oak but that really doesn't narrow it down. I've searched online but haven't found anything matches perfectly. Can you help?? I've attached photos. We live in Texas if that helps. **UPDATE** I've attached photos of a cluster of leaves and a far away shot of the tree itself. We've only been in the house for 2 months so I'm not sure if the leaves are green year around.
Several oaks have similiar leaves to those. Acorn and bud characteristics would help. Some oak leaves are highly variable, especially on young trees. Here are location maps of the oaks. MAPS. Here is a key to the oaks based mostly on leaf characteristics. KEY
The leaves are opposite, so it can't be an oak. Not sure they might not be leaflets of a single compound leaf, as there's no buds visible between the terminal pair. Sorry, don't know what it is, though.
A photo of more of the branch would help. It may not be an oak, but sometimes the leaves are crowded together at the end, which makes their arrangement difficult to tell from a photo (that photo is a little fuzzy where the leaves come together) as in this bluejack oak.
Ok, I'll take some more pictures and post them when I get home. I was thinking it might be a Live Oak.
Without a scale to indicate size, and reasons stated above, you pose a pretty tough problem. A wild guess on my part would be Live Oak, as it is indigenous to your part of the world.
A live oak may appear to be evergreen, but this is misleading. The old leaves don't fall until the new leaf buds have popped open.
Technically, in a live oak, the the individual leaves don't persist for over twelve months, but a live oak does have green leaves all year long. At least they would in Houston. Commonly another name for a live oak is evergreen oak. It would help in its identification to know if it has green leaves all year.
The left-hand, new pic shows a pinnate leaf with five leaflets (one of which has dropped off), so very definitely not an oak. Unfortunately, it isn't anything I do recognise.
OK, we are getting closer. That is a compound leaf, so it is not an oak. Now we need to know if the leaves are arranged alternate or opposite on the branch. Can you take a photo of several leaves on a branch? Does it have wing-like seeds that fall on the ground? If opposite, then it is probably an ash, Faxinus.
It definitely does not have wing-like seeds that fall to the ground. I'll get a close up shot of the branch tomorrow. BTW, thank you everyone for taking the time to figure this out!
It really doesn't look like an ash. The leaves on an ash look much wider and the amount of leaves per stem or branch is different than ones on my tree. I'll get a better shot of a branch this afternoon after work. The leaves are only 2 1/2 inches long and maybe a 1/2 inch to an inch wide.
Are we positive it's not a live oak because this picture looks exactly like the leaves on the tree. http://countrysidetrees.com/images/l_liveoak_hr.jpg Maybe a hybrid?
Those are not individual leaves. Those are leaflets on a compound leaf. How the leaves are arranged on a branch will help to identify it. Here are compound leaves in an opposite arrangement... IMAGE
http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/other-plants/plant21.html Arizona TrAsh (er Ash) as we not so fondly call it. HTH CHris