This is from my friend's brand new (new to her...) backyard in Atikokan, Ontario... Yard has been untended for some time previous! It's looking like a nightmare scenario with the giant shrub spreading across almost the whole backyard. Seeking ID, to help with plans to eradicate this and restore some semblance of garden. Anyway, she took some cuttings just a couple days ago, and did nothing to them but bring inside the house and put them in water. Snow on the ground outside, and no leaves showing on the bushes. As you can see there is quite a vigorous growth underway. Does that reddish-purple bark look familiar to anyone? For size - the stem where the leaves are coming out is maybe 3-4 mm in diameter...
These look like willows of some kind--and there are many that it could be. Is it a fairly wet backyard?
Thanks! We're hoping the cuttings will take root and mature over the next few weeks, to aid identification. Need to have a plan of attack BEFORE SPRING! BTW, the local guesses have been "Balsam Poplar" and "Japanese Knotweed or hybrid thereof" (shudder!) The yard is perhaps a little wet down one end, apparently there is a ditch of some kind ( I haven't been there in person...)
Here is how its looking... a bit more mature - these are different cuttings, started a week or so ago!
