We have about 8 of these plants growing in our front yard and we haven't been able to identify them yet. My dad has changed his mind on what he thinks they are almost 5 times now. Here are some pictures of the plant, if you need any more information, I'll try to help out more. The Whole Plant, it stands about 3.5 feet tall, but is only 2-3 months old. Some pictures of the leaves here and here. The bigger leaves are around 7 inches long, which is why we were unable to ID it, none of the trees around there have leaves that big. I'll try to get clearer pictures if needed.
I'm fairly certain it's a root sprout from a local tree, probably within 100' (maybe 150' from a really large tree) of the sprout. It looks like its a Poplar or Aspen of some type (Populus sp.). The leaf size is not a good method of species ID as it's a vigourous grower with a lot of nutrients at it's disposal (because it's a root sprout). Trees that grow like this will almost always have larger than normal leaves.
I'd suspect an aspen, probably American Aspen Populus tremuloides. Smivies is right, that with aspens, the leaves on root sprouts like this are much larger (and a different shape) to the adult leaves. For a comparitive photo of adult (left) and juvenile (right) leaves (of European Aspen): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/EurasAspen.jpg
Thanks for your help, they are all growing near an Aspen, and now that you mentioned it, they do seem to be centered around the Aspen. If these are root sprouts of a nearby tree, is it possible to transplant them? And should they be allowed to grow for a certain time before transplanting? Or would it be fine to transplant them this fall?
