Hi, I have not been on this site since last August... Almost every plant we know we have learned from this site. I thought we knew just about every native tree around here until we ran into this one. I was never certain what this tree was and I could not see the leaves, until now. The base was damaged so leaves are sprouting out the lower trunk. The lowest leaves are otherwise about 15+ meters off the ground. The tree is at least 20-25 meters (hard to estimate). Grows on a rocky eastward facing hillside in sun alongside hickories, oaks, maples, beeches. Near Cincinnati in zone 6. Just looking at the leaves I would have guessed Persimmon, but the bark is way off, and the leaves have those strange "mini-leaves" at the base of each leaf stem. Any ideas?
Could it be that this is a Tupelo or Sourwood tree? I know they grow around here, but those small leaves are throwing me off. Maybe those are just more branches growing.
Tricky with the only available leaves being from sprouts, which are often an abnormal size and shape compared to the leaves in the main crown. Can you see if you can find any upper crown foliage dropped by a squirrel or a gale?
OK, but it may have to wait until this fall. I tried to look at the leaves with binoculars. They appear to just be simple leaves as shown. Maybe when these lower leaves mature a little.
A thunderstorm or heavy downpour often knocks off a few twigs off trees too, so also worth taking a look just after the next of those.
Am I seeing that incorrectly, or does that first photo show opposite simple leaves? If so, it wouldn't be Tupelo or Sourwood, which have alternate leaves. The set of trees with opposite simple leaves is quite small. Are you withholding information <grin> about the flowers and fruit, or have you not seen them? And do the leaves up on the tree have the same configuration as these (to be sure these aren't from some foreign seeds that have sprouted)?
