This tree is about 3 1/2 feet tall. It has been growing very slowly in the shade of a Japanese maple for around ten years. The maple died about 2 or 3 years ago and this tree has been growing faster since then, probably doubling in height as it's now in full sun. It is a volunteer. Thank for helping identify it.
I was struggling with this...as the leaves seemed so curled, eaten and distorted. Then I spotted the leaf in your img 2316..see your pic trimmed below. You have a baby Quercus sp an Oak tree.
Thank you. Up until a couple of years ago this thing was so small I thought it was some kind of shrub my wife planted. Then late last year, it started looking more tree like and the leaves looked like Oak, only I've never seen this type of oak in my neighborhood. There are a few different types of oaks that I've seen around here, like english, garry and pin but none like this, so I don't know where it could have come from. Now the challenge is figuring what type of Oak.
Probably a gift from the birds. Clear pics to show new young buds and healthy leaves might help with pinning it down. Question is...do you have room for a huge oak tree? Or should you remove it asap before it gets any larger? In which case which Oak sp it is becomes rasther irrelevant!
Quercus robur (Pedunculate Oak, from Europe) for me - the leaf petioles are too short for your native Q. garryana. IIRC, this is invasive in your area, so you'd probably do well to remove it. You'll need to dig fairly deep to at least cut well below the root collar, if not excavate fully, to stop it resprouting.
Thanks Michael, it's in an inappropriate place anyway, right next to a retaining wall and I have a large garry oak growing about ten feet away that I planted in 2013. Ironically they both started growing about the same time as we bought a lot of plants in 2013 and it was soon after I started noticing this one. But, the garry oak is much larger, maybe 25 feet tall compared to this one at 3 feet as it was growing in full shade.
Chris - are you sure the tree you call a Garry Oak really is Quercus garryana? Here on Vancouver Island where I now live (previously in Burnaby), Garry Oaks grow much more slowly than 25 feet in only 13 years. The profile of the tree in your photo is not like the typical, gangly sort of growth I am used to seeing. Bragging a bit, I have over 24 Garry Oaks on my 1 acre in Nanoose Bay, most quite old. My favourite trees.
