A quick puzzle

[John Fenna]

Red oak? Not native though. Clutching at straws now.

Nah - I tried that one already...
I see mine was a lot easier than Harvestmans to ID - Wild Service it is!
My latest try for the original - based on other brands - is some sort of wierd Oak.... Turkey perhaps...
I wanna see the bark!
OK not Oak - wierd elm?

 

[mountainm]

The tree shape looks like lime or alder, but the leaves look sinuate or possibly lobbed but narrow.

 

[Harvestman]

I haven't got any more pics of this tree, and I had hoped that the bark would show in the first pic. In fact, it does, in a way, and shows what you need to know.

 

[mountainm]

Well its muscly like a Hornbeam...

 

[Harvestman]

I'm surprised no-one has picked up on the obviously diagnostic characteristic of having a lamp-post growing through it.

 

[Harvestman]

Well its muscly like a Hornbeam...

There are hornbeams very close by (in fact, you can just see one in the background), but no, it isn't that either.

 

[Kepis]

I had hoped that the bark would show in the first pic. In fact, it does, in a way, and shows what you need to know.

It trunk and branches just looks black on my screen, no discernable features on it at all

Got a soil type for it?

 

[Barn Owl]

London Plane?

 

[Harvestman]

Soil type is acid. Old red sandstone, although the tree is growing on an industrial estate so the soil may not be typical. From the surrounding flora it definitely isn't alkaline soil though.

Try the press & hold ctrl and enlarge using the scroll wheel on the mouse trick to see more of the trunk.

 

[Harvestman]

London Plane?

No.

This proving harder than I expected.

 

[mountainm]

Are those red catkins hanging from it? The photos are hard to make out.

 

[Kepis]

Soil type is acid. Old red sandstone, although the tree is growing on an industrial estate so the soil may not be typical. From the surrounding flora it definitely isn't alkaline soil though.

Try the press & hold ctrl and enlarge using the scroll wheel on the mouse trick to see more of the trunk.

Thanks for the soil type, have tried zooming in,makes no difference, just looks black and fuzzy then

 

[Harvestman]

No catkins. They are the brown scales from the leaf buds.

Apologies for my cheap camera.

 

[mountainm]

Ok, so new leaves - fully opened?

 

[Harvestman]

Ok, so new leaves - fully opened?

Fully opened. The scales staying on the tree is one of the characteristics that allowed me to work out what it was when I first saw it.

 

[Harvestman]

Not ignoring about the bark, but if I say anything directly about it I will give it away.

 

[mountainm]

Mutant birch? I have no clue.

 

[Harvestman]

Mutant birch?

Not a birch.

Those leaves are new, but fully opened. To me, the fresh colour is distinctive too, although it darkens after a few weeks.

 

[Harvestman]

Shall I put people out of their misery, or has a stubborn streak set in?

 

[bushwacker bob]

cut leaf beech aka fern leaf beech