Anyone help me with a tree ID

[Hammock Hamster]

Hi all,

Sorry a tricky one here, I harvested a lot saplings that needed thinning out in some local woodland about a year ago!
I have been using them for tool handles and more recently little whittling projects.

My problem is I can’t recall the leaf types and I’m stumped (pun intended) as to what it is.
There were several large stands of these, maybe 50 or more in each, in an area that is primarily silver birch.
I’d seen them there often and they never seemed to get much thicker jab a couple of inches.
I’ve tried to get a good view of both bark and inner wood.

Cheers, Hamster


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[Broch]

That is young birch I believe. When it's young it is quite coppery red.

See here: https://green2.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Photo.aspx?Act=view&PhotoID=409

 

[Mesquite]

That is young birch I believe. When it's young it is quite coppery red.

See here: https://green2.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Photo.aspx?Act=view&PhotoID=409

What he said ^^^

 

[JonathanD]

What they said ^^

 

[Robson Valley]

Remember the size, shape and distribution pattern of the lenticels, the little white horizontal bands.
Distinctive clue combined with the color = Betula sp. Broch got it.
The Prunus sp (plums) look much alike but you won't find the beginnings of bark peeling like this sample.

 

[Toddy]

Sorry, but it looks like bird cherry to me, but then it's all silver birch around here.

M

 

[Robson Valley]

Cherries and plums are all Prunus sp which would be the closest thing
but for the lenticels and the bark splitting patterns.
Leaves and flowers in particular are the defining ID elements.

 

[Broch]

Sorry, but it looks like bird cherry to me, but then it's all silver birch around here.

M

They are very similar - Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) is more red than Wild cherry (Prunus avium - which can be quite silver when young) but the peeling bark (as Robson Valley says) and the deeper colour suggest Betula pendula to me.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Thanks all, I did start off thinking birch especially given the abundance in the area but recall seeing the sapling sized trees in the same place over a few years and assumed they were another species - that said there is little to no coppicing done that I have been able to find but could have mistaken new growth for older stands!


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[dwardo]

The layout of the branches will give it away. Cherry grows in whorls, an easy spot when there are not leaves. Also smells very different. Birch being sweet clean smell and cherry smell acrid to me.

 

[Toddy]

oh no getting away from that smell. If it's cyanide-y / bitter almonds, then its cherry.

M