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I have a small volunteer sapling (it is only 10 inches high) with brown colored bark, alternate red buds with light green, heart-shaped, serrated leaves, somewhat fuzzy both sides- actually, even the stems seem slightly fuzzy. I assume it started from a nut dropped by a squirrel or fruit from a bird.
I know it is hard when you can't see a picture, but - any ideas?
Maybe an aspen? I don't know if aspens are fuzzy or not since I've never grown one, but the leaves are somewhat heart shaped and do have slightly serrated edges. [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
Cercis (redbud) also has heart shaped leaves but the leaves aren't serrated and I don't think they're fuzzy (at least my C. occidentalis isn't fuzzy).
No, it is definitely not a redbud. And, I was also sure it wasn't an aspen. I almost put that in my first post-guess I should have. Thanks for the suggestion of the all-call.
Obviously, I need to advance my tech skills to be able to post pictures.
Do you see any bigger trees in the area that look like they have the same kind of leaves? If so, if you can describe the height and growth habit that might give people some more ideas. Also, although it's not redbud or aspen, they both have heart-shaped leaves but they're heart shaped in different ways, does your tree look more like one or the other, or is it a different sort of heart shaped than either one? And how about the size of the leaves? Paulownia would be another possibility, it's a kind of weedy tree (invasive in many areas of the country) so it tends to pop up out of nowhere. Or maybe some sort of mulberry (Morus), I noticed yesterday that mine has sort of heart shaped leaves.
I don't see other trees with leaves like that but there must be - it had to come from someplace. I also have trouble seeing leaves that are very far away.
I was afraid it might be a Paulownia - there are some in the neighborhood but I don't think it is - unless the juvenile leaves look a lot different from mature leaves. Maybe when it grows a bit more I can identify it.
The leaves are heart-shaped but not like either those of redbud or aspen. They have a little tail at the end. Don't know if that helps at all.
Juvenile leaves on Paulownia can look different. Here's the Plant Files entry for it, if you look through all the pics that have been posted I bet there are a few of younger trees so you can compare [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
I wonder if it could be a linden (Tilia cordata)? Someone just posted one of these over in the ID forum and it looks like it has somewhat heart shaped leaves with a little tail on them. [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
Tilia cordata is what I finally thought it might be. Glad to hear someone else has the same idea. I found a picture on Google images of a very young one opening its leaves and I do believe that is it! Thanks. Whatever it is, it is pretty cute.
