Can anyone identify this tree?
The closest my guide gets me is a Black Gum, but it's not quite right.
This is in Charlotte, NC.
TIA
Yellow Buckeye?
Aesculus flava (octandra)
I'd like to see the bark on that one. I like looking at the bark, leaves, leaf patterns, and even at the color of the cambium layer. This way, I have more certainty. Another way to say this, is bring us more info, so we can be more sure.
N
What are you talking about? I thought there were only three types of trees (well maybe four). There's Pine, aspen, and cottonwood (and scrub oak if they count as a tree).
Hmm, maybe you have a couple more kinds there in NC....?
😉
Witness Tree:
N 39° E 28.94' to something like a black gum, but not quite all the way. Anyways, it is 13" diameter, and I placed a small blaze on it, facing the corner, with a tiny spot of yellow paint, and there is also an aluminum nail in the SE face of it, where I measured to.
(This way, the entertainment of speciation is left for the next surveyor!)
IMHO!
N
> Hmm, maybe you have a couple more kinds there in NC....?
Common Eastern Tiswood
> .. I like looking at the bark, leaves, leaf patterns, and even at the color of the cambium layer....
The shape / form of the whole tree as well. Also the geography and types of other trees in the area. Also, most important, is it a native tree or an imported planting?
Better to just call it "deciduous" than to guess wrong.
> Yellow Buckeye?
>
> Aesculus flava (octandra)
Definitely not. Buckeye has a compound leaf.
Larry P
> Can anyone identify this tree?
> The closest my guide gets me is a Black Gum, but it's not quite right.
> This is in Charlotte, NC.
> TIA
>
>
Blackgum.
Probably part of the reason the leaves don't look exactly right is the leaves down low on the tree tend to be slightly different than the ones higher in the canopy.
The tree most often confused with a blackgum would be a persimmon. The easy way to tell the difference between those two is to look at a leaf scar. The blackgum will have three round dots where the plumbing of the leaf was attached. The persimmon has a smile shaped connection. Once you see each they are very easy to distinguish.
Larry P
By now, at least around here, all the leaves of the Yellow Buckeye have dropped off and only the seed husks remain on the tree. It is an early deciduous tree and the first to drop it's leaves in East Texas. How about everywhere else?
Looks like a persimmon with them nasty looking dark spots and holes in the leaves. At this time of year, black gum leaves should be starting to get a little color in them. If the inner bark looks kind of purple it's probably a persimmon. The trunk of a larger persimmon should be kinda dark and have some blocky bark. The black gum will have a smoother bark and be lighter in color.
leafsnap didn't like the pic off my monitor - said it didn't have a white enough background. I have also had trouble with Leafsnap getting desert trees to ID correctly. maybe time for a new fieldguide book 🙂
NO NO NO!
If you don't know then it's an Acacia per a party chief in time long long ago.
It's an Unkvar tree.
If it were a mature persimmon it would have fruit this time of year, wouldn't it?
Black Gum Sample
This is a sample of the Black Gum tree in my front yard. Looks a lot like yours. My tree is starting to show some color changes and the leaves are beginning to get holes in them along with dark spots. It also has some berries, but not all Black Gum trees will produce berries. Also note that the leaves come out in whorls instead of separately in spacing. Hope this might help
Have you tried the Virginia Tech Tree ID app? Have had great results on my android tablet with it.
I don't see a size reference, but they look a lot like paw paw leaves, if they are fairly good sized.
Need to see the whole tree.
BlackGum gets close, but do you have Gum Bumelia?
