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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/41393/PB211888.JPG) I recently found this tree while deer hunting, it stuck out like a sore thumb because it was still green/turning yellow in mid November in mid Missouri. I am curious as to whether it could be a wild apple tree because the leaves are similar to another tree on the property that the previous owner said bears "a golden delicious" kind of apple. There is no sign of apples on the tree or the ground but it is severely crowded at the time. I would like to "release" the tree if I can make a positive ID this winter. The tree stands around 18 to 22 feet tall. Any information would be appreciated.
I'm not especially familiar with the full range of tree species in MO, but I'd bet you have a wild pear (Pyrus spp.). I think pear because of the straight trunk, blocky bark, the branch architecture, width of foliage, spur shoots (compressed twig growth), and buds that seem to lack any whitish pubescence.
In NY we have scattered wild pear, but I don't recall ever seeing any with fruit.
My Father would call that natural fruit. Thanks for the memories.
Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Combs86. :)
thanks for the welcome Magicman, a lot of great information on here.
Looks like a pear to me as well. Since neither pears nor apples are native to Missouri it would be more proper to call it an escaped pear [or whatever fruit tree it is].
Escaped pear trees will rarely resemble the parent tree since most pear seeds come from highly manipulated stock. As in genetic tinkering for centuries.
But sometimes you will find one that bears fruit a human will like. Wildlife will like about any fruit it may bear.
There is a wild apple native to MO, Malus coronaria. It has small very sour apples. There is no native pear.
Darn. Not the positive ID I was hoping for (as in not a conclusive answer), I did find a persimmon tree directly behind my deer stand today, tho so that lead me to ponder if the tree stand had been placed here for a reason. Maybe an old orchard? It was there from previous owners and I assume long before that judging by the old soda and beer cans that lay below it. I also found some other interesting looking small trees that have water sprouts straight up. None of the other surrounding trees which are hardwoods have water sprouts coming off of them in this nature and the dead leaves I found on them do look like an apple or pear tree leaf. Maybe I'm jumping the gun in hopes of getting lucky.
Come spring time, you will know the answer.
;D
Around here a wild apple is nothing more than a seed that took from a discarded apple core. Those twigs on the tool box certainly look like wild apples I see in NY. Some of these apples can have surprisingly long clear trunks when grown with competition from other trees and rather few fruits.
Funny that with leaves still on there is no fruits at all. I have only ever run across a couple wild ear trees. I know they were pears because they had three inch mature fruits on them. How many pear trees have I over looked because they had no pears on them? Lord knows!
I think Beenthere has the best answer. or as a quote from another source. "You will know them byntheir fruits"
Ok. Well "wild Apple" maybe wasn't correct term to use. Un tamed would have been better. Thanks for the input. Maybe it will set fruit next year if I clear some of the other trees around it.
I can give you the closure you're looking for. The first response was correct, it's a pear. Pyrus communis. It probably won't have any decent fruit. The escaped varieties are small, hard, and sour, about the size of a cranberry. They grow wild throughout the south. Not terribly invasive, just the occasional tree here and there. Not native, they're descendants from somebody's fruit tree many years ago.
Thanks dodgy, I figured it was some kind of fruit tree just by the leaves. Hoping maybe it will fruit and
Possibly the others around it may be fruit trees as well. The others have more of a fruit tree appearance as in they are small in stature, leaning and have water sprouts coming straight up off of the main trunk also have the leaves similar to the pear/apple tree. I Was hoping to have a second orchard along with the 13 fruit trees That just came in the mail.
Looked more like pear from my perspective as well. The buds are too small for apple. We have lots of wild apple (not native) on old farms long abandoned and fence rows. Some turn out to be good, most not, usually railroad worm in them. Frosty air can change the taste of them though. Some old fields are more apple trees than wild native trees that have seeded in. ;D
I think "feral" is a better descriptor than "wild" in this case ;D ;) :)
Can't argue with ya on that, but we still call them wild. :D :D
I agree. Wild just sounds better. Feral sounds like you talking about a hog. Technically given the definition of "wild" I do believe it fits just right myself. Also have a few more pictures of other trees I would like to have an opinion on as well. Will try to post later.
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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/41393/PB211882.JPG) any thoughts on what this tree may be?
No thoughts until you put your location in your profile. ;) :snowball:
Got that done
Look like diseased birch... but whatever they are, they are not do not appear healthy IMO.
Thanks for the location added. smiley_thumbsup
Besides all the lichens growing off of it, can you see any striping in the bark. It's some type of fleshy fruit bearing tree or shrub. If it's what I'm thinking it's probably old and hard dense wood and not a tree. But I can't see the bark very well. I'm thinking serviceberry species. They are usually multi-stemmed, but in shade not so much.
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Agreed Beenthere, and was looking at opening the area up in hopes of helping with that. No striping I can see on the bark for sure. Maybe some horizontal but hard to tell in the picture and I didn't get to go look today.
Ok, probably can right that one off, but it is likely a bearer of fleshy fruit. However, sometimes you have to observe and not just look to see the details. ;)
Thanks swamp I will observe it this next spring and summer to see if it bears anything, if I decide not to get rid of it while thinning around the deer stand.
I would say that it is cherry.
Now that's a good possibility WDH. I have "Observed" numerous wild cherry trees bloom and fruit this past summer. Many scattered through the woods as well all a lot bigger and healthier.
With the leaves showing a pinkish hue, it would probably be a shrub cherry or cultivated cherry, but not black cherry.
Quote from: WDH on November 27, 2015, 07:51:52 PM
I would say that it is cherry.
I'm with WDH. That bark is all kinds of screwy, though. Can we get a better picture of it?
Pear makes some really pretty wood if that one is big enough to mill and you decide to take it out.
I find feral apple trees pretty common on my land. I have about 30 apple trees I have planted over the last 25 years, and due to the high population of bears here the seeds get pooped out all over.
Could be a variety of crabapple as well
Shook a pear off of the initial tree in question today.
I think the picture went into my gallery. Round apple looking pear. Any idea of the variety it may be if the picture posted