The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Tree, Plant and Wood I.D. => Topic started by: BradWood on May 11, 2017, 08:42:51 PM

Title: Is this an Elm?
Post by: BradWood on May 11, 2017, 08:42:51 PM
I am having trouble telling if leaves are simple or compound despite drawings online.  I see the little buds/bumps and get a bit uncertain.

I am thinking this might be an elm, but the bark looks different to me(maybe cause it's small)..
I should have taken a better picture of the whole tree, it's fairly small though.

This has serrated edges and I think maybe an elm.  What do you guys think?

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/45913/IMG_1400.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1494549468)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/45913/IMG_1399.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1494549514)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/45913/IMG_1401.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1494549499)

Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: nativewolf on May 11, 2017, 08:51:44 PM
Flowering cherry of some sort.  See the horizontal bark ...forgot the term of art/science; but do you see how the bark has those little marks on it?  Now peel it and suck on a twig and it will taste bitter/smell like almonds if it is cherry (that is the cyanide sulfur compound).  Anyhow, Cherry.
Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: TKehl on May 11, 2017, 09:23:08 PM
Not Elm.  Some kind of fruit tree.  (Or flowering fruitless variant that people plant because food all over their lawn would be terrible.   :D)

Best I can do.
Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: Ianab on May 12, 2017, 12:17:13 AM
I'll go with Prunus avium, a type of cherry native to Europe, but commonly grown as an ornamental all over the world.

It has small red cherries that are popular with the birds, and so the seeds get spread easily and it's naturalised itself into many parts of the world.

Makes a decent ornamental tree as long as you have the space for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_avium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_avium)
Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: WDH on May 12, 2017, 07:39:32 AM
Elm leaves are doubly serrate (big teeth with some little teeth in between) and the leaf base is inequilateral.  That is, one side of the leaf base at the petiole is offset from the other.  Elm bark is more fissured and not smooth, and lenticels on the bark are not visible like on the cherry. 

http://www.treetopics.com/ulmus_americana/gallery2.htm  The offset bases in these pics are more exaggerated than what I usually see.  Still, the offset is obvious. 
Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: derhntr on May 12, 2017, 12:50:02 PM
A cherry species is my guess as well.
Title: Re: Is this an Elm?
Post by: BradWood on May 12, 2017, 12:56:02 PM
Thanks a bunch for the info guys.. You rock.  You guys are teaching me how to fish as the saying goes, which is what I'm after.  Figuring out how to tell them apart, etc.