fuzzy branches? What is this?

[iwearhats]

At the edge of a property with a very large persimmon tree, I noticed a bunch of saplings with fuzzy branches. At first I thought these were persimmon seedlings or suckers, but the roots aren't black when I looked at them, and the caliper on these seedlings seem way too thick for their age. I was guessing these were some sort of short tree.

The only thing I could find online with "trees with fuzzy branches" was staghorn sumac.  The buds on staghorn sumac almost look like those of a walnut though, but that doesn't match with what I found. This thing is literally a single shoot with no side branches. There were multiple of them just scattered around.







 

[btulloh]

That second pic looks like pussywillow that grows around here. 

https://www.bbg.org/news/what_are_pussy_willows_anyway

Could be several other things.  Hard for me to tell at that stage.

[SwampDonkey]

staghorn sumac. See if the pith is orange, cut the stick at a 30 degree angle with a sharp knife as if you was going to sharpen it, one cut. Shouldn't be chambered in the pith, wood greenish. They have no terminal bud, unlike a walnut.

Walnut and butternut have a big fat terminal bud. No hairs on twigs.

[thecfarm]

The things are hard to kill, just by mowing them.
We gave the hay away for a couple years, they never took the back swath. Woods on the other side of stone wall, Trees was growing up on our side. I bought my Father a riding lawn mower. Best invention he thought.  ;D 
 A weedwhacker was the second best. 
He mowed around the stone wall with the rider. We was able to kill out the oak and the maples that has grown into the field in just a couple years with steady mowing of the riding lawn mower.
But those sumac was there far longer. I don't want to say 4 years, but seem they was. My father and me was both shocked that they would not stop growing while all the other bushed had died.
My Father use to say, We grow them to death.

[SwampDonkey]

My uncle cut and burned them with grass fires in the pasture for 40 years. Those and hawthorns. :D

[iwearhats]

staghorn sumac. See if the pith is orange, cut the stick at a 30 degree angle with a sharp knife as if you was going to sharpen it, one cut. Shouldn't be chambered in the pith, wood greenish. They have no terminal bud, unlike a walnut.

Walnut and butternut have a big fat terminal bud. No hairs on twigs.

Orange pith. 


 
I guess it is staghorn sumac then.