This has been annoying me... What kind of tree is this?

[Evadman]

This is a tree in my yard. I have been unable to identify it, which is sad. The only thing that has been though of is a sugar maple, but I don't see how it could be that. My mother brought it home in '91 when the building she works was being expanded. They were going to plow it under, so she brought it home. It was about 8" tall or so. 11 years later it is 60+ feet tall well over everything in the entire development.

The bark is a dirty grey color, and has small black marks kind of like a birch tree.

the leaves are dark green on the top, and frost white on the bottom. You can not see though the leaves.

Pic of tree
Pic of measure

Tried to measure it using a measuable spot on the tree. The 1st white line is 5'8" long. It goes from the ground to the first fork. That would give me over 60 feet tall. Which sounds better when compaired to my house which is 29.


This year it is sending up suckers. I have never seen anythign grow this fast. 2 weeks ago I barely saw them when I was mowing the grass. They are now over 18" tall. The suckers are a good 100' away from the base of the tree. (along with being all over my yard. those 3 are just ones I am thinking about letting grow. the other ones get mowed over ) some of the roots go right under my pool, I saw them when I was replacing the liner on my pool. ( 4' deep ingound pool ) I am worried that the FAA is going to say it is a hazard to aircraft soon.

Pic of suckers

This is insane. Noone has been able to tell me with 100% certanty what this tree is. I thought about posting it here seeing if anyone has heard of it. I live in the 'burbs of Chicago so you can place my part of the country.

 

[Azraele]

That's pretty incredible. Interesting tree. I've no idea what kind it is, perhaps ask a science teacher in your area?

 

[MazerRackham]

Dude, your back yard is freakin' big! Oh, and I have no idea what kind of tree that is. Why don't you call up the local university's botany dept. and see if someone will come over and have a look. It would be a good project for a younger student there to take on.

 

[Jfur]

Originally posted by: Azraele
That's pretty incredible. Interesting tree. I've no idea what kind it is, perhaps ask a science teacher in your area?

great idea! I'm sure the botany dept. at your local university will know

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Azraele
That's pretty incredible. Interesting tree. I've no idea what kind it is, perhaps ask a science teacher in your area?

I worked at home depot and no one could tell me what it was. Even the local nursery was stumped then I brought in branches and leaves. They both had guesses but neither were 100% sure.

 

[Wallydraigle]

It's a poplar. Can't get any more specific than that from your pic. Most grow very fast, but don't live very long as far as trees go. Look for it to be dead within 50 years of planting.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: lirion
It's a poplar. Can't get any more specific than that from your pic. Most grow very fast, but don't live very long as far as trees go. Look for it to be dead within 50 years of planting.

Will pics of anything help you? Poplar is what the nursary thought, but HD said sugar maple.

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: lirion
It's a poplar. Can't get any more specific than that from your pic. Most grow very fast, but don't live very long as far as trees go. Look for it to be dead within 50 years of planting.

Poplar sounds likely to me as well. It could possibly be a poplar/cottonwood blend, which are popular around here (Seattle).

Rob

 

[Rallispec]

take a close up picture of one of the leaves

 

[Evadman]

Pic of measure

Tried to measure it using a measuable spot on the tree. The 1st white line is 5'8" long. It goes from the ground to the first fork. That would give me over 60 feet tall. Which sounds better when compaired to my house which is 29.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Pics probably won't help because there are many modern cultivated varieties that look similar. They are usually hybrids that are selected for their ability to grow several feet per year for use as wind breaks and for planting in subdivisions where other trees would take decades to grow to impressive size. At this point probably no one can verify exactly what variety it is, since so many look so much alike. They're cool trees, they just don't last that long usually, but they do what they were selected for.

 

[pyonir]

i was orginally going to say poplar, it looks like one we have at my house. but it seems to be growing too much 'out', rather than straight up for a poplar. *shrug* weird.

 

[Evadman]

Picture of one of the "trunks"
Picture of bottom of leaf
Picture of top of leaf

The color that you see is about as cose as you can get with a digital camera. The color is right on to the real thing. I love my 315i

 

[bentwookie]

I think it is a poplur, I have something similar in my yard and the suckers are annoying. Half died this year so I need to cut it down. scan a leaf, I can tell then.

 

[Wallydraigle]

i was orginally going to say poplar, it looks like one we have at my house. but it seems to be growing too much 'out', rather than straight up for a poplar. *shrug* weird.

No doubt a different variety. There are roughly 35 species in the genus Populus, and hundreds of varieties in cultivation. Poplars, aspens, and cottonwoods are all in the genus Populus.

 

[Wallydraigle]

It looks like a hybrid of P. alba, which has more or less maple shaped leaves with a very white underside, and one of the faster growing species like P. balsamifera, or another fast growing species. I'm pretty sure it has some alba in it, but I'm just guessing on the other species because alba is from Asia and northern Africa, and they probably bred it with a native like balsamifera, to give it more cold tolerance. That's the best I can do.

 

[Evadman]

Thats way better tahn everyone else has done, THANKS!!

<edit>
How may times have I spelled "than" as "tahn"? My fingers are getting away from me

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: lirion
It looks like a hybrid of P. alba, which has more or less maple shaped leaves with a very white underside, and one of the faster growing species like P. balsamifera, or another fast growing species. I'm pretty sure it has some alba in it, but I'm just guessing on the other species because alba is from Asia and northern Africa, and they probably bred it with a native like balsamifera, to give it more cold tolerance. That's the best I can do.

I concurr

 

[bentwookie]

evadman please tell me this isn't you...sorry I tend to hotlink.

uhhhhh...

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: bentwookie
evadman please tell me this isn't you...sorry I tend to hotlink.

uhhhhh...

hey, no directory browsing

I just use this web server for linking stuff here and on other message boards. It is actually an e-mail server if you could not tell by the name Sooo much easier than using my isp's hosting service. Just toss a file across the netowrk and be done with it. and thanks for not posting "IM000133.JPG"

 

[bunker]

Go here Find an office and take in the leaves, bark and pics. They will be able to tell you exactly what it is.

I did this when I moved into my house to have all the plants/trees identified.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: bunker
Go here Find an office and take in the leaves, bark and pics. They will be able to tell you exactly what it is.

I did this when I moved into my house to have all the plants/trees identified.

U of I is about 10 minutes away. good idea, thanks!

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Thats way better tahn everyone else has done, THANKS!!

<edit>
How may times have I spelled "than" as "tahn"? My fingers are getting away from me

It's definately NOT a palm tree..

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: SuperSix

Originally posted by: Evadman
Thats way better tahn everyone else has done, THANKS!!

<edit>
How may times have I spelled "than" as "tahn"? My fingers are getting away from me

It's definately NOT a palm tree..

lol, oy, to much laughing.

 

[Mucman]

It is a tulip tree... this is coming from Sealy who recently got a week long vacation