This one makes me nervous because it's red but I cannot find ANYTHING online about it at all.

It's a tree of some kind. I recognize the shape of the leaves but I can't remember what one it is.

Hi usernamethatno1has,

Can you give us a general idea of where the plant is growing, city, state or at least what country or if in the U.S. whether it's North, South, NE, SW, etc.? That will help narrow down an exact ID.

I'm not sure why the pretty red color would make you nervous; to my eyes it looks like a tree seedling of some sort but if you can provide more information on location, we can probably find out what it might be.

By the way ... I love your cute username.

plantladylin said:Hi usernamethatno1has,

Can you give us a general idea of where the plant is growing, city, state or at least what country or if in the U.S. whether it's North, South, NE, SW, etc.? That will help narrow down an exact ID.

I'm not sure why the pretty red color would make you nervous; to my eyes it looks like a tree seedling of some sort but if you can provide more information on location, we can probably find out what it might be.

By the way ... I love your cute username.

I am in Pennsylvania.
I am paranoid because I have kids running around here so for some reason red in the springtime makes my brain be all "IT'S POISON!!!" :-D I totally realize it's irrational. :)

Haha,Thank you!! After trying like five different usernames this is the only one that stuck. :-P

I have two answers.

1 - It looks like a seedling of some kind of oak tree.

2 - My dad was born and raised in Pennsylvania and he was taught that any plant that starts our red must be a weed and therefore needs to be eliminated.

1. It looks like an oak to me also.

2. Everything red is a weed?

It does look like maybe an Oak (Quercus) seedling. There are probably quite a few oaks that grow in Pa.

One possibility might be Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) Check out these seedling leaves here: http://www.bing.com/images/sea...
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...

Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) seedling images:
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...

I also thought oak when I first saw it but wasn't sure which one.

I'd agree that it is absolutely an Oak seedling, and definitely one in the Red Oak group due to bristle tips on the leaf lobes. White oak group (like Q. bicolor) will not have this feature.

Red Oak group will include Red Oak, Pin Oak, Black Oak, and the like - with the common denominator of bristle tips on the leaf lobes.

Any mature oaks nearby in your yard, or on neighboring properties? Parent tree is likely close by.

Aha! @ usernamethatno1has (such a cute name) I thought I remembered some attempts to ID oak leaves. In my part of the world, here's some pictures of Red Oak leaves. In fact, if anyone would like a Red Oak, I'll be glad to pot one up. We had a bumper crop of acorns last fall.

Leaves of a young one from my neighbor's yard. As you can see, it's not red, despite its name.


And yet here is an 'adult' leaf from same tree. Note how the leaves no longer have their baby fat.

Full frontal




and backside



I like the link that was posted by @plantladylin. Just goes to show how many different oaks there are.

It's a pepper Vine and it's a weed and it spreads fast and pulls down trees.

Hi & welcome, Carlisat! I'm 100% sure it's not peppervine (Ampelopsis arborea.)
Peppervine (Nekemias arborea)

I could agree that one would not want to try to grow "a little" peppervine on a trellis in a flower bed, but it's a beautiful vine in its' native setting where it has room to be all it can be. Pollinators love the blooms and the berries are pretty popular with the birds.

Everyone seemed confident it was an oak sapling of some type. I'm in the oak sapling camp too.

Carlisat

I hope you didn't join NGA just to add to a 4 year old thread. It didn't look anything like a Peppervine seedling but exactly like an Oak tree seedling.

With all faith I'm hoping that the last comment didn't have negative intentions however I did not join for this purpose. I also didn't notice the date until after i posted or I would not have. I did comment because I've recently had four or so pop up on my lawn and was told that's what it was. I didn't like them growing in the middle of my well manicured lawn. I have many birds and insects that frequent my new garden and was told that birds eat the berries and drop the seeds in random places.

No matter why you joined, WELCOME!

No, I didn't mean anything disparaging. But as you are a new member, I looked to see where else you had posted and the answer was no place. I was surprised and probably didn't voice that in a very understandable way.

This is a Peppervine seedling. It shows the cotyledons and some secondary leaves with 3 parts - eventually the leaves will divide even more than this.



This is the plant this post is about. Its actually two little trees side by side. The cotyledons are gone but the secondary leaves are simple serrated - no multiple parts. Eventually, the lobes will deepen but never have multiple parts.



If you see the Peppervine leaf as 3 or more leaves instead of one compound leaf, you could mix an oak tree leaf with a Peppervine leaf. Its the reason people mistake poison oak and oak trees.

Hope this helps.

It's a baby oak tree. Squirrels love the nuts and hide them over the winter. Some they forget about, and they sprout and grow into oak trees.

Carlisat said:It's a pepper Vine and it's a weed and it spreads fast and pulls down trees.

No, it can't be a pepppervine. Pepper vines do not have this leaf shape.