I have this tree that came up on it's own and do not know what it is.

I do have two easily identified Japanese Maples but they look like they are supposed to.

Thanks,
jan

Hello, this appears to be a maple, but I don't know what kind. Maybe it's a seedling of one of your two Japanese maples. I had a friend who had two Japanese maples side by side in a garden bed. Every year she would get seedlings come up in that bed. She gave me 12 one year; I kept two and gave the rest away. Of the two she gave me, both were Japanese maples, but we're both different from each other, and neither looked exactly like the two trees of hers. I suspect they were crosses of the two she had.

So maybe this is a off-shoot of Japanese Maples? what ever it is, it will be a large tree.
Thank you for your answer,
jan

You're welcome! Actually I think it is s seedling from a cross between your two trees. This does happen with Japanese maples. The resulting seedlings won't look like either of the parents due to the fact that most Japanese maples are highly hybridized. They will revert back to the parent of grandparent plant.

Actually I'm pretty sure it's a Mulberry ( I've gotten them wrong before, though ). It appears to have alternate leaves and maples have opposite ones. Also much too big to be Japanese maple in 1 or 2 years. More like 10 for that size.

I think it looks like a Mulberry too. I can't think of any JM leaves with that shape.

Not a maple. As CPPgardener said, it has alternate leaves. One possibility is Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) but the photos are not clear enough.

Two things. We do have a lot of wild mulberry around, and they do start out young with "strange" leaves, but the leaves change when they grow. Also we have some sweet gum a few miles away, however, I have compared in person leaves between these two - sweet gum and strange new tree, and not a match. So I though let me compare the mulberry with this new tree, but all leaves have already dropped from my wild mulberry and the ones on the ground are so crisp I could not un-wad them.

Many thanks for your help, and next spring I will get a comparison between mulberry and my new strange tree. Just one more comment, if this is a wild mulberry, it is on steroids!

Cut a stem. If the sap is white it is a Mulberry.

Not a mulberry, I have one, and even the leaves on the immature seedlings thT pop up in the years don't have leaves like this. Not unless it's a mulberry I'm unfamiliar with. More likely to be sweet gum.

Mulberries have all sorts of different leaves, but it does make me think of sweet gum.

I will cut a stem and see if white.
jan

Sweetgum twigs can have random corky wings protruding along the length of the twig

Went "twig snapping" this morning. Does seem to have white sap!
So I will watch for berries as it gets older.... OK for the birds, but a mess otherwise.


jan in Arkansas

Ok, I stand corrected! I just took a pic of my mulberry and posted it for the fall color, while I was in the data base I looked at all the members pic and saw some with leaves almost exactly like the original post! Obviously a variety I'm not familiar with, duh!
Well, here's mine. Mine have those sort of heart to mitten shaped leaves.