From what I read, A. glabra var. arguta has the leaves "fused" at the base, as does horse chestnut. The ordinary A. glabra is not fused at the base. I'd have to find the reference again though.

The sites I linked to above are educational sites, the leaf pic shows var. arguta.

Another, click on the photo and links ..

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu...

http://plants.usda.gov/java/la...

Some herbarium specimens here:

http://symbiota4.acis.ufl.edu/...

All the specimens have a narrow leaflet base or with a short stalk, they don't attach directly like this plant does.

The example Junker used from the internet is probably not what it says it is, it's on a blog.

http://garden.org/pics/2016-05...

Ok so now what do we think haha here are some updated photos.

Back to Cannabis?

porkpal said:Back to Cannabis?

I doubt it, the leaves on Cannabis are single serrate. These are double serrate.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

I've made some discoveries from the last pics!

Two old stems, which are small but look to have been broken off maybe last year ... but the new growth is very robust all the same!



I think I found a conker!! We don't know how it (or they) got there. (papery seeds showing in the first of the next pics too)



I looked closer at a previous shot, there looks to be a few papery seeds on the surface! Something in the top left looks green like a bud.

In that middle picture above, the newest emerging leaf does look like Rodgersia!

Cross-posted, I noticed those seeds but I thought they were too small to be conkers (horse chestnut size anyway) in relation to the surroundings?

sooby said:In that middle picture above, the newest emerging leaf does look like Rodgersia!

Cross-posted, I noticed those seeds but I thought they were too small to be conkers (horse chestnut size anyway) in relation to the surroundings?

The nut could be an edible chestnut? The leaves don't match that but the nut could have been squirrelled there.

What about the small papery seeds? Notice there's some showing in the first of the nut photos, they are both of the same nut.

Those seeds remind me of elm seeds.

I was kidding about the Cannabis.

The papery seeds are Elm!

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Cross posted! Snap!

Maybe Junker could pick up those nuts and seeds and take a picture so we can get a better look? I tried again to find pictures of Rodgersia that showed the stems, didn't find many and none had those white spots whereas horse chestnut does have them.

Cross-posted too - elm, of course, I knew I'd seen them before! So maybe just pick up the nuts.....

When I first saw the tree in leaf I had the impression there was some sort of seeds hanging behind young leaves in bunches. Could that be an Elm tree, and could the seeds have been lying there for so long? They have some protection, and I don't think there was any Elms in the street? I can't find a decent photo of a young tree but the shape looks right for Ulmus americana.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Red-brown twigs with silvery branches?

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Compare ..

There were some trees on the opposite side of the street a bit further down that were different, I'm not sure if I got a good enough look at them to figure out what they were and am not on the computer now so can't check until tomorrow. I don't know how many elms might be left there, DED has been quite devastating around here. Ashes have keys hanging off them that are visible from a distance and there are ashes on the street. I think the leaves in 2007 were too big for elm.

Ash was the first thought, I thought some of the trees in front of the flats looked to have keys hanging from them.

There's several Elms listed on the pdf posted by greene further up, including Princeton which I linked to. The shape goes up in a v shape the same as this tree, the angles of the branches look right.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

I will have to call it a morning and do the street searching later, it's nearly 4am here.

Will take pics of the seeds!

This document on trees from the City of Chicago is interesting, it says which trees are suitable for planting in tree cut outs with iron grates and is dated 2007. I found it when looking for a possible policy on elms because of DED but it seems they have some hybrids they can use:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/c...