~ Plant identified as: Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia)

This is a tree in my neighbor's yard that I'm trying to identify. It looks so familiar but for the life of me I can't come up with the identity. Zone 9b, Daytona Beach, Florida. Tree is approximately 25-30' in height, deciduous. It's sprouting new spring foliage at the present time so I have photo's of the bark and foliage:

The leaves look like a Ficus, but the bark definitely not. Not on any of the ones I've seen anyway. Maybe if it starts coming out with flowers it can be narrowed down more.

No, it's not a ficus. I'm watching for some type of blooms so hopefully I will be able to narrow it down before long.

I've been doing some more research and I'm not certain but I think this tree may be Carpinus caroliniana, commonly called "American Hornbeam" and "Ironwood".
I'm really bad at comparing photo's and I'm going to be watching for blooms, but it's the closest I've come so far.

American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tr...

I tried to match this one, but so far I haven't.

The closest I've seen is Carpinus caroliniana as well, but it seems that the bark is usually smoother, especially on a larger specimen. It'll be interesting to see what the leaves/flowers have to tell us.

So far, Carpinus caroliniana is as close as I've gotten too ... I'm watching closely for flowers.

My camera doesn't have a powerful zoom and it's windy outside but I've taken a few more photo's to see if anyone might recognize this tree. No sign of blooms yet but the tree is fully leafed out now.The leaves on the tree in question seem to be a lot smaller than those in the database photo's for Carpinus caroliniana.

Whatever it is, I'd love to have one!

It looks very similiar to our Elm tree.

Check out American beech (Fagus grandifolia) http://www.forestryimages.org/...

I started following a different bark pattern, then found that this one holds some of its leaves in winter. It looks like yours holds leaves over winter too, right, Lin?

Chelle: Thank you so much, I think you may have identified this tree for me! The description certainly fits for American Beech and many of the photo's I've looked at sure are a close match!

http://sciweb.hfcc.edu/kelly/n...

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Ame...

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dend...

I had no idea before looking for an ID that this tree even grew in Florida. It's so neat what we can learn, isn't it?

Linda: I meant to say that my first thought was an Ash tree too ... we have some in our area ... but the bark didn't match the Ash.

Chelle: Indeed ... most sites show it as only to zone 8 but I'm in 9b (East Central Florida) and I've found a few around my new neighborhood! Thanks so much for your help in identifying this tree.

Glad you found out what it is.

Thank's everyone! I'm marking this closed.

Woooooaaa on there, I don't think that is correct.

Chinese Elm, Ulmus parvifolia looks a good match.

http://www.clemson.edu/extensi...

http://blog.growingwithscience...

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plan...

http://trees.stanford.edu/ENCY...

I agree with you, Janet. Good catch!


It's a beautiful tree! I'd love to grow it.

Janet: I will remove my photo's that I uploaded to American Beech in the database because I'm really confused now as to which tree this is. We have a lot of Ulmus ameriana (American Elm): http://florida.plantatlas.usf.... and Ulmus alata (Winged Elm): http://florida.plantatlas.usf.... around here so I think narrowing it down to Elm is close. I've seen both the papery type seeds blowing around on my deck as well as winged seeds but I'm not sure what trees in the neighborhood they came from. Hopefully at some point I will be able to get a closer look at the next door neighbor's tree. I can't go through the backyard because we are on a waterway and there are fences between the houses. If I had a canoe I could paddle over and take a look, LOL. I wonder if they'd think I was nuts if I asked to go into their backyard to hug their tree?

I checked the Florida Plant Atlas website and don't see the Chinese Elm: http://florida.plantatlas.usf.... or the
American Beech: http://florida.plantatlas.usf.... in my area of the state so they can pretty much be ruled out I guess.

edited to say: Well, that just shows those two aren't documented in my part of the state ... I guess they could still be here. Anymore votes for the Chinese Elm?

I decided to look back through older photo's and I found one taken on December 20th and the seeds sure look like the Chinese Elm. This photo is out of focus but I tried to crop it down and you can kinda see the seeds:


So, now I know the winged seeds I was finding on the deck were not from the tree in question.

I made a mistake when I said it looked like my ash tree !! I do not have an ash tree it is an Elm. This last post jogged my memory back to normal. So, I should have said it looks like my Elm tree. Sorry !