Viewing post #406194 by KentPfeiffer

plantladylin said:I get confused with plant parts. I know the difference between alternate and opposite but in photo 2 the stems look to be alternate while the leaves appear opposite along the stems.

In photo #2 I see the main branch with smaller stems appearing alternately from that main branch ... and leaves appearing opposite on those smaller stems. Now I'm even confusing myself more; maybe those things I refer to as smaller stems have another name? I think I need to google for a photo with a diagram of a leaf to try to figure it out.

I'm still leaning towards Fraxinus (Ash) of some sort; but that's just by the shape/look of the individual leaves.

The plant in the picture has compound leaves. The things you are calling leaves are actually leaflets. Each leaf consists of a rachis (the "smaller stems") plus all of the leaflets attached to it. The leaflets are have an opposite arrangement, but the leaves have an alternate arrangement. To be more precise, the leaves are bipinnately compound, meaning the rachis itself is divided into smaller sections.

(I don't know what the plant is, but it's not an ash)