Anytime a tree grows and remotely interferes with power supply lines, it will be trimmed at some point. They would like to err on the side of caution. Better to remove a tree or branches then to deal with wires coming down knocking out power to 10, 50, or 5,000 customers.
Just google "southern live oak" and you'll see the leaf arrangement. They look nothing like a red, white or black oak. They are not sculptured in any way. I think that they remind me of a laurel leaf.

If you have ever seen movies like 'Gone With the Wind' or more recently 'the Patriot' with Mel Gibson, so many southern plantations had the main drive leading to the mansion lined with live oak trees. Charleston South Carolina has hundreds of huge specimens lining the streets.

The value of your particular tree is not strictly a product of its' ID. Shade is priceless. This is unfortunate, I would feel like my entire property value was diminished due to the missing shade, but nobody could argue that this is a good place for a tree that can eventually span your yard and next door, with limbs bigger than most trunks. You (or some future owner) would have been paying to have giant limbs removed at some point as they had grown over your house and started to go back toward the ground.

In 250 years:





Did you have any prior notification? Removing entire trees without the owner's knowledge does not seem like it would be part of a city's municipal code, but you could easily check that, and your rights. Was this in response to an emergency, like a storm that caused this tree to damage the power lines? Were other trees removed on other properties?

If you consider a replacement tree, putting it farther from the power lines, and selecting a species that won't get so big will probably be the best plan.

purpleinopp said:The value of your particular tree is not strictly a product of its' ID. Shade is priceless. This is unfortunate, I would feel like my entire property value was diminished due to the missing shade...

Totally agree - I was finally able to mock up a before and after and it shows just that

So do these seeds and stump shoots indicate its a Brazilian Pepper Tree rather than an Oak?

Brazilian pepper berries are small and red. The size of a green pea.

I can see from your images that the power company came through in order to prune "the right of way" for the power lines in the back of your property. They, the power company have every legal right to do that. There simply is no way to stop them.
Brazilian pepper is an aggressive non native plant. Our animals and birds really do not utilize it very much.
You also have a great deal of Virginia Creeper back there. It is the vine like plant with the 5-7 leaflets per cluster.

BigBill said:Brazilian pepper berries are small and red. The size of a green pea.

I can see from your images that the power company came through in order to prune "the right of way" for the power lines in the back of your property. They, the power company have every legal right to do that. There simply is no way to stop them.
Brazilian pepper is an aggressive non native plant. Our animals and birds really do not utilize it very much.
You also have a great deal of Virginia Creeper back there. It is the vine like plant with the 5-7 leaflets per cluster.

Got it - Bill do I then take it that you're saying it's most likely Brasiliant Pepper Tree then? Also thank you so much for all of your help and continued responses!

No!
That is not what I am saying. That big tree is a live oak. No doubt in my mind.
The brown leaves scattered on the ground are live oak leaves.
Brazilian pepper is a shrub, not a tree. I doubt it highly that it would ever produce any stem or trunk over 4" in diameter. Plus, growing underneath the live oak, any other plant would struggle to get enough light to grow to substantial size. Things will get very overgrown back there with more light suddenly available.
Those red berries could be from anything. I see no evidence anywhere of Brazilian pepper. None at all. I would say that is a live oak sprout. Brazilian pepper sprouts would be clustered, long and very thin.

If it was my property the last thing, the absolute last thing I would want on my property is Brazilian pepper!!!

Bark and pinnate opposite leaves reminds me *a lot* of Ash trees ...which type of ash, hard to say

I give up.
I will stop banging my head against the wall. It hurts too much.

Ash trees have a range into northern Florida. That is the Green and white ash. Delray Beach is close to 300-350 miles south of the accepted range of both of those.
I have tried my best.

No need to bang Bill, its the oak. Anyway, if a brazillian pepper he would have known it by now, those bushes are hell. If your in delray, 195 is lined with brazillian peppers all down thru brevard as well, take a look. Even the brown leaves look just like an oak branch and dead oak leaves. If it was the pepper, they wouuld have done you a huge favor, , you would still be smelling it too.

Whatever that is sprouting back from the stump is NOT oak. The big remaining tree definitely looks to be a live oak, the missing tree was something else.

Is it the stump growing, or directly adjacent? Squirrels love to put seeds/nuts @ the base of trees. The pic showing when there was just 1 tree looks like oak.

I just went back thru some pictures from when I had tree work, and that stump does not look like my live oak stump. I still stand by the dead leaves on limb being oak. Maybe they had fallen from tree thats still there . Good luck. I have those berries all over the yard but they are from the native nandina. The brazillian peppers bloom around Christmas and are very small berries. Almost the size of a beauty berry.

Pam, if you are in FL, Nandina is not native.

If you're in Ca. Brazilian Pepper is not a shrub. Not growing to Oak size, but a tree, for sure.

purpleinopp said:Is it the stump growing, or directly adjacent? Squirrels love to put seeds/nuts @ the base of trees. The pic showing when there was just 1 tree looks like oak.

I'll take it apart and let you know. Silly squirrels lol.

Agreed the remaining tree is an Oak but as you pointed out that wasn't what I need to figure out.

I think I'll send a sample away to be tested. At this point in just curious!

I'll keep everyone posted.

The stump is a Brazilian Pepper. Pinnate leaves, reddish tint to edges. The beads of shiny, sticky sap are also indicative of Brazilian Pepper not Oak. Crumple a leaf and smell it: if it smells 'peppery' then it's a Brazilian Pepper. Absolutely NOT Live Oak (sorry Bill). All Oaks have simple leaves and those new sprouts are pinnate. Around here Brazilian Peppers are very large trees, I don't see why they wouldn't be the same in the tropical jungle that is Florida.

Agree that it is pinnate compound, alternate, entire margins. Certainly not ash or oak. I ran it through a simple key using only the information available in the photos (with lots of assumptions). It keyed out as Japanese Pagoda Tree, Styphnolobium japonicum. I am NOT saying that is what it is however the bark and wood color do match that species. I've never seen one of those trees and don't even know if they grow in Florida.

OP, was the tree growing on an easement? Seeing the field fencing at stump and the wood fencing in background makes me think powerline easement.

KellyFW said:Agree that it is pinnate compound, alternate, entire margins. Certainly not ash or oak. I ran it through a simple key using only the information available in the photos (with lots of assumptions). It keyed out as Japanese Pagoda Tree, Styphnolobium japonicum. I am NOT saying that is what it is however the bark and wood color do match that species. I've never seen one of those trees and don't even know if they grow in Florida.

OP, was the tree growing on an easement? Seeing the field fencing at stump and the wood fencing in background makes me think powerline easement.

Yep - it was growing partially on an easement. I'm not disputing their right to trim or even remove it. I'm just trying to get some compensation for the damage done to the area when they removed. That would then go towards re-landscaping the area but I haven't gotten to that step.