Jane Doe in my yard. Plant ID.

Crush a leaf and smell it. It looks like a walnut to me.

Could be Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima)- weed tree

Process of elimination - looks like Ailanthus but it has toothed leaves which Ailanthus does not. I think the leaves are too toothy for black walnut. Is this something that was planted or just showed up?

http://treeblog.hansels.net/tr...

and glandular teeth...
http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsh...
apparently it has some kind of teeth

jmorth said:and glandular teeth...
http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsh...
apparently it has some kind of teeth

Ailanthus has a few small lobes/teeth at the base of the leaflets, and if you turn over the leaflet there are glands either side. The ID plant has serrated leaf edges all the way around each leaflet whereas Ailanthus's are entire (smooth) other than the very small number of projections at their bases.

If you look at this picture you can see the glands on the underside and also that the leaf edges are smooth not toothed.

https://www.google.ca/search?q...:

It might help if we could get a picture of a whole leaf separately with all leaflets. So far I'm not coming up wth a match but it looks familiar. At first glance it does look like Ailanthus but the toothed leaf margins don't fit.

Could it be some kind of ash? I get them mixed up and don't ever remember the differences.

If not, I'm interested in knowing why (not to argue, I'm legitimately wanting to figure it out).

No, because ash has opposite leaves. This plant appears to have alternate leaves (as far as I can see).

Maybe a sumac (staghorn or smooth)

I wondered that too but when I looked at pictures (don't have a plant handy but may tomorrow) again the teeth don't seem right, they are more pronounced in the sumacs.

Rhus glabra:

https://www.google.ca/search?q...:

Rhus typhina:

https://www.google.ca/search?q...:

Interestingly there is a walnut with leaves like Ailanthus, Juglans ailantifolia. Not sure that's a match either, I got cross-eyed looking at pictures trying to compare the teeth and gave up for now. The presence of absence of a terminal leaflet seems to be inconsistent in the ID plant.

sooby said:No, because ash has opposite leaves. This plant appears to have alternate leaves (as far as I can see).

Ah. I looked at the picture for a good twelve billion hours but the leaves appeared opposite to me. You're right, though. Thank you!

The Ohio Public Library Information Network has this tool: http://oplin.org/tree/

I'm interested to see what you guys come up with.

The plant sprouted up on own. The upper leaves are red, bottom green. I'll have to get a picture of just the stem and leaves laid out flat so you can see position of the leaflets. Here is a picture of individual leaves.





We do have Ash trees in the area, that actually need cut down from some disease all the Ash trees in our area got.

The red leaves are normal for new growth in many species. The darker coloring protects the tender young leaves from the sun until they are big enough to withstand it, at which point they turn green.

Jai_Ganesha said:The Ohio Public Library Information Network has this tool: http://oplin.org/tree/

I'm interested to see what you guys come up with.

This tool is fantastic, thank you!

Jai_Ganesha said:The red leaves are normal for new growth in many species. The darker coloring protects the tender young leaves from the sun until they are big enough to withstand it, at which point they turn green.

Thank you! I have been experiencing that with a bunch of plants. I had no idea why! Now I do.

One tool suggests butternut tree?
Anyone agree?

You're welcome, and you're welcome.

Bakeranm said:One tool suggests butternut tree?
Anyone agree?

I already said that (walnuts include butternut).