Is it a shrub, is it a tree, no it's …

[french frank]

… superweed!

Any ideas? This was a small seedling, presumably from a seed dropped by a bird, which fell into a crack in the flagstones. Now about 3 inches tall. I thought a flower bud was forming at the top, but now it seems to be just a leaf bud.



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[jean]

The stem is too fleshy for it to be a tree - even at that height, trees are more woody.

[vinteuil]

.

... I don't think it's Triffidus celestus, but you can never be too sure...

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[Mal]

Try LeafSnap:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identify-nature/leafsnap-uk-app.html

[french frank]

The stem is too fleshy for it to be a tree - even at that height, trees are more woody.

It may be an escape from a garden and is some kind of border plant - though I would expect it to have a flower, eventually, if that is the case. It's not a weed I recognise.

[french frank]

Try LeafSnap:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/ident...ap-uk-app.html

Fascinating. I may try that, though I tried another plant recognition site and it declared there was nothing like it. These sites may demand bigger plants, and more information such as whether there is a flower.

[Mal]

Fascinating. I may try that, though I tried another plant recognition site and it declared there was nothing like it...

Four other ways to do it:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identify-nature.html

Maybe start with this:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/content/dam/nhmwww/take-part/identify-nature/tree-identification-key.pdf

[jean]

It may be an escape from a garden and is some kind of border plant...

That seems likely.

...though I would expect it to have a flower, eventually, if that is the case.

It's a bit small to have a flower yet - give it a few more weeks!

[french frank]

Four other ways to do it:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identify-nature.html

Maybe start with this:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/content/dam/nhm...cation-key.pdf

Quite fun to use, anyway

That seems likely.

It's a bit small to have a flower yet - give it a few more weeks!

Yes - it costs nothing to wait and takes up very little space! I have now banished the neighbourhood cats from my back garden and have ordered two more trees (crataegus and malus) to go with another crataegus, a prunus, a euonymus and a sorbus, in the hope that with no cats I shall be able to attract some birds.

[oddoneout]

Looks like a birch seedling - I get them coming up in my garden. As a pioneer species they aren't fussy about conditions where they germinate and the windborne seed can spread widely.

[Bryn]

Looks like a birch seedling - I get them coming up in my garden. As a pioneer species they aren't fussy about conditions where they germinate and the windborne seed can spread widely.

The peripheral serrations look a bit tame, and the stem insufficiently woody for birch, I would have thought.

[french frank]

Looks like a birch seedling - I get them coming up in my garden. As a pioneer species they aren't fussy about conditions where they germinate and the windborne seed can spread widely.

It's possible. My next door neighbour has/had a silver birch, about 8 years old - which died off completely last year. This is its second 'dead' year (it's still standing), but it might have cast a seed waiting to germinate, conditions being favourable. On the other hand - it didn't immediately look like a birch leaf to me. I'll keep it for a while, but I don't really want any trees as big as that in my yard - 10-12ft is what I aim for.

[doversoul1]

Birch leaves do look similar.

http://www.treesbypost.co.uk/all-trees/downy-birch-f963?category=15

But as jean says the stem looks too fleshy. Also tree seedlings don’t have leaves from the base but have unmistakable tree trunks in miniature. Bush seedlings don’t have main stems. It looks more like some kind of begonia, and also as jean says, it will be another few weeks before it flowers if it is a plant.

[gradus]

Looks like a hazel seedling although the stem seems too fleshy.

[Serial_Apologist]

Birch leaves do look similar.

http://www.treesbypost.co.uk/all-trees/downy-birch-f963?category=15

But as jean says the stem looks too fleshy. Also tree seedlings don’t have leaves from the base but have unmistakable tree trunks in miniature. Bush seedlings don’t have main stems. It looks more like some kind of begonia, and also as jean says, it will be another few weeks before it flowers if it is a plant.

My immediate first thought was that it is a begonia - but a small one: a smallownia!