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

[Constantbee]

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.

[oddoneout]

The leaves have a slight downiness which doesn't look like a birch variety, though.

Juvenile and/or young foliage doesn't always look like the adult version(and bark takes time to show characteristics). Downiness is common on young leaves and is lost as the weeks go on - watch a beech leaf from budburst to fullblown. The root/stem arrangement looks like the result of early obstruction or damage, growing sideways on to the soil rather than upright.
Time will tell and in the meantime it's a rather attractive occupant of the pot.

[oddoneout]

That'd be unusually large prey for a kitty... sure it wasn't a Sparrowhawk? (roughly circular plucked feathers around corpse)...
I've only once seen a cat catch a pigeon, and that was a weakened bird the tabby brought down with an athletic leap during take-off...

My first thought was also 'lucky cat/unlucky pigeon'. Cats round here don't take on the pigeons as they are the bloated wood variety which barely bother to move when humans appear, and are far too hefty for the average domestic moggy. Even the expert rabbitcatching cat up the road doesn't go after them.

[jayne lee wilson]

My first thought was also 'lucky cat/unlucky pigeon'. Cats round here don't take on the pigeons as they are the bloated wood variety which barely bother to move when humans appear, and are far too hefty for the average domestic moggy. Even the expert rabbitcatching cat up the road doesn't go after them.

Bloated woods? Oh, but Wood Pigeons are gorgeous - all those purples, pinks, greens and greys, the wonderful pleated ruff around their white-collared neck; and capable of considerable friendliness too, becoming very tame if you feed them close, on the kitchen yard wall. They love peanuts. I tend to have ferals resident on the house, and Woods up in the trees, and they all gather across the lawn at feeding-time (dawn and mid-PM)... I'm very fond of pigeons.

[vinteuil]

... I'm very fond of pigeons.

... they are one of the very few birds that can actually suck water from a puddle/pond/bird-bath : all other birds have to do a pathetic lapping up of the water. But then cats are lappers, and cats are the best...


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[Serial_Apologist]

That'd be unusually large prey for a kitty... sure it wasn't a Sparrowhawk? (roughly circular plucked feathers around corpse)...
I've only once seen a cat catch a pigeon, and that was a weakened bird the tabby brought down with an athletic leap during take-off...

I witnessed just this about a year ago right here in our garden. There was a loud bang on the window; I looked out and down and saw, as you say, a dead wood pigeon surrounded by a halo of its feathers, and assumed that a sparrowhawk had attacked the bird in mid-air, killing it then dropping it to earth, where it must have been frightened off from pursuing its meal. When I returned to the spot, an hour later, intending to remove the corpse, I was surprised to find it gone, and could only conclude that the sparrowhawk must have returned and made off with it.

[doversoul1]

It’s the petiole (or leaf stalk)* that looks wrong for a tree. As pointed out by jean and others. What does the stem feel like, ff? Woody or soft / juicy (?) ?
*http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/scien.../leafparts.htm

[Serial_Apologist]

It’s the petiole (or leaf stalk)* that looks wrong for a tree. As pointed out by jean and others. What does the stem feel like, ff? Woody or soft / juicy (?) ?
*http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/scien.../leafparts.htm

Humm - well it takes time for saplings to acquire woody stems; and that varies from species to species, some becoming woody before others, and more quickly, especially if faster tree growth is encouraged by potting out, after which the plant can establish a free roaming root system which encourages "maturation" uninhindered.

[french frank]

Humm - well it takes time for saplings to acquire woody stems; and that varies from species to species, some becoming woody before others, and more quickly, especially if faster tree growth is encouraged by potting out, after which the plant can establish a free roaming root system which encourages "maturation" uninhindered.

The other point is exactly what the difference is. I have a Prunus incisa Kojo-no-mai which I think is technically a shrub, but it has been trained as a small tree (about 7ft high). I was wondering whether a fruit had fallen and the seed germinated - though the mature leaves aren't quite like the seedling's leaves - which may very well be on account of its age.

[Serial_Apologist]

The other point is exactly what the difference is. I have a Prunus incisa Kojo-no-mai which I think is technically a shrub, but it has been trained as a small tree (about 7ft high). I was wondering whether a fruit had fallen and the seed germinated - though the mature leaves aren't quite like the seedling's leaves - which may very well be on account of its age.

If this isn't BARKING up the wrong tree - and I think this applies to all deciduous trees and shrubs - seedling leaves appear initially, as a pair near the base of the newly emerging sapling, then drop off quite quickly. They don't in any way resemble the main leaves, which come at the top of the tip at the same time, and to the best of my knowledge will not differ in appearance from those the tree will display thereafter, in all its growth stages.

[french frank]

It's grown about 12cm since I repotted it (and pinched off a couple of low branchlets) last week. So I thought I'd better check up that I could recognise Japanese Knaughtyweed (reported on local allotments) … no, it's quite different. Could still be another reportable noxious weed that I'm sedulously tending …

[french frank]

Garden took a bit of a hit during the three weeks I was away. A few old plants succumbed, a few small cuttings too. But one thing seems to have liked the heat and total lack of attention. Given that the square pot (right) is a lot bigger than the little round one, you can work out how much bigger the plant is now - about six times the height it was when I first planted it (was 3", now 19") and seems to be developing little branchlets up the stem. Still looks much too slender to be a tree, though. Hélas. Wishful thinking.

[LMcD]

If it's growing at that rate, it COULD be a Triffid

[french frank]

If it's growing at that rate, it COULD be a Triffid

It's going to be a weed, isn't it? In fact it looks much less interesting than when it was tiny. I did think it could have been a tree when it was 3" tall. How could it have been 'woody' at that size? But a flower would be welcome, so I shall keep tending it.

[oddoneout]

It's going to be a weed, isn't it? In fact it looks much less interesting than when it was tiny. I did think it could have been a tree when it was 3" tall. How could it have been 'woody' at that size? But a flower would be welcome, so I shall keep tending it.

Trees can be weeds, which are after all simply plants in the wrong place. I still think it could be a birch seedling, and they do grow quickly. I've just chopped one down that had outgrown its welcome(and the space available); It was no more than 3 years old and was getting on for 5' high and 3' across, the 'trunk' was about 1" diameter at its thickest, just above the soil.