Young tree identification

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

Can anyone id this for me please?

BobTheGardener

It's a tree sapling, maybe Birch.

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

Thanks for the reply, I considered that last year as we have silver birch but the leaves on the small trees are bigger than the leaves on the mature silver birch trees 

BobTheGardener

Could be Hazel, then (many things looks similar at that size.)  Any squirrels about?

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

I've compared to hazel and looks completely different to my surprise

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

I've just checked the silver birch tree's new shoots and they are identical to the small tree in question so I suppose my question is now do very young tree's have bigger leaves than their parents? Or is there other birch I should be looking at? 

BobTheGardener

Yes, I've seen other tree seedlings with huge leaves when young.  The most common Birch species in the UK are silver and downy, but they also hybridize at lot, so difficult if not impossible to tell until they get a bit older.

Dovefromabove

Young leaves are often different to those of the mature plant ... think about how the Paulownia leaves is often pollarded to obtain the huge leaves of the young growth.  Eucalyptus is coppiced to get the differently shaped young leaves, and the leaves of cotinus are much bigger if the shrub is coppiced. 

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

Thanks for all the help, done a very quick Google search which did seem to suggest that leafs on saplings are often bigger than the adult tree.

I've now decided these must be the birch as last year I only dismissed that due to leaf size, shame as I've got about 6 or 7 at about 50cm height which I don't really want to just throw away but obviously not the easiest of trees to find a home for due to their eventual size.

Thank you both again for your help

Loraine3

Try putting on Facebook, Nextdoor or Gumtree. 

steveparsons85KmmaCVoF

Loraine3 said:

Try putting on Facebook, Nextdoor or Gumtree. 

Yeah could do, I'm lucky enough to have lots of space so I'll probably give it a year of thinking if I want to put them anywhere before making a decision.

Cheers