Can you post a photo?

It may be Ailanthus. If you even suspect it is, do yourself a favor and kill it now, before it reseeds in every bed and all across any lawn you have.

Take a look around your neighborhood and see if you can find anything similar, but 40 to 60 feet tall. Ailanthus is the tree featured in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" that grows up through the cracks in the concrete and shades Francie's fire-escape. Scary bad tree.

Renee

Thanks---the last photo is pretty much the tree in its entirety (right now at least!) Not sure if that helps much, though, since it's clearly still young.

I can't see a photo. Take a look at these leaves and see if they match.

Here is a link that might be useful: pics of ailanthus

Hmm, puzzling---there should be three photos showing up! I've linked to one below, though.

Did some digging online, and I don't think it's ailanthus, as it doesn't have the characteristic lobe on the bottom of the leaflet. Possibly this is something that develops when the tree is older, though?

I did learn a bit more about what distinguishing qualities are, though:
- Smooth light-colored bark---silvery with white speckles
- Opposite branch structure (twigs branch off in even pairs)
- Opposite leaflets with small stems vs. being directly attached to leaf.
- End leaflet is decidedly there, which is apparently less common in black walnut

Unfortunately no flowers/berries to go on at this point. Not buckeye or horse chestnut, and pretty sure black walnut is out too...possibly ailanthus, butternut, English walnut, or ash, but doesn't quite match on any of those, either. Hmm.... I'm going to check bud scars and leaf odor tomorrow, so maybe that will clarify things! Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:533679}}

Ash

If it is a walnut,which I doubt, you can tell by crushing up a leaf in your fingers and if it smells like a walnut it is. Al

I concur with non member, it's definitely an Ash of some sort and bears no resemblance whatsoever to any variety of Walnut I've seen. J. regia have superficially similar leaves that are more sclerophyllous and the bark would have a lighter color; J. nigra and J. californica both have more lanceolate instead of ovate leaflets and the bark would be darker, thicker and furrowed.

Ryan

Thanks all. Tried crushing the leaves, but they didn't seem to smell like much of anything to us. The other particular characteristics I noticed today are: leaflet joints (point where leaflet attaches to twig) are a dark purple/brown color, and new leaves seem to be a reddish color. Number of leaflets varies by leaf, but nine or eleven seems to be the norm, with a few with seven. Unfortunately we didn't pay attention to leaf colors last fall, and it hasn't had any flowers yet.

White ash or something similar looks like a strong contender, from what I'm seeing online. Would it be unusual to find these in Northern California? I also haven't seen anything in any of the ash descriptions that suggests it has the same toxicity problems that ailanthus and walnut do for other plants, so it sounds like we don't need to be as concerned about removing it for that reason...?

In case others can't see the photos either, I'm linking to the one of the bark below. Also shows a couple scars, though I had a hard time telling a pattern for sure, not knowing exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks for all of the help!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:533680}}

That's an ash tree, I believe. If I were you, I would girdle it immediately so that it dies. Ash trees have root systems that lift houses, fences, driveways... the trees are enormous. They scatter hundreds of thousands of seeds- enough so that I filled trash cans with the seeds, and fifteen years after my neighbor cut it down, I am still killing young ash trees growing along the fence line.

I realize I am beginning to sound like a tree-hater, but I am not. It's just that there are so many nice trees and shrubs you can grow as a screen, and unfortunately, many volunteer trees are trouble- they can grow anywhere with no help- and they will reproduce.

Renee

When I moved to LA County from Texas, I saw some Ailanthus growing like weeds along fence lines and against buildings. I'd have sworn it was some kind of walnut or hickory. But when I finally got close enough to touch one, I could tell it wasn't either. The wood felt way too soft.

I've often wondered why, with all this deforestation going on, someone doesn't just plant a bunch of trashy, weedy trees someplace where they can grow all they want and not do any harm.

Thanks all---we ended up taking the tree out yesterday afternoon, since it seems like all of the potential scenarios are bad ones (and it was growing out from the edge of a fence, which didn't bode well regardless of what kind of tree it was!) Stumps painted with herbicide, so hopefully that's the end of it. Your help was much appreciated!

Good for you artimis78!! A weed is a weed, even if it happens to be a tree.

I always wonder why people will pull up dandelions but leave randomly seeded "trash" trees, as if they are something sacred. A weed is a weed.

I've often wondered why, with all this deforestation going on, someone doesn't just plant a bunch of trashy, weedy trees someplace where they can grow all they want and not do any harm

Because they CAN end up doing harm--pushing out native species, destroying watersheds, all kinds of reasons. Article in the NYT today saying that Kudzu in the American southeast is producing large quantities of ozone. Better to replant with what native trees have belonged there in the recent past.

For those of us living in the woods in California where fear of fire destroying it all is a constant, it is the native "weed" trees that fuel the fire. Even with as small an acreage as our 6 acres, keeping up with the removal of the excess undergrowth takes a lot of labor. Al

Ltecato- After growing zucchini once, I wondered the same thing about world hunger. :)

Artemis- I hope the round-up does the trick, but if it's an ash, it may send up new shoots from the roots. If it does, I recommend letting them get about four feet high and then girdling each one about 1/16 to 1/8" deep all the way around each trunk for about six inches at three feet. Then paint the round-up full strength onto the girdled area and leave it be for at least six months (unless new shoots come up, then repeat the process). I have not had any luck cutting down ash trees. Only girdling has worked.
Renee