here is the photo sorry it had to post in comments.

still not showing.........

Got it to load. It hate to mobile site and my internet

i see it.. but i cant tell .. might help if the leaves unfurl ...

location always helps ...

ken

Looks like Paulownia to me too.

I'm not much familiar with Paulownia but I think this tree has some vague resemblance to Catalpa, maybe the purple leafed one

Pennsylvania. Just noticed this growing on the other side of our road.

Paulownia tomentosa is ubiquitous all over the mid-atlantic states. That certainly looks like a twig of it. Catalpa is present here in SE Pa but quite uncommon. I know of only 3 large Catalpa trees within miles of my location, and they were planted there on purpose. Only knew of 1 small one apparently self seeded, and that has since died.

Thank you for the specific type of Paulownia... After looking into seedlings and immature ones I did find some photos that look like this. Very strange these just showed up this year and are already a good 3ft tall. There are two very close together. Now the question is do I let them grow it take them down or move them from across our road ( on the other side of the guard rail) into our yard somewhere

Get them as far away from your house and foundation as possible before the trees destroy them. My worst gardening experience ever. They are an invasive plague you know. I grew a tree to flowering size from a seed that was 'gifted' (?) to me by a member. The root system was unimaginably powerful and totally rearranged the topography of my back yard. They aren't a peoblem here in Illinois but I hear they are invading the east quite bad, like in New Jersey and New York.

Paulownia sprouts are indeed purplish at first.

Definitely a paulownia.

Jessica The twig is surely from last year's growth as the large shield-shaped spots are last year's leaf scars. Leaves on young, rapidly growing trees can be enormous. One of my neighbors, since passed away sadly, grew one which he cut to the ground each year just because he liked the new leaves. One years growth could reach as much as 15-20 feet and leaves 15-20 inches across. Flowers are gorgeous with a sickningly sweet odor, seeds are tiny and spread by the millions. Decaying leaves in Fall smell like stale sweat socks (butyric acid).

Was the basis of a minor timber boom in the 80-90s which seems to have petered out.

I didn't need to cut my empress tree back to get huge leaves. There were enough suckers that grew a foot and a half a week to provide those. They form groves.