Please help ID this plant

[kalmia332001]

Thought it might be an Oak seedling but maybe its something else?

Mitch

[Pat Kiewicz]

I think this is a box elder seedling. Note the leaves are opposite of each other on the stem.

[Ann]

[e-mail] expounded:

Poison ivy! Seriously, it's either poison ivy or poison oak - leaves of three, let it be!

[FragileWarrior]

Ann wrote in news:ic5e33dtfdjt55v5b3qf0fa7n938lajqg5 @4ax.com:

LOL. I've never seen poison ivy in person but that was my first thought, too. Well, considering the placement of the ruler, the OP might already have found out if it is, indeed, poison ivy.

[kalmia332001]

On May 1, 7:21 am, FragileWarrior > of three, let it be!

I don't know. I planted a lot of acorns last Fall and have been looking for them lately. Seems the squirrels have gotten some and I read somewhere that only about 1/7th of the ones planted germinate. I thought PI too maybe.

thanks

Mitch

[kalmia332001]

Actually, there's an Ash growing 20 or so feet up the hill, so maybe indeed thats what it is. Time will tell.

Mitch

[Alfred Falk]

Ann wrote in news: [e-mail]:

LOL! Nothing like PI. Three-part compound leaves are pretty common, incidentally. Certainly not an ash or oak, either.

_Acer negundo_ (called "Manitoba maple" in my part of the world, "Box elder" in the U.S.)

[Kay Lancaster]

leaf blades.

Not poison ivy... PI has alternate leaves also, trifoliolate, with a stalked central leaflet.

Possibly an ash seedling, though most species have young leaves with 5-7 leaflets instead of just three. Leaves are opposite in most species.

Most likely a box elder seedling, Acer negundo -- youngest leaves are often trifoliolate, with a central stalked petiole, but leaves are opposite and what I see of the petiole looks good for A. negundo. Here's a nice series of photos:

Check the petiole base shape on your seedling vs. the ash you mention and the photos of A. negundo. Also pull off a leaf (not a leaflet) and check the patterns of the main veins leading into the stem -- in the fall, these will be the "dots" inside the leaf scar.

Where was the photo taken?

Kay

[kalmia332001]

In central Maryland.

mitch

[Kay Lancaster]

Makes Acer negundo a whole lot more possible then... if you said you'd taken the photo in, say, Italy, I'd consider it a whole lot less likely. (Native range of A. negundo: )

There just isn't enough detail apparent in the photo to make me 100% comfortable with calling it "for sure". But it sure looks like the box elder seedlings I used to lead my botany students into and then ask them what they were standing in, after they'd all assured me they knew what poison ivy looked like and always avoided it. After they came back down from attempting to levitate above "omg! poison ivy! and I'm standing in it!" they were much more likely to stay out of PI for real, and chuckle everytime we found more box elder.

Trying to id plants from a single photo is just not an easy thing to do. Probabilities, not certainties, in most cases.

Kay

[kalmia332001]

Thanks. BTW, the tree I referred to as Ash may be Ashleaf maple. Ash is what a tree cutter called it when I asked him what it was..thanks again Mitch