What tree is this?

[Darwin.]

When I moved into my house over3 years ago the owners told me they had a lovely tree but they had cut it down. There was no sign of where it had been at all. Two years ago I saw it starting to grow again out of a gripe at the bottom of garden. In the last two years its grin to about 15 foot or more, way faster than any tree I planted. I have no idea what it is and would appreciate some help.





I'm sure it's just a common Irish tree because of where its growing but would love to know what it is and I can't see it in my book of European trees.

[rustylady]

Could take a photo showing the whole tree? It's very difficult to tell what it is from just a closeup of the leaves and a bit of trunk.

[Darwin.]

I'm working on it now, most places say the bark and leaf are the main thing to identify the tree, that's why I put those up. The tree as a whole doesn't look like much because the main trunk is cut off below ground level (half way down the bank of the stream) so it's juat a mass of tall side shoots.

[Darwin.]

This is the whole tree but I don't know if this helps because its in front of a hedge.

[rustylady]

From the speed of growth I'm wondering whether it is a type of willow.

[Darwin.]

I had thought that myself but the leaves don't seem to match. I have a golden willow and it's very different.

[Glutton4...]

I'd agree with RL, from the last picture, and the growth rate. There's more than one type of Willow!

Maybe Darwin wasn't the best choice of name!!!

[veggiechicken]

Willow or Alder - maybe? Did it have catkins/pussy willows or anything?

[Darwin.]

I looked up a dozen species of willow and any I came across had a similar long narrow leaf. I just used golden willow as an example.

The pussy willow looks closest but doesn't have the rounded end to the leaf.

[Darwin.]

No catkins that I could see

[veggiechicken]

Did you look at the sallow willows?

[Darwin.]

Salix caprea, Goat willow or sallow willow could be it. The bark and leaves look right. I must go and look it up some more to see what size I can expect it to get to.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[WendyC]

I would agree with Goat willow. My neighbours have one. It shades out the bottom half of my garden when in full leaf. Fortunately it looks like it's dying.

[Darwin.]

I love trees so I hope it's massive. It looks like it'll only grow to a little over 30ft but should spread a good bit too.

There's a small bog running onto the corner of my garden with various trees in it. There are a few of these in there too. They aren't huge but I figure that's because it's so wet and everything is so tightly packed that they're fighting each other for nutrients.