Monday, March 23, 2009

Spring in CO


Any thoughts on what this is? One of our wildlife staff took a photo of this tree and called it one thing but one of our plant ecologists disagreed. Then discussion ensued as well as collecting of branches from other trees followed by more discussion. But you all are experts so I'm thinking you can clarify it for us (after laughing at us).




7 comments:

Keith Board said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Justin R. Thomas said...

Given the scurfy rust-colored buds and the morphology of the flowers, I'm going with Ulmus. Since you don't have native Elms in Colorado, it probably is U. pumila or even U. rubra (both escape cultivation). There is also the chance of your native Celtis (Ulmaceae), with which I am unfamiliar. Let us know how it turns out.

Justin R. Thomas said...

Oh! I just noticed a leaf fragment in the center of the picture. Given the oblique base and the pinnate venation, I am convinced it is Ulmus.

Scott Namestnik said...

Are all three photos showing up for everyone else? Only the first is working for me.

Keith Board said...

I only see one picture.

Marianne said...

We settled on Ulmus pumila too and confirmed it when our colleague remembered he had a photo of the entire tree. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Marianne said...

Scott - I can see why you think there are 3 photos. I haven't totally gotten the hang of posting yet. I had deleted some photos from the post that got published on the web site. But if you "Show Original Post" on this comment page, it seems there are "placeholders" for the photos I deleted. I'm not sure what that is all about.