Pretty! But, *sigh.* I feel so useless. Let me know when a mysterious palm tree sprouts in your yard, and I'm your girl!

Well, it doesn't look quite identical, but we have some trees with very similar leaves and flowers (the leaves on ours aren't toothed, but they have the same overall shape and the prominent veins). I think ours are a variety of "chokecherry". Birds like them, and humans can eat them if you don't mind the flavor. What does the bark look like? Ours have a smooth, reddish-black bark with white speckles.

The problem I have with the plant guides is that woody shrubs seem to fall into a "no-man's land". Tree guides mostly concentrate on trees large enough to make lumber out of, with only a cursory overview of shrubs. On the other side of things, the wildflower guides seem to have a prejudice against anything with woody stems. I'd really like to find a good guide to Midwestern shrubs one of these days.

Hmmm. Well, the new growth seems smooth, not to mention quite green. Older parts of the stems are brown, but not rough like an oak. Not quite smooth either though. Since a picture's worth a 1,000 words...



Do you still think it might be a chokecherry of some sort?

Hrm, no, I don't think so. The bark on ours is smooth and more birch-like, plus their leaves are "alternate" while these are obviously paired. Still, that's more information that could maybe be used for an ID. Hm.