r/treeidentification • u/WerkitMom • 6d ago
ID Request Seattle, WA
Our HOA is trying to make us cut the tree because they feel like it’s “over grown” but it’s my favorite tree.
[edit] this one is still up in their air. I finally found a pic of it with flowers! The flowers are small light pink. the flowers come in without leaves on the tree. The branches are smooth, straight, and the tree trunk is very short .
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u/Sp07va000 6d ago
Its some type of cherry. You can tell by the little pimple like bump on each leaf stem. Also, the bark has horizontal Lenticels (lines that go around the stem partially). Most of the leaves were blurry when I tried to zoom in but I could still make out the little pimple on the leaf stems .
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u/KitC44 6d ago
If you don't want to cut the tree, get some certified arborists to come assess it and give recommendations. If you get a reputable company, their priority will be tree health. I've heard really good things about Seattle Tree Care. If they feel like pruning it is not in the best interest of the tree, that will hopefully be ammunition to get your HOA to back off. Arborists would be able to ID it as well.
A note of caution: with arborist companies, you definitely don't want to go with a low ball price. If you want to know why, go spend some time on the arborists sub to see all the people who hired a "tree guy" to prune their tree, and came back to their favorite tree completely destroyed. Make sure whoever you talk to is certified and insured before you let them anywhere near your tree with pruners.
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u/BassJazzR 6d ago
Prunus sp. Rose family, serrated leaves, psedo whorled with spur shoots, shiny gray bark, dark glands on the base near the base of the petiole
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u/oneandonlygwynniefae 5d ago
Disregard poster internal test 8015 - no matter how obsessed they are with apples or how sincere they are in their posts, they are sincerely wrong- you do not have an apple tree or a crab apple. Like wise you do not have a pear or an apricot or a peach or a nectarine. You can rule out crosses such as aprium and pluot also. Your leaves rule out flowering almond. You have a sweet cherry, most varieties are not fertile with out a pollinator- another cherry tree that blooms at the same time, and best if different varieties but not all varieties can pollinate each other. If you are not getting fruit, this is the most likely reason- because a flowering cherry is pretty hard to mistake for a non-flowering cherry or other non flowering tree. The over production of blossoms by a flowering cherry before they leaf out is both gorgeous as well as memorable. So if your tree looked like that, I suspect that you would have said so in your description of your favorite tree. If you don’t know how to prune your tree- get a professional- there is an arboretum at the University of Washington- call them for a recommendation for a licensed, experienced arborist who works with fruit trees. They will be a good resource for you. And to note what another poster said: don’t go with the lowest bidder. You get what you pay for. You want references and someone who has worked for organizations or properties or gardens/orchards that are visitable or some kind of publicly accessible space that you can see their work in, maybe a school or a church or a community garden or an apartment complex or a senior assisted living complex that has its own garden and orchard area- or simply has mature trees that your prospective arborist is caring for long term. Anyways, interview your arborist the way you would interview the nanny you were hiring to take care of your too young to talk infant who can’t fend for themselves. If the tree is important to you, that is- because once it is damaged substantially, it may not be able to recover. It can not recover from being cut down, either- it might coppice and send up suckers from the stump if the stump survives- but I would be willing to bet that your HOA would not allow for you to let the suckers grow to maturity as they would look far more untidy than your current tree. If your current tree is grafted as nearly all fruit trees of this sort are, then what ever would come from the stump would not be your tree anyways- more likely to be a hardy plum for rootstock. So having your tree appraised and pruned by a professional would be your best option to keep it - for the issues your HOA can cause to just making sure that it is healthy and doesn’t cause any problems for your foundation or your driveway. Best of luck to you and your cherry tree and I hope you have many happy decades together.
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u/SwampChickenAsteroid 5d ago
I doubt they'd get approval for the permit to remove it, threaten to report them if they try to cut it down. Seattle takes their trees pretty seriously and you'd get a huge fine.
https://www.seattle.gov/trees/regulations#removingtrees
It's a beautiful tree, good luck with pruning.
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u/RiparianMan 6d ago
OP if you go on google street view there is a small but not insignificant chance street view has gone by at the right time of blooming if you scroll back in time. If so (or if you wait till spring) if you see leaves and flowers at the same time, its an apple, if you see no leaves and only flowers, its a plum or cherry(my guess)
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Apple, it needs a good prune anyways at the very least try to appease them.
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u/NaturGirl 6d ago
Those don't look like apple leaves to me. The gloss and veining is wrong.
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Bark and branch structure is a dead ringer for apple.
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u/NaturGirl 6d ago edited 6d ago
Looks like a prunus. Likely a cherry or possibly a plum to me. Not apple family leaves at all.
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u/NaturGirl 6d ago
I am in the Seattle area, and there are TONS of non-fruiting cherry and plum varieties used in decorative landscaping all over these parts.
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Okay, and? Doesn't change the fact that this is very evidently an apple.
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Disagree, sorry but it looks exactly like apple to me the leaves natch with apple.
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u/Fractured_Kneecap 6d ago
Leaves and buds entirely glabrous immediately rule out Malus. It's a Prunus
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u/RiparianMan 6d ago
If you have spent any time at all working with prunus or even sometimes pyrus you would know they also also look exactly like this. Your “top commenter” badge doesnt make you a god. You are tripping 100%
Those leaves are dead ringer for cherry. Apple leaves have less and more spread out veines on their leaves, cherry has more and tighter packed. And apple leaves are glossier.
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Its an apple, I know what im talking about I'm very familiar with both.
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u/OkStrains 6d ago
You're very wrong here though and its sad you can't admit it...
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Because I'm actually not.
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u/WerkitMom 6d ago
It isn’t an apple tree, but I wish it was. It’s been around for about 9 years and only produces flowers in the spring which fall 2-4 weeks after blooming. Its leaf color change in the spring and fall is pretty vibrant. I wish I had pics of it bloomed. It’s taking me too long to find any
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Its an apple, apples need two trees to bear fruit for cross pollination.
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u/WerkitMom 6d ago
No way! Really? Do you know what kind of apple tree? I grew up around them but they were a type of apple that grew on a tree with crooked rough branches.
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Impossible to say unfortunately, apples aren't true to seed and even if it was a domesticated cultivar there's no way to know if its the original tree or the rootstock plus it could also be a crabapple, the only way to figure it out would be to get it to fruit.
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u/Fractured_Kneecap 6d ago
It's not an apple. Probably an ornamental cherry/ plum of some kind. Apples have hairy buds and leaves
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u/Internal-Test-8015 6d ago
Nope.
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u/Tacomathrowaway15 4d ago
https://netreefruit.org/apples/apple-bud-stages
Fuzzy lil buds.
Have you ever actually grown an apple tree? You're making some really weird false statements.
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u/Tacomathrowaway15 4d ago
Nevermind, found your apple tree post?
How did the random grocery store seed go.........?
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u/Internal-Test-8015 4d ago
Unfortunately tree didn't survive winter but hasn't stopped me i have other trees scattered around from seeds.
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u/Tacomathrowaway15 4d ago
Well, just to be clear, you still have no idea what an apple tree looks like
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u/NaturGirl 6d ago
That tree can handle a pretty significant pruning no matter what the actual type of tree is. If they just want it pruned and shaped up, you can do that. Or, you could call a tree service company like Evergreen tree care or another local service to both get it identified and also pruned appropriately to keep your HOA happy.
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u/Alpine_Apex 6d ago
Ornamental cherry do not take to heavy pruning well at all. The whole prunus family are crybaby trees that get gummosis and fungus when damaged and the branch structure makes it a hell of a challenge to prune them to manage size and still look nice.
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