An "Identify these trees, if you please" post. :)

mhardy6647 · May 27

... maybe one of you can help!

OK, here's the deal. Down at the end of our south field, on our neighbor's farm, there is a small stand of tall deciduous trees that are quite different than the usual suspects around here. They leaf out quite late compared to everyone else. When they do, they start with what seemed to be (!?!) a profusion of white or light colored flowers... but it turns out they're not flowers, but rather leaves.
Here's what they looked like on 16May. They're the bare ones.

Here's more or less the same view on 24May.

As I am sure many of you know, there are database tools for identifying plants from photographs, e.g., https://identify.plantnet.org/
Yesterday (26May) I had the bandwidth, gumption, and inclination to schlepp down and try to take some photos of the bark & foliage and see if I could determine what they are.
My first surprise: the "white" color's not flowers but rather very pale leaves. My second surprise: Conditions didn't permit getting very good/closeup photos of the details - I took a medium focal length lens, not thinking about how high up the greenery was.

PlantNet was pretty unhelpful, although it did identify a few possibilities (albeit with low match quality).
At any rate, here's what those trees look like up close (ish) and personal.

Here's the money shot of the leaves; best image I got.

Here's what the trunks look like (image goosed a bit to improve visibility):

Any thoughts/suggestions on what species these trees be are much appreciated! Thanks for looking!

machone · May 27

Some kind of Birch?

nooshinjohn · May 27

…upon further review, white birch.

txcoastal1 · May 27

Aspen

tonyp063 · May 27

@mhardy6647 Mark, they are Aspens. Leaf shape & edges, along with bark determine that.
Which exact variety I'm not positive.

https://leafyplace.com/aspen-trees/

motorstereo · May 27

Going by the region and the bark, branches, and leaf shape my guess is poplar.

mhardy6647 · May 27

Thanks for the suggestions! Not a white birch, although the trunk is similar. Aspen's on the short list, but the match qualities for all of the algorithm IDs were low (< 10%).

F1nut · May 27

Firewood

billbillw · May 27

This might help

https://youtu.be/eyJIlqZDKb0?si=VKbxQHCsZAWkIiBt

pitdogg2 · May 27

https://leafyplace.com/birch-tree-leaves/

https://leafyplace.com/aspen-trees/

https://leafyplace.com/poplar-trees/

Poplar trees are relatively fast growers, if they've been there more than 8-10yrs I'd think they would be larger canopies.

A good picture of a leaf or of a flower that would nail it down better

SeleniumFalcon · May 27

Emlyn · May 27

Not maples, not oaks. Looks like a peaceful forest with a little aspen grove here and there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc

xschop · May 27

River or White Birch?

msg · May 27

Going by the bark, leaf shape and color, and general location, I'm fairly certain those are young Chest of Drawers, Kitchen Pantry, or Toothpick Trees.

mhardy6647 · May 27

SeleniumFalcon wrote: »

We have a larch, in fact.

Up here, they're called tamaracks -- but, yeah. The Larch.

motorstereo · May 27

One tree I never saw when I lived in NH years ago was the Sycamore. Yet a couple states away they're plentiful. I remember thinking they were huge beech trees when I first moved to southern NE.

mhardy6647 · June 3

Now they're pretty much green.

One suggestion (from folks at ASR):

And by the way, your tree has three names: Paper Birch, White Birch and Canoe Birch. It's the state tree of New Hampshire (Betula papyrifera...). The pollen can trigger allergies.

The State Tree of New Hampshire. I didn't know we had a state tree, so I am kinda doubly chagrined.
I will say that it's not what I think of as "white birch".

VR3 · June 3

I believe you need to take measurements of their sinad for proper evaluation

nooshinjohn · June 3

Life’s a birch, then you die…

Jstas · June 4

Those look like Aspens, dude.

You are in the range of Quaking Aspens which aren't just in, like, Colorado. They do look like Birch too and they do grow in large clumps, often many shutes of the same tree.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_tremuloides

mhardy6647 · June 4

There are indeed quaking aspen in northern New England.
I think, for now, we'll go with. They're trees. Freaking trees.

I may have to collect some DNA. I know folks who do DNA stuffs.

jdjohn · June 4

Looks like a shrubbery to me.

Jstas · June 4

mhardy6647 wrote: »

There are indeed quaking aspen in northern New England.
I think, for now, we'll go with. They're trees. Freaking trees.
I may have to collect some DNA. I know folks who do DNA stuffs.

As long as we get to say "I told you so" when it comes back.

An "Identify these trees, if you please" post. :)

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