Why I Oughta...

Last year, I discovered a few smallish, but growing trees that had been through some heavy pruning in our yard.  The previous owner had cut most of the little cluster of trees back to stumps at some point before we acquired the property.  Two or three of them are tall (15' or so) and I couldn't figure out what they were, so I sent a few photos in to the U of Illinois Master Gardener program .  They identified them as American Elm trees and provided some details about Dutch Elm Disease and pests that weaken these trees.  With my recent interest in bonsai including the purchase of a few pieces of nursery stock ( here , here  and here) , I've discovered that one of the *other* ways to get bonsai trees is through the collection of natural bonsai species.  Or...what I think they call "Pre-Bonsai" species.  Collecting bonsai (or...again pre-bonsai) is about going out in nature, finding and selecting potential trees that can be dug up and potted....

Along the north fence line, about mid-way back in our yard, we have a couple of youngish trees that are 2" to 3" caliper trees about 15 to 20 feet tall.  After looking at their leaves, I went around to the rest of the yard to try to identify if I had more than these two.  As you can see above, the leaves are quite jagged along the edges and they are alternate, not compound.  Meaning, the leaves are not exact opposites of each other, but go one on one side, then the other side, then back to the first side, etc. I tried a few leaf identifying apps and even Google Lense and they gave what I though was questionable results:  they identified it as an Ash Tree.  The issue?  Ash Trees have compound branching .  Also, my parents lost dozens of Ash trees to the Borer over the past decade, so I was surprised to think that I had two Ash trees that had survived.    I wanted to figure out what I was dealing with, so after the web gave me mixed re...