Any tree recognition experts here?

Every year I collect acorns from the local moors, I plant them, nurture them for a couple of years then guerrilla plant them in public places like the coast path, and keep a few to bonsai them for family and friends. I love oaks, they are slow growers and face loads of challenges so I like to help them out in my wild green spaces for the future.
Anyway, out of the 30 or so who have grown into baby saplings I have an imposter!
When I planted the acorns last year they were all together in the ground until Spring when I seperated them, but among the lil trees was this chap hiding in plain sight: ...I am sure I only planted the acorns I collected so it could have found its way into the ground outside of any influence from me. That said it was healthy looking so I transferred it to its own pot as staying there for the rest of it's life was not an option.
I've searched tree recognition sites but I can't be sure at all so I'm asking and hoping can anyone recognise the leaves and tell me what this little chap will grow into.
Once I know I'll be able to decide either where best to plant it, or if I would like to bonsai it instead.

Thanks in advance, any and all general tree growing/bonsai/giving back to nature replies welcome here, so even if you can't help with recognition but the broader subject interests please do have a chat.

I love that you plant trees!

At first I thought it was a maple tree, but the leaves aren't as spikey. Whatever it is, I like it!

Kinda looks line young Vine Maple.

I love the idea of you dressed up as a ninja heading out at night with your saplings being a total rebel and planting them on public land to stick to the man.

I now have this whole image of you OP as some kind of crazed hippy warrior type super-hero.

Don't have any idea what kind of tree that is though but its changed the way I think of you now forever.

MON THE TREES!!!

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Gee, nice oak leaves on that tree. I get people with the big oak tree outside next to our drive with a maple branch sticking out of it. It appears that a maple helicoptor may have got stuck in the bark there and sprouted and attached to the hundred year+ old oak tree near the drive. I had a couple of guys insist it was a maple tree, I told them to look up. What you see initially may not always be real.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Sugar maple????

Acer saccharum

Do you have these in England?

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Looks like Sycamore. Scroll down...

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Thank you for doing what you do! Can I ask if you need to "germinate" the acorns, or if you just plop them into some soil and see what happens? This has intrigued my interest!

Thanks for the replies folks
Definitely not a Maple in these parts, I'd love to bonsai one though!
@OtherSideOfTheCoin Haha, no I wear a local council high viz vest and do it in plain sight in the daylight, nothing so exotic as ninja planting!

a reply to: Kandinsky
I thought Sycamore after seeing it on the same site, but being a drawing I'm questioning it although it does look on the money. The main reason I question it is there are no Sycamore's for miles near me so their helicopter seeds couldn't have blown into my garden and I didn't bring knowingly bring any seeds back from the moors with me.
Do birds eat their seeds? Heck of a coincidence for a bird to poo a sycamore in the only spot where saplings are growing in my garden, and hidden in the midlle of my small grove of babies.

a reply to: FamCore

Yes, Oaks have a hard time because they have to go through 'vernalisation' which is a period of below zero C temperatures to stimulate them into germination. I pick a bare spot in my garden and push them just so the soil covers them then hope for the best.

I haven't had any for two years because of mild winters so I nearly leapt with joy this winter when we had sub zero for a couple of weeks, maybe half of them sprouted and are now in their own pots out of this summer's direct sun and sprayed twice a day with love.

The oaks in the moors rely totally on squirrels for any chance of life, because the canopy is so thick they have no chance of any sunlight in the spring and just die. Their only hope is that the squirrels take them and stash them somewhere with an opening for the sun then forget where their store is or the squrrel dies before eating them.
For that reason I collect mine from the middle of the forest, the ones with least chance of becoming trees, and from the oldest parent trees, many many hundreds of years old.

I'm the crazy oak tree man, I have some I visit locally who are ten years old now, it's a hobby that makes me smile.

Does anyone have any favourite trees or even a single tree you love for a reason?
I have lots in my area but the English Oaks are my favourite, one over a thousand years old, I often sit under it and wonder what it could say if it could talk, how many people have been hanged from it, how many people have kissed and fallen in love under it's branches...

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Nah I'm no expert either. It looks just like a sycamore leaf though so who knows?

I can think of worse things to do with your time than planting trees. It's a great idea and kinda eccentric, but eccentricity is one thing that unites every ATSer regardless of politics or region.

a reply to: Night Star
Thank you, I love doing it helping the classic English tree out, and leaving a little legacy behind me, I've been doing it for over a decade, started when my son was young and we nurtured his first oak then he planted it on the coastal path, she is thriving now maybe 11 foot high. He's nearly 21, goes cliff jumping nearby and always visits his tree, she is called 'Polly' after he named her lol.

I have a fine oak in a medium sized pot with my father's ashes which were buried under her. She's smaller but thick and broad due to being in a pot, I'm just waiting to get my own land big enough to support a mature oak, my garden is too small and I want her to live for a thousand years or more, so one day.


a reply to: rickymouse
Haha, found itself a base in an oak I love it!
Mature oaks are ecosystems of their own the amount of life they support.

a reply to: Bigburgh
We have them in England but I've never seen one in these parts.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
Does anyone have any favourite trees or even a single tree you love for a reason?
I have lots in my area but the English Oaks are my favourite, one over a thousand years old, I often sit under it and wonder what it could say if it could talk, how many people have been hanged from it, how many people have kissed and fallen in love under it's branches...

All trees that bear fruits!!!

Cool, that guerilla growing thing!

Did something like that years ago too. Bought hemp seeds, one kilogram of it, in a zoo shop(without THC, bird food). Then i gave a handful of the seeds to all of my friends and told them they should sow them everywhere. That summer "weed" was growing everywhere in the town, around the police station, in and around schools, at graveyards, almost everywhere where birds didn´t eat them before they could grow. They were really everywhere. I saw people trying to bring some of the plants home, they thought if they grow them in their backyard, they later could smoke them.

Juvenile leaves can be deceiving when trying to I.D.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Definitely a sycamore (related to Maple) they are also notorious for self seeding in the most unlikely places, same with Ash.

Keep sowing those Acorns there is a saying that goes something like “it is a wise man who plants trees knowing full well he will never enjoy their shade”

a reply to: Kandinsky
You've helped me feel more confident with the second opinion though cheers
The ones I bonsai I give to family and friends when they are a nice shape and teach them how to train branches with wire while they are young and how to prune to keep their shape.
...and eccentricity yes! I imagine behind the arguing on ATS (which I am equally guilty of) there are interesting hobbies with most members, hobbies I probably couldn't imagine depending on where in the world they live.

My plan this year is to get a few seeds from every food producing tree in the UK to keep in pots for when I have land large enought to support them hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts, and walnuts to apples, pears, and plums etc.
My street is lined with horse chestnuts and I often wonder why they didn't plant sweet chestnuts all those years ago, was conkers really that popular, or was it to stop the peasants having free food lol

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Another thing, I don’t think oaks can tolerate salt burn on the coast, they will stand a better chance with some shelter from salt laden winds. Tamarix will grow fine on coastal paths. If you’re on the east coast it might not be such an issue but something to bare in mind.

a reply to: DerBeobachter
Haha!
That reminds me of the town Glastonbury in England (festival namesake) where people planted THC cannabis plants in all the public spaces. The council eventually announced they were giving up trying to remove them due to cost and said it was up to the police to do it if theuy had a problem with it lol

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

For our area of West Texas Hill country my very favorite tree is the Mimosa tree. They grow fast, and I'm in desperate need of shade and they're basically like a weed......you can't kill them. I took seeds from a very huge and very hold Mimosa in my parents yard and planted them in my families yard in Houston after I got married. When we left that house, I took seeds from those trees and planted them out here in the arid hills.

There's a trick to growing them to "tree" status however. You have to "rope" up the main trunk so it keeps growing upward while cutting off, (pruning) any off-shoot trunks that may grow out the same base. In Houston, there are Mimosa trees as tall as 4 story buildings.

www.vdberk.co.uk...

I don't know how to post pictures. Tried it but can't find "my library".