My (non)Dogwood Tree LEAVES (NOW WITH NEW PICTURES)

[PunkinPeep]

I've been looking elsewhere for an answer to this, but i'm not finding it.

Can anyone explain to me why some of my Dogwood leaves are smooth and some are toothy? (yes, toothy is a technical term)

I know it isn't just me because i googled for dogwood leaf images and found the same thing. Some are toothy, and some are smooth.

What's going on?

 

[beefy]

serrated or lobed? i dont think ive ever seen such.

 

[vfem]

There are several types of dogwood! They are generally the same according to their bloom type, heights, bark, ect... The color of the leaves can differ some, color of flowers differ, but they still are similar.

Here are 3 major types: http://www.treehelp.com/trees/dogwood/species-dogwood-types.asp

I know of 2 that do well here and I see those have many colors each!

 

[Greensage45]

I bet we are dealing with a cohabitation inter-species relationship here!

In other words: I bet a Chinese Elm set seeds and they happen to land next to your Dogwood and you have been nurturing both as if they are the same plant!

There is a better way to this than speculation. Please post a picture!

Ron :bouquet

 

[Greensage45]

OH shoot,

Did I read that wrong?

You actually said that you searched the internet and to have both types of leaves on a dogwood is normal and you have found several references to the fact? And....now you want to know why God made them that way? OK?

I thought you were asking why part of the plant produces one type of leaf over the other (serrated or smooth) and that you searched and could not find this to be normal.

Sorry for the above mention of a invasive occurrence, because I misunderstood your question. Now I am not sure why you are asking the question????

Ron

 

[PunkinPeep]

Sorry for the confusion.

Remember i'm a newbie please.

To clarify, no, i am not finding two different leaves on the same tree.

I thought i was finding two different dogwood trees with different leaves.

But then when i studied further and put my little ole thinking cap on, i realized that the toothy leaf i found probably isn't a dogwood at all. Now i'm trying to figure out what it is.

All dogwood leaves have the veins that circle back to the tip instead of going straight (or curving) out to the edge of the leaf, right?

I am still trying to identify what all i have around here. And since i have before recent times never studied anything at all about trees and plants, and because i have only been here a year, i am very slow.

I think that i incorrectly identified probably 20 trees last year as dogwoods - and then wondered why they didn't bloom in the spring. Now i have to figure out what they are. So far my research hasn't gotten me very far, so if anyone has a good resource for narrowing down tree types by leaves, i would love it. I have been using the one at about.com and not getting very far.

The leaf is pretty much exactly like a dogwood leaf except for the vein differences i mentioned above. It's a single leaf, not growing symmetrically on the branch, and the leaf is kind of papery. The bark can be both rough and flaky (kind of hickory-ish) but also have very smooth greyish branches.

I think i saw one of them bearing long cylindrical - type seeds in the summer time, but since i obviously am not very good at this yet, that may or may not be true.

Thanks for any help you could offer. And sorry for being confusing.

 

[beefy]

need pics. its not a dogwood.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I was going to try to take a picture for you, but the small branch i picked this afternoon is already shriveled up, and i'm not sure it would be much help.

Here is a link to the American Hornbeam. The leaves/twigs in these pictures really look like what i have. However, i have seen so many different bark pictures, representing this tree, that i'm not fully convinced that this is what i have. I will have to take good pictures of the bark and leaves tomorrow so i can get your professional opinions.

 

[beefy]

we could maybe tell from the shriveled up one. or we could wait..
suspense is fun.

 

[PunkinPeep]

we could maybe tell from the shriveled up one. or we could wait..
suspense is fun.

Well, Beefy, you can have your cake and eat it too. Here are pictures of the shriveled branch, and i'm betting you'll still get the suspense of waiting until tomorrow.

I'm not using my own computer, so i don't have my normal editing software to fix the pictures, so i (yes, this is a run-on sentence) uploaded all three pictures so you can get some sort of accuracy of lighting...maybe. Tomorrow, i'll have real live leaves on real trees AND good software to give you a decent picture.

Let me know what you think. :tools