Help identify a tree with a small fruit.

Hello,

I need help identifying a tree which was given to me. The tree had no label and I can no longer get in touch with the person who gave it to me. I have the tree growing in the ground which I intend to make into bonsai. The tree was in a container for a number of years. It is not grafted. It had a few small white flowers (about 0.5cm across) in spring and today I noticed 2 tiny fruits about 1cm across. The tiny fruit was soft and had 2 green seeds inside. The leaf is about 5 - 6cm. Any ideas of what this tree is?









Thank you.
Adam

Rose family for sure. Maybe a crabapple of some sort, maybe a hawthorn (though I see no thorns). Hawthorn over here are almost all wickedly thorny.

could it be a cherry?

I don't know what cherries you folks have over there. The bark looks a bit "plum-ish." Rose family is about as far out on a limb as I can go from over here.

Initially I thought prunus too, but that's not working for me. Look back at the second and third pictures, the leaf arrangement is wrong. I'm thinking a viburnum of some kind.

Hi,

I ate one of the tiny fruits and it was sweet. Three seeds came out of it. There was not enough of it (It was 0.6cm across) to say what it was. It might be a wild apple but what astonishes me is the size of the fruit.

Adam

maybe its something extremely poisonous

bucknbonsai wrote:maybe its something extremely poisonous

That wo uld help narrow it down

yeah i guess we will know if he writes back or not.

bucknbonsai wrote:maybe its something extremely poisonous

lol, very true, and hopefully not

OK Steve, hopefully not he writes back or hopefully not he is poisoned LOL

bucknbonsai wrote:yeah i guess we will know if he writes back or not.

Steven wrote:

bucknbonsai wrote:maybe its something extremely poisonous

lol, very true, and hopefully not

David D wrote:OK Steve, hopefully not he writes back or hopefully not he is poisoned LOL

Hi,
I checked both the rosaceae family and Celtis species (Thinking it might be a type of hackberry) to make sure it was not poisonous enough to cause serious harm.I went through several books to make sure and the internet. The closest I came to identifying the tree was that it might be a type of wild apple. Experimented on a syrian hamster first with a small bit of the first fruit. The hamser survived!! . Then got a volunteer friend to try out the fruit , chewed the fruit, found it sweet but the seeds bitter. He did not swallow the fruit and spat it out immediately rinsing thoroughly with water. 24 hours later and he reported no symptoms . I asked him what it was similar to he had eaten before, he said he could not be sure. After all of that, I decided to eat the second fruit and nibbled on it to see what it was like and found it was sweet but did not swallow the fruit. I am still alive and well after many hours. Things we do for bonsai eh!!

I would still love to know what it is though.

Adam

You say it had flowers - so what did they look like? I don't think it's a hackberry and I'm not sure if my virburnum idea is on the right track, but many varieties do produce a sweet berry.

Check Google Images for "crabapple fruit" and you will find fruit that looks like yours and crabapples of many different sizes. I'm reasonably sure that's what you have. Crabapple leaves are quite variable, too and there are many kinds.

Not crazy about the use of the hamster but I do like the idea of using the friend for a taste tester.

JimLewis wrote:Check Google Images for "crabapple fruit" and you will find fruit that looks like yours and crabapples of many different sizes. I'm reasonably sure that's what you have. Crabapple leaves are quite variable, too and there are many kinds.

Yes, it does look like crabapple fruit, and crabapple leaves too. But look back at the foliage on the branches, it's opposite not alternate.

The pink color of the fruit is puzzling. Did your friend say anything about where this tree came from? I don't think it's a crabapple, probably not a native species. Find the nearest university with a botany department & take it to them.
Iris

If you look at that second picture, the leaves are not QUITE opposite.

In my experience when a plant has opposite leaves they ARE opposite one another.

JimLewis wrote:If you look at that second picture, the leaves are not QUITE opposite.

In my experience when a plant has opposite leaves they ARE opposite one another.

Yep, that's why I can't figure this one out. But I've never seen a crab spaced like this.

JimLewis wrote:If you look at that second picture, the leaves are not QUITE opposite.
In my experience when a plant has opposite leaves they ARE opposite one another.

Jim, the leaf arrangement is opposite (decussate), it is the camera that distorts. I attach more photos below.







This last one is the only one I could find with the tiny white flowers and it is not a good picture. I can not remember how they looked to give a detailed description.


Adam

The nodes on species with opposite foliage often become out of synch on vigorous growing stems, giving the appearance of alternate foliage. This is opposite, so that rules out malus, crataegus, prunes, etc. It could be a viburnum of some sort - which includes species with very different foliage characteristics but all opposite, and the bark tends to be heavily lenticeled as your plant is. Also, flowers and fruit borne in clusters. Where did you get it?

Treedwarfer wrote:The nodes on species with opposite foliage often become out of synch on vigorous growing stems, giving the appearance of alternate foliage. This is opposite, so that rules out malus, crataegus, prunes, etc. It could be a viburnum of some sort - which includes species with very different foliage characteristics but all opposite, and the bark tends to be heavily lenticeled as your plant is. Also, flowers and fruit borne in clusters. Where did you get it?

I'm sticking with viburnum.

Treedwarfer wrote:The nodes on species with opposite foliage often become out of synch on vigorous growing stems, giving the appearance of alternate foliage. This is opposite, so that rules out malus, crataegus, prunes, etc. It could be a viburnum of some sort - which includes species with very different foliage characteristics but all opposite, and the bark tends to be heavily lenticeled as your plant is. Also, flowers and fruit borne in clusters. Where did you get it?

I got it from a friend (who has now moved and I can not get in touch with him) who worked at a research centre.

adam1234 wrote:I got it from a friend (who has now moved and I can not get in touch with him) who worked at a research centre.

A plant research centre? Might even be a one-of-a-kind hybrid.