What is this ornamental tree with coarsely serrated leaves?

Question

All I know is that the tree is small (2m), is grafted at 1m, has (or can be pruned into) 'globosum' habit, and have such leaves:

enter image description here

Another picture: (the trees in question are in the group in the middle):

Can you guess the species name or at least point me towards its genus until I can upload pictures for this tree's other characteristics?

New photos, sunny April day:

Some leaves have most unusual 'nipples', never saw such leaves before.

"unusual leaves"? To me they seems very similar to oaks, so common form. — Giacomo Catenazzi, Dec 18 '17 at 10:24
“Oak-like” is not what I would think of when looking at your photo. I’d expect much deeper and larger lobes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_leaf_morphology#/media/File%3ALeaf_morphology.svg — Stephie, Dec 18 '17 at 12:26
Sorry to put it so bluntly, but from the little we can see, I see nothing super unusual about the leaves. For a good id we’d need one full leaf, ideally top and bottom and some scale. And if you mean the color, I guess we are looking at autumn discoloration? I can’t blame @GiacomoCatenazzi for not answering. — Stephie, Dec 18 '17 at 13:00
As already suggested, Oak of some variety. Possibly Quercus macranthera, (persian oak) but frankly, the photo's not much use for ID purposes - not enough visible foliage, no image of trunk or overall growth habit, too dark. — Bamboo, Dec 18 '17 at 13:04
@Bamboo Quercus macranthera leaves are more deeply serrated... — VividD, Dec 18 '17 at 13:07
“Nothing special” as in “no truly distinctive feature that gives a good clue”. And you were the one who originally wrote “unusual”, which @GiacomoCatenazzi probably responded to. I realize that you don’t have more photos, I just wanted to point out that what you have might be not enough for a good id. — Stephie, Dec 18 '17 at 13:12
@VividD: as Stephie wrote, nothing really special or distinctive on the leaves. I find common in some oaks. So I doesn't mean it is a common tree. On the contrary, not being a distinctive leave, it makes difficult to identify the species. — Giacomo Catenazzi, Dec 18 '17 at 13:21
And I confirm that sometime identification keys require photos of different periods to be identified (springs and late leaves, or more often [female] flowers and leaves, which on some trees are not found on the same periods). To help, closeup to buds, trunk and branches could help to find if it is a oak. But at this stage an exact identification is not possibles (and it is is a oak: oaks are sometime difficult also in summers: many intermediate cases) — Giacomo Catenazzi, Dec 18 '17 at 13:27
Just being able to see only three entire leaves, and one of those sideways on, the other chopped off at the edge of the photo, means its impossible to say whether its Persian Oak or anything else for sure - not having a crystal ball, its the best educated guess I can make anyway — Bamboo, Dec 18 '17 at 16:04
@VividD nice! The “nipples” are (insect) galls - see: https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/insect-and-mite-galls/ — Stephie, Apr 21 '18 at 13:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 21 '18 at 13:52

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I think it might be Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), complete with gall nipples, as Stephie says. Image here https://www.bowhayestrees.co.uk/hornbeam.html

answered Apr 21 '18 at 13:52

Bamboo

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too few veins to be Carpinus betulus (on my zone, we use number of veins to distinguish it from Ostrya carpinifolia. I'm going to Morus (but I need to think it, or check some flora, no time now) – Giacomo Catenazzi Apr 21 '18 at 17:12
@vividd: Could you check again the plant? If it is Carpinus betulus, now it should have the catkins. – Giacomo Catenazzi Apr 27 '18 at 06:13
BTW Carpinus seems a better match then Morus. But still.... not convinced (maybe some Alnus, which could have a very small habit) – Giacomo Catenazzi Apr 27 '18 at 06:29

What is this ornamental tree with coarsely serrated leaves?

1 Answers1