It's actually a flowering crab apple. The yellow and gray on the branches are lichens...harmless hitchhikers.

As for the dead branches and early leaf drop...there are many diseases, pests, and cultural conditions that can negatively affect a crab apple and I'm not able to tell from your photo what it may be.

Agree with Smivies. Hard to tell, but there may also be some squirrel chewing marks on the branch in the third photo.

Given the biologically isolated location, I suspect you need some real compost.

Thank you. All this time I thought it was a cherry tree! The fruits are tiny but abundant. Re compost : apply it on the periphery of the lawn?

Thin layers under the tree 2x a year for nutrition and to replicate natural fall processes by which trees slowly feed.

pix arent that great ...

looks to me.. like you had a dead branch from improper pruning .. perhaps 3 to 5 years ago ...

it might be worthwhile.. to get us some pix after leaf fall so we can see the structure.. as well as any other improper pruning.. which should be cleaned up ...

though the compost wont hurt,. i see no need for it ... is the lawn fert'd ... if so.. the tree gets more than enough food ..

overall its a prime specimen ... based on that first pic ... and all trees need occasional clean up pruning ....

where are you.. and what was the weather this summer.. here in MI.. i have had two 6 week droughts ... i wish my crabs had that many leaves ... lol .. there is nothing to do.. to cure drought .. and by now.. its just a month or so.. before the leaves fall off.. so what would would it be to spray anything on ... ?? [meaning.. if i water after drought.. its not going to releaf .. unless it went completely dormant.. ]

ken

Thank you for the additional information. We are located in Ottawa 800 north of Michigan! We had a horribly wet spring and summer.Rains every few days

I do not fertilize the lawn other than mulching the grass clippings and the fallen leaves

.

As for pruning, I have not ever done much myself except yesterday when I removed a many dead branches. My neighbour told me that the previous owner had a professional tree service company come in and trim the tree every year prior to our purchase in 2013

Here is a close-up of a branch where you can see that the bark is
lifting, exposing the grey wood underneath. It's like that for much of
the tree

I will take photos in the Fall and will appreciate your advice.

In the meantime, just for the fun of it, here is a photo of the tree in its snowsuit in late November 2013. It has grown quite bit since then.

Many trees have exfoliating bark to some degree...what you see is the old bark being shed off the newer bark underneath.

Not sure where "Ottawa 800 north of Michigan" is? The Ottawa you live in is north of New York...I can see it on your green bin.

Sorry I wasn't very clear. We're in Ottawa, Ontario. It's 800 miles north of Detroit. We lived near Detroit on the Canadian side of Lake St-Clair for 25 years before moving to Ottawa, so I am familiar with Michigan a little bit

I hope you're right about the exfoliating bark, but I don't see any evidence of new bark underneath. It looks like smooth grey wood. I will check again tomorrow, its pouring rain today.

Losing that tree would put a big hole in our landscape, and I am much too old to benefit from a replacement tree!

The "smooth gray wood" is bark. If you have doubts, cut into it with a sharp knife....you'll see the thin green cambium and the yellowish sapwood beneath. It's a destructive examination though so be very conservative if you do it.

Splitting hairs but you're now 500 miles ENE of Detroit & I'm 180k SSW of you.

If the photo you posted of the tree flowering was taken this spring, I don't see cause for concern. Can you post a photo of the tree as a whole now?

Sorry it took so long to respond. Here is a photo taken last spring of the tree. It seem healthy but it is shedding a lot of leaves. I spoke to one of my neighbours a while ago and he said that his crab apple lost all its leaves, and so did the tree of another neighbour. It could be a disease of some kind.

Actually looks great for this late in the season.

Maybe I'm worrying for nothing. But I don't recall it shedding leaves that much in past years. I would hate to lose it.

BTW re the distance calculation, I wrote 800 miles when I meant kilometers. I still think in miles ...and Fahrenheit!