Last spring I removed some Norway maple saplings that were shading out some crabapple volunteers in a semi-wild area of my yard. This area is dominated by a big old white pine and some big old pitch pines and I don't do much gardening there, mostly just weeding out what interferes with my preferred plants.. I'm in southeastern Massachusetts in a rural area in the coastal plain.

While I was working there I noticed a tree sapling that had managed to grow about 20 feet into the white pine canopy with no leaves visible from the ground. I decided to take it down, figuring it was probably another maple that didn't belong there, and I cut it at the base and just let it fall into the nearby brush pile and walked away.

I didn't think about it again until this summer when it sprouted from the roots and the leaves were definitely not maple.

The leaves are alternate with compound leaflets with irregular edges and I haven't been able to identify them with my limited references.

This is the top of the felled sapling lying on the brush pile. The green stuff is not associated with the tree which has no leaves - I just wanted to show the branching.

I have to admire the tree that managed to survive under really bad conditions but it would never thrive there under the pines.

The leaves look a little like Koelreuteria paniculata (Golden Rain Tree) but that may really be pushing it given the location in Plymouth, MA. I do occasionally get interesting volunteers from neighboring gardens.

Does anyone know what this tree is? I'll leave it to grow for a while, at least until it seems to be in misery in dry shade.

Thanks,

Claire