Juniper. Likely juniperus virginiana. It will get big.

tj

Yay thanks!!

and though rather cute and blue now.. it will end up one ugly monster ... not great for most small backyards ..

and do understand.. it came out the back end of a bird that perched on the wood fence ... so dont be surprised that you start noticing many more.. over the years ...

imo.. its a garbage plant.. be done with it ...

there are some rather useful named cultivars that are commonly sold ... but those dont shoot out of the birds ...

ken

and dont get confused by the named cultivars in these pix.. its the huge ugly one you are looking at..

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=juniperus+virginiana+species&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

It's a Cedar tree, most likely Eastern Red Cedar. In the wild, they come up like weeds. Get rid of it, or move it to another location, if you want to keep it. They can get quite large, 40+ feet at maturity.

just to irritate gal more.. lol ... down south ... these are commonly the trees cedar posts and fencing is made out of.. and of course the by product of cedar mulch .... lol ...

i see them on the shoulders of rural roads in my SE MI ... a good indication they have a certain proclivity to world domination ... regardless if they are technically invasive ...

ken

I'd have to agree w/GG -- calling a juniper a cedar is irritating. Would be the same as calling a blue atlas cedar a blue atlas juniper....

Looks like there are a lot of "cedars" growing on this planet. Thuja plicata is another well known example.

When I first went to Australia, and looking at native trees (other than Eucalypts), I came across Toona ciliata, whose common names are - Australian red cedar, Queensland red cedar, red cedar.

To add even more confusion to the name, is the fact that it is not even a Gymnosperm, but an Angiosperms, a member of the Mahogany family.

Looks like a common obsession with the name cedar.

This tree is definitely not something you want to keep in your yard, or anywhere. If your neighbors have apple trees, they will end up being plagued by Cedar-Apple Rust and will eventually find out you're the cause!!

And-just because it is a native species doesn't necessarily make it one of the good ones.

These small trees are so cute, they're just like puppies. But wait until they grow up. Not a pleasant experience.

Like Ken said-dump it now.

Cedar, or Eastern Red Cedar is the common name for this tree whether anyone likes it or not. There are many more than one type of Juniper, and to call all of them Juniper and not differentiate between them is ridiculous and confusing, Yes, I know it's a Juniper, but like most people I'm just an average person, not a botanist. and I'm not that picky about using botanical names. Try Googling "Eastern Red Cedar" and see what happens, and then Google "Juniper". Still confused ?

Your argument contains a fallacy of equivocation. Searching on juniper would be akin to searching on cedar and not Eastern Red Cedar. I too am not a botanist but appriciate the value of binomials in avoiding confusion. We should all be here to learn and to teach.

tj

As identified above, it is Juniper virginiana