Hello to all, I posted two years ago about another tree identification and you were all wonderful! You identified the tree I had seen and I was so happy to learn something new.

I have another mystery (to me). In my local woods I found a section of broken branch and I brought it home in hopes of making a hiking stick from it.

The location was a wooded area in Leytonstone, East London, the woods being part of Epping Forest.

It's a long, slim branch very straight, about 2cm (1 inch) in diameter.

The colour is a light fawn brown, and there are small round whorls dotted about the bark, looking almost like leopard spots, and inbetween these are light veiny looking protrusions running vertically.

I think it was a branch, not the actual tree, but I can't be sure as it was lying broken on the ground when I came across it. I looked around but couldn't find a tree that it would have been from, couldn't find a tree missing it's branch, so I don't know where it came from and which tree it belonged to. It still has a green underskin visible in the broken place, and the inside is a soft, milky white core.

I've looked around online for myself but can't find anything that shows young branch bark only mature tree barks. Any help would be wonderful.

I have posted the image he
https://i.postimg.cc/sgvDJcpG/IMG-5037.jpg

On 27/05/2020 07:46, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 26 May 2020 18:23:03 +0100, Breeze
wrote:


Hello to all, I posted two years ago about another tree identification
and you were all wonderful! You identified the tree I had seen and I was
so happy to learn something new.

I have another mystery (to me). In my local woods I found a section of
broken branch and I brought it home in hopes of making a hiking stick
from it.

snipped details

I have posted the image he
http://tinyurl.com/y7xb7olq

I don't know the answer, but if it has a soft milky white core, that
suggests to me it's not a woody tree as such but possibly a fast
growing shrub or perennial.


Try Sambucus nigra (elder, elderberry), which is soft-cored, and whose
young branches look rather like this.

--
SRH

Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
I have posted the image he
http://tinyurl.com/y7xb7olq

I don't know the answer, but if it has a soft milky white core, that
suggests to me it's not a woody tree as such but possibly a fast
growing shrub or perennial.


Try Sambucus nigra (elder, elderberry), which is soft-cored, and whose
young branches look rather like this.

Yes, I was going to suggest that earlier and having taken a look at
the picture I'd say it's almost certainly elder.

To the OP it won't make a very good stick for anything, elder isn't
very good wood for strength or toughness.

--
Chris Green
·

Thanks Chris, I will check that out. Could the white core be because it's a sapling or a branch? I'm going back to the spot today to investigate more about the place I found it, see what other trees and shrubs are there.

In article , Chris Green wrote:

To the OP it won't make a very good stick for anything, elder isn't
very good wood for strength or toughness.

You might be surprised. Young elder isn't, for sure, but it gets
remarkably different as it ages. However, we aren't talking about
a couple of years here, but probably a decade or more.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Hi Stewart - I do believe that's it, it's elder!!

Thank you so much; I took a look online and it seems to be that. It appears this is a young stem; I managed to find some images that match the look.

Pity about not being strong enough for a good walking stick!

Thanks Nick - seems I have a long wait for my found object to make a stronger hiking stick, lol!

Thanks everyone for the input. I went back to the spot today and after looking along the path I found this, I saw the little tree it had torn off from, and the actual tree bark is quite different from this stem, but the torn place matches the stem so I think I've found the tree - the leaves do look like elder leaf images online.

Thanks so much everyone for identifying this for me!

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article , Chris Green wrote:

To the OP it won't make a very good stick for anything, elder isn't
very good wood for strength or toughness.

You might be surprised. Young elder isn't, for sure, but it gets
remarkably different as it ages. However, we aren't talking about
a couple of years here, but probably a decade or more.

Old elder isn't much better, very brittle and it disintegrates rapidly
when dead too. You simply don't get old, dried out chunks of elder.
(we have a lot of elder around our land and I see how it compares with
such as Leylandii, Oak, Ash, Poplar etc.)

--
Chris Green
·

Oh that's a shame it will never make a good stick for rambles. Maybe it will have to just be decorative at home; this younger bark is so nice looking.

I'm glad to have learned a new tree though (I really don't know as many by heart as I'd like to) - I've now been identifying other elders in the woods and quite proud of myself, lol!

Thank you all for your help; it's great to come to where the experts are.