Help identifying this tree

[Andrewortman]

I living in Austin TX and moved into a new house in the fall. I have two young trees in my back yard that have been dormant. I feared they might be dead, but today one of them started blooming like crazy! It was a wonderful surprise. When I bought the home, I asked a local arborist what kind of tree it was, but at the time it had no leaves or buds beyond dark brown nibs at the tip of the branches. He used a small blade to check the health of one of the branches and it was bright green on the inside - it was definitely dormant but not dead at the time however, he wasn’t able to identify the tree. It stumped him.

This is the first day the leaves appeared. The buds before today were and about an inch long.

it’s about 12 feet tall. All the buds are on the tip of the branches

I figured this might be easy for y’all. Let me know what you think! I’m just estatic that it survived the hard freeze we had just two weeks ago

Cheers,

 

[Chuck]

Possibly a green japanese maple.

 

[zigs]

European or Horse Chestnut

 

[Tetters]

These are pictures of Horse Chestnut buds and unfurling leaves. That`s what we think you have there @Andrewortman ''Aesculus hippocastanum''

Welcome to the forum

 

[Andrewortman]

Wow! Thanks y’all! I think it is a horse chestnut! Definitely not native here. The previous owner left some really wonderful plants in the garden that are starting to bloom too.

 

[Tetters]

Don`t forget to show us then

 

[zigs]

Wow! Thanks y’all! I think it is a horse chestnut! Definitely not native here. The previous owner left some really wonderful plants in the garden that are starting to bloom too.

Our pleasure

You'll have to teach all the colonists to play Conkers now

Conkers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Scrungee]

Aesculus hippocastanum

Or if it has red flowers, Aesculus x Carnea.

 

[Tetters]

Hello Scrungee

 

[zigs]

Found one of my Chestnut pics

 

[Mike Allen]

The buds will be sticky. Also if you look closely just below the buds, you will often notice tiny horse shoe patterns.