Can’t identify this leaf

Question: This year I have a huge number of these seedlings coming up in multiple areas — I don’t remember seeing them before and though they look like a tree seeding they don’t seem to match any of our mature trees.

responder: Jeramiha E.  Replied May 21, 2023, 10:21 PM EDT
response: Hello Sally     I've been looking for a while now trying narrow down what that could be. The seedling is so young that identifying it is proving to be a little bit difficult. Looks like it actually just got its first true leaves. From what I can tell though it looks to be a birch seedling. Either a river birch, or paper birch would be my best guess based on what information I can gather from the photo. Without knowing what trees are in your area I can't be %100 sure on which, if it is indeed a tree seedling. From what I can find to compare to it I am fairly certain it is a birch of sorts though. Birch fruit are small nutlets held together in a catkin-like aggregate of fruits called strobiles. The fruits will separate from the catkin-like aggregate and be spread by wind. They actually got little wings on them an can spread quite a distance. If you have any pictures of bigger seedlings I may be able to help you narrow it down more.        I really hope that helps Sally. If you have any more questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me or the extension. We will be glad to help you the best we can. Hope your enjoying the nice weather. And Happy gardening!!!

responder: The Question Asker Replied May 22, 2023, 2:35 PM EDT
response: Thanks for the prompt reply!  I wondered about birch — and we do have several but the leaves aren’t quite the same and we’ve NEVER had anything near the number of seedlings as this year, so I thought they might be from something new.  Our trees are not nursery grown.  Most of them come from land we owned in Pine County, identified by woodland stewardship as paper birch.  They are 25-40 years old. One grew up here on our farm in an old stock tank and we transplanted it to our lawn.Perhaps we’ll let a few of these grow more and see!Thanks again so much,Sally Sent from my iPad On May 21, 2023, at 9:21 PM, Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:﻿

responder: Jeramiha E.  Replied July 02, 2023, 8:24 PM EDT
response: Hi Sally      I just wanted to let you know that a colleague of mine had messaged me about your seedlings. I just realized I never got that passed along to you. He thinks there's a decent chance they could be black maple. Although like me, he also said at such a young age it's hard to say for certain. I've included a link with a little info on black maple in MN.    I hope you're having a great gardening season!!

responder: The Question Asker Replied July 07, 2023, 3:20 PM EDT
response: Thank you for the follow up. It confirms what I found when the seedlings got larger. To my surprise, the second leaves were definitely a maple shape. We have silver maples and lots of those seedlings come up, but they look like maple right away, so I never guessed maple.  One of the fun things about gardening is that there is always something new to learn. Thanks again. Love this service!

responder: The Question Asker Replied July 07, 2023, 5:54 PM EDT
response: Thank you for the follow up. It confirms what I found when the seedlings got larger. To my surprise, the second leaves were definitely a maple shape. We have silver maples and lots of those seedlings come up, but they look like maple right away, so I never guessed maple.  One of the fun things about gardening is that there is always something new to learn. Thanks again. Love this service!