It's always fun to walkabout with Sharon where there are plants. Sometimes she offers a quiz plant or I say that's so-and-so tree and she might confirm or throw it back at me to try again. And it's just not learning the i.d. or botanical name of the plant, it's other features and anecdotes and with her vast experience out in nature she describes, sometimes it can be very entertaining. Recently she and Kyle were doing a pre-walk on OSU campus for the class. It was a beautiful day and I decided to join them. There could be photo ops. (All photos here are mine or otherwise credited.) We came to this plant she recently planted this spring. It looked familiar. They knew what it was, but I pondered. Finally Sharon lifted a branch to reveal... willow buds! Of course, I've spent enough time out in the Chadwick Willow Collection (The nation's largest diverse collection) to pick that one off. It was Salix chaenomeloides - a Japanese pussy willow shrub that grows to about 15' to 20'. I should have looked for the buds, the leaf - the reproductive system is certainly what Linnaeus used to his satisfaction. Also Matthew thought similar pathways: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Pay attention, Sherrill! Just don't look...see! Turn over that new or old leaf and look for clues! Anyway they schemed what plant to quiz by location and referred to the plant walk list to find samples presented.
I believe here there was discussion of a hybrid here.
I have been collecting ash seeds as part of the Ash Tree Seed Collection Initiative. I have collected seeds from six trees now and received a nice thank you note in the mail from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. I'm motivated to find more seeds and need to hurry as soon seeds will be off the trees. We studied this ash tree and Kyle said, look, there's ash seeds below the tree! Not! These were from an unthinking Buckeye fan who stupidly dumped their hot ashes after their BBQ. Would they like it if I dumped ashes under their trees at home? Unfortunately tailgating fans sometimes dump their hot coals, oil from cooking, trash, etc. all over the place and it's a major campus clean up. There are some tailgaters that do clean up. There are signs to encourage recycling and pick up of litter, but some fans don't care but there are some that do. We get no respect. Beyond Garden Ambassadors, we need Garden Police!
We headed across Woody Hayes Drive at John Herrick Drive and I wanted to show them this "Zelcova" I had found with a surprise at the base of the tree. Well, somehow I was surprised again as I had misidentified this tree, it was a Ulmus parvifolia, a Lace Bark Elm, not a Zelcova! I guess it was the vase-shaped trunk and exfoliating bark that has some similarities that led me astray, but there are difference between the trees. The leaves bear some similarities, but a major tip off is the branches of the elm are festooned with seeds or samara - little round to elliptic shaped fruit that remind me of some teabags I have seen. The Lace Bark Elm has been widely planted to replace the American Elm, as it is resistant to the Dutch elm disease. The American Elm was a favored tree that shaded many city streets and campuses, but there are a few that remain. 
Lace Bark Elm leaves look like this with seeds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RN_Ulmus_parvifolia_leaves_and_seeds.JPGThe Zelcova leaves look like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zelkova_serrata6.jpgzelcova leaf
There are bark similarities too - both flake, but the Lace Bark Elm is more lacy and ornamental, more like pieces of a puzzle:
The Zelcova bark below is more fractured in sharp angled pieces and not as ornamental.
This particular Zelcova is found southwest of the new 4H building on campus. There's another Zelcova that graces the Labyrinth Garden at the Lane Avenue Gardens.
The surprise I found to show Kyle and Sharon at the base of the Lace Bark Elm tree was a drain. I pondered which came first the tree or the drain. Perhaps it was a simultaneous thing, but the way the tree had grown around the drain was something amazing to see.
