What kind of tree is this? Two things came to mind. Last spring, before the leaves came out, I noticed some stump sprouts that looked like the branches in this photo. After the leaves came out, I found that they were boxelder. The other thing that came to mind was chokecherry. That was something that popped up from my unconscious mind. I know that when I was growing up, we had chokecherry trees at my house. However, I did not pay attention to what they looked like, and if you asked me what kind of bark they had, I would say I had no idea. However, when I saw this bark, my mind said "chokecherry."
When I got home, I looked in The Sibley Guide to Trees. Boxelder did not seem to have bark like this. For chokecherry, there was no picture of bark, but it said that chokecherry was similar to black cherry, and the opposite page showed photos of black cherry bark which matched the photo above. Also, I did an internet search for both chokecherry bark and boxelder bark. Chokecherry bark matched. Boxelder did not.
