Tree, tree, what might you be?

[Namechangeforthis88]

I think it might a toughie. I don't understand all the questions on the tree identifier websites. They have suggested Pride of India and Japanese pagoda tree, but neither looks quite right. Definitely deciduous. Trunk a bit contorted, very small leaves. More pics to follow.

@Namechangeforthis88

Sorry *@yamadori*, I haven't answered your question. I'm in Edinburgh. The thing is a couple of quite knowledgeable people came round and helped identify lots of stuff on the garden, but they were stumped by this tree. I initially thought if it was elm they would have recognised it. But no one's infallible and quite a few people have said ulmus minor now!

If you're in Scotland, then it could be a juvenile Wych elm then, although the leaves look a bit on the small side.

A lot of gardeners are really good at identifying garden shrubs and plants, but aren't as interested in native species, so that would explain why they weren't familiar with it. And of course most mature elm trees were lost to Dutch elm disease some years ago, as another pp mentioned above, another reason for not recognising it, because many people haven't seen one before.

@SockFluffInTheBath

Oh gosh I’m sorry I dared to offer a suggestion that isn’t a vote in the hornbeam vs elm discussion. I thought it might help OP in the future. I thought this was a less snooty and dictatorial corner of MN, clearly I misread the room.

Nothing to do with being snooty or dictatorial. When you have someone with the years of knowledge and experience of yamadori answering the question, it is simply offensive to say “have you tried this computer algorithm with no knowledge of plants?”