Another plant ID please!

[MrsIronfoundersson]

This has appeared in my front garden... a small sapling about a metre high so far. Tried tree ID but got stuck as I don't know what the winter buds look like. We are surrounded by trees but none like this. Any help greatly appreciated!

Looks like an ash sapling to me

my plant app said it’s an English walnut. Nice one.

Looks like an ash sapling, get it out quickly as they are a PITA!

It does look a bit like walnut, but they are uncommon in the UK and you have to ask yourself how a walnut planted itself there.

Far more likely to be an ash, whose seeds are winged and spread by the wind.

Have you tried uploading it in google lens?

There is actually a walnut tree across the road and local squirrels seem to spend all their time burying things (usually in my pots while uprooting the thing that's supposed to be in there!) So it may be a walnut. Will compare with the one across the road. Thank you everybody!

Have just tried Google Lens and it came up with bitternut hickory, which I have never heard of!

I thought ash aswell. I have one growing in my garden too. They sprout everywhere. It depends if you have one nearby.

Google ash dieback. Ash is a beautiful native tree and they're all dying, millions of them. I haven't seen a healthy one for several years.

Bit of a pain when they grow where you don't want them to, but won't be a problem for too much longer.

Yep Ash. I have lots of saplings popping up in random places all of the time! But I live in the middle of nowhere.

My thoughts initially were walnut. I don't know where the thought that they are 'uncommon in the UK'. Not as common as ash, maybe. With ash dieback I think they'll need all the help they can get. If it is in an unsuitable place for a tree, can you pop it in a pot for the time being? Walnuts do get big, but fantastic magnificapent trees.

It's in a concealed bathtub in the garden that used to have ericaceous soil in it but everything there has got old and died. Might pot it up and see how it goes. We don't have room for a big mature tree, have got 2 monster maples and a mulberry already.
I thought Ash as well...
Thank you everybody for your input!

We also have a huge walnut across the road and squirrel planted saplings that come up every year. I pot them up and give them away on Gumtree. It looks like a walnut to me.

It definitely is not ash. Buds are wrong, leaflets are wrong. It’s too “green”. If you look at the picture @mrsjackrussell posted, you can see it is different from yours, stem with-a greyish cast, leaflets distinctly serrated. Walnut is what I first thought, and if you have a walnut across the road it’s quite likely that a squirrel has planted one for you.

Hickory is a walnut relative. US.

Thank you all!

If it's a walnut you can crush the leaves they have a beautiful( I think) scent to them. I have an English Walnut that I grew from a nut 25 years ago.

Ash has opposite leaves, which gives the seedling a neat look, with leaves in opposite directions, two sets at right angles to each other. This seedling doesn’t have that. Therefore walnut.

Am going to go and smell it!