Patty Winter said:


This little (so far) guy has shown up next to some azaleas
in my front yard. Somehow I have the feeling that it isn't
going to stay small; it looks to me like it will turn into
a large shrub or even a tree. Does it look familiar to
anyone here?

http://www.wintertime.com/Personal/Plants/tree.html

If this were in my backyard, I'd suspect glossy buckthorn (Frangula
alnus), which I had to spend some time this weekend trying to
control. The young, fresh shoots along the vegetable garden fence
look a bit like your shrub (including the reddish tinge).

But I read farther down that you are in San Francisco Bay area, so
I suppose this is unlikely.

My neighborhood is plagued by woody invasives: common and
glossy buckthorn, honeysuckle, privet, multiflora rose, white
mulberry, Siberian elm, Norway maple and ailanthus (all but the
last three are 'planted' by birds). Leave an area unmowed or
unweeded and it quickly grows up into a thicket of invasives.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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