Not an exotic

I came across a strange seedling at the bottom of the garden the other week. Ash like buds, but leaves not ash like at all. Browsed the various tree books and tree sites I could think of, to no avail. One key came up with a spindle tree which was clearly not right at all.

I then thought to try the RHS members' advisory service, and after a decent interval their tree man came up with the following: 'probably Fraxinus excelsior f. diversifolia, an unusual form of our native ash, sometimes called one-leaved ash. It is a vigorous tree, similar to the typical form but with just a single large leaflet, which is coarsely toothed or sometimes even 3-parted'. So not an exotic at all.

Armed with the name, I find that the internet knows all about it after all, and the pictures that google comes up with do confirm the identification. Shakespeare was on quite the wrong track when he was banging on about names and roses in 'Romeo and Juliet'.

Plant itself in shade and not terribly vigorous. Also rather more spiders than I would have thought healthy. But we will see how it gets on.