These two trees are in an area that is shaded by a canopy of mixed persimmon and black locust and has very little space to spread. It's in an area I call the forest gully which was the drain for a failing septic system 16 years ago. So it would have been fertile ground back when these guys started. Definitely not full sun, but more sun than under oaks and hickories. Several trees in this small area have come down in the past couple of years, old age and windstorms.

Both trees are about 20 feet tall and what I'd characterize as skinny. One of them is fairly straight, the other curves out into the area now getting more sun since the big trees fell. DBH of both is 4 inches.

One tree is higher on the slope of the north side of the 6.3-TheGulch and is straight and tall, probably 30 feet, with all the flowers and greenery up top. The other is on the south, very close to the bottom of the gulch and it goes up about 10 feet and then curves another 15 feet or so horizontally across the gulch. Both have DBH of 4 inches

There turned out to be a third one I hadn't noticed the first time which is up on top of the slight ridge between the forest gully and the upper pond areas. It is also straight and tall with flowering and leaves only going on up top. DBH 3.7 inches


These are trees, not a thicket like the wild plum a few hundred feet away.

The flowers and leaves are not like the invasive pear whose flowers appear well before the leaves and are pretty much gone when it begins to leaf out. Also the bark and branching pattern are not very similar. The pear have darker and smoother bark and much more branching lower down the trunk. On the right is the mystery tree, on the left is invasive pear. (When I first found these and tried to ID them, I came up with Asian pear partly because of the shape and coloring and taste and texture of the inch to inch and a half fruits. I'm sure now that they are indeed the bad guys, even if very popular with the insects.)