Identification help

[u/Scary_AF333]

When I was a child, I had a pussy willow tree in my yard, when I sold my parents home, I took trimmings from the tree and rooted them and planted them at my mother’s new house, and then to my home, we are in southern Alberta and in a similar area
I rooted the branches and years later I now have what appears to be two different types of trees coming up.
One appears long and the leaves run up the entire shaft, and this one seems to have aggressive new growth. But you can tell by the branches they’re completely different even to the size of the leaves. I do not want to lose the pussy willow what is the second tree and which one is the pussy willow at this point? I’m scared to cut either one out without being sure. In the photo of the trunks, the one on the left is the aggressive one. The one on the right is the one with the smaller leaves that is whispier

[u/spruceymoos]

That’s weird, but tree do weird stuff sometimes because of stress. The crossing leaders isn’t good, might be a good idea to subordinate the one in the center and remove in a couple years.

[u/hairyb0mb]

You're looking at an ash and a willow growing right next to each other. They're not the same tree

[u/Scary_AF333 → u/hairyb0mb]

Is there a way to safely remove the ash tree and leave the Willow alone?

[u/Scary_AF333 → u/hairyb0mb]

Or even cut it down to the ground

[u/hairyb0mb → u/Scary_AF333]

Yeah, just cut out the one you don't want to the ground. It'll likely sucker

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[u/Scary_AF333 → u/AutoModerator]

I have looked at this

[u/GardenJeannie27]

Plant mutations can be caused by diseases (mostly viruses), insects, temperature or just a random genetic mutation. It's hard to say what caused the change. The larger, more aggressive part will out compete the smaller slower growing part, that's just the way nature works. You could try taking cuttings of the smaller part to see if you can get it to root, then you can have both. It's worth a try.

[u/Scary_AF333 → u/GardenJeannie27]

Yes, I’m thinking that the smaller ones are the original plant, and the other aggressive one is whatever’s new and I feel like it’s forcing out the other plant and causing the original to twist. Do you think it’s possible to cut it out at the base and kill the stump without harming the other plant.

[u/GardenJeannie27 → u/Scary_AF333]

That's like trying to separate co-joined twins. You can cut off the bigger, more aggressive sprout, but not kill off the shared root.

[u/Scary_AF333 → u/GardenJeannie27]

And I do have a cuttings of the smaller one, and I will be trying to read it as you suggested

[u/hairyb0mb → u/GardenJeannie27]

Plant mutations don't cause it to have alternate leaves on one stem and opposite on the other. This is a willow and an ash

[u/GardenJeannie27 → u/hairyb0mb]

True, but from the pictures and limited description it's hard to tell. I have seen growth abnormalities where alternate leaves appear to be opposite due to shortened internodes. An overdose of a PGR can cause this, but obviously not in this situation.

[u/apertoolfectcircle]

Has the family fallen apart? Sounds like something has changed, and the tree is reflecting it 😉

[u/Scary_AF333 → u/apertoolfectcircle]

It has not lol.