Fagus Sylvatica

Or red beech tree. Originally only in Europe but meanwhile also in the US. Resistant to the tree diseases that kill the American beech trees.
Can grow into a real big beautiful tree if the deer don’t eat it.
It is a baby of the tree that was standing next to my house in Hamburg , the house that I had to sell to be able to emigrate to the US. That tree and I had a very special history: it was the tree that gave the house to me actually- but that story is nearly too long to tell.
I was a renter of that little house, overshadowed by this tree, it was huge. The owner wanted to cut it down so he could add a second story to the house and rent it out for more money.
While he was in the tree trying to cut as much as he could, a neighbor called the police. Trees over a certain size are protected in Hamburg.
When I came home from work I learned what had happened. The owner got a big fine right away and the order to have a tree surgeon repair the damage he had caused.
The owner was so angry and upset that he” couldn’t do with his own property as he pleased” that he finally agreed to selling the house to me. ( I had tried to buy it for a while but in vain.)
So I tried to plant the seeds here, but in the desert climate of Reno, I had no luck. Now finally, after 20 years of trying, I was very happy see this little baby tree here.
The leaves are very soft and feathery, they have a little fuzz around the edges like a baby’s head. But they have that every spring and will loose the fuzz later in the year.
Always a little homesick for the country that I left so long ago.