I can’t find this tree using online tree ID guides. I’ve seen it growing along the curb in Msplewood and S Orange. I don’t recall ever seeing one in the Reservation. The hanging fruit appears singly, or in short chains of 2 or 3. 

This one is on Academy, near Fourth. Catty-corner to OLS gym. Photos are from the last few weeks (January). 

that first pic reminds me of the film Eraserhead.

Hmm, trunk looks like a red oak.  Too bad there's no leaves to identify.  The seed pods are throwing me off.

Maybe some sort of elm.

dickf3 said:

I can’t find this tree using online tree ID guides. I’ve seen it growing along the curb in Msplewood and S Orange. I don’t recall ever seeing one in the Reservation. The hanging fruit appears singly, or in short chains of 2 or 3. 

This one is on Academy, near Fourth. Catty-corner to OLS gym. Photos are from the last few weeks (January). 

I drove by there a couple hours ago. I pretty sure that is an oak tree with galls growing on it. Not 100% sure. 

Is this the tree?

Those seed pods say with 100% certainty, that it is not an oak (nor a beech, maple, chestnut, ash or elm).

I am not that familiar with North American trees, so I won't guess at what it is.  Also, Maplewood used to have an arborist, who like to plant unusual trees, so it could easily be something non-native.  

David Nial from Maplewood Garden Club might be able to tell what it is.

Jaime, I saw your question about leaves earlier today, before you posted the photo. At that time, I thought I remembered leaves like a walnut or ailanthus, but I wasn’t certain. I was going to try to walk by it to see if I could find any remnants of leaves on the ground or on the tree, but I never made it over there this afternoon.

Yes, that’s the tree. Good detective work. Looks like pinnately compound leaves from your photo. 

I think there’s also one of these at the edge of the Y parking lot on the left,  when viewed from West Parker. I never walked close enough to it to be sure.  I’ve seen them other places around town, too. I’m wondering if they’ve been recently introduced to this region,  as I’m not seeing them in tree guides, though maybe I just missed them.

I come upon those pods on a particular walk route I take sometimes. The pods are weirdly gummy, and they are falling this week, which seems like strange timing for a tree to shed something. Then again, have you noticed here and there the trees on which leaves turned completely brown, but never fell?

Could be the tree has some kind of vine growing on it? From Jamie’s pic, there’s different leaves on the tree. 

The tree looks like a locust. 

It’s possible that this past fall the tree’s “fruit”  looked like peas in a pod. I have a vague recollection of that. No “pods” are visible now, and the “peas” appear like they shrunk or dried out somewhat.  

PictureThis on my phone tells me that Jamie's photo is Japanese Pagoda Tree (Styphnolobium japonicum).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styphnolobium_japonicum

Goldenrain Tree

David Nial suggests Sophora japonica (which the former arborist planted several places in Maplewood).  The common name is Japanese pagoda tree.  He is checking with Rutgers.

There are lots of those around town. They bloom profusely in late summer with fluffy pale green/yellow flower heads. They caught my eye last year and I used SEEK to identify.

tomcat said:

David Nial suggests Sophora japonica (which the former arborist planted several places in Maplewood).  The common name is Japanese pagoda tree.  He is checking with Rutgers.

After googling it I think that’s the most possible answer. Hopefully we can all go look at it in the summer.

Goldenrain Tree is close;  it’s consistent with the photo Jaime provided. But the best match is what David Nial, tomcat, WindyT and now Jaytee have all noted.

The fruit pictured in the Wikipedia entry for Sophora japonica is what I saw this past year. Not quite”peas in a pod”. More like “beads on a string”. 

That PictureThis app is quite useful. In the past, I’ve sent photos of a few mystery plantings around Maplewood to a friend, who ID’ed them with his PictureThis. I should have thought of doing that for this tree. Some of the unknowns were in Memorial Park, including a mass planting of what his PictureThis ID’ed as Goldencup St. John’s wort. A great selection for that spot,  with a long spectacular display. I have a suspicion Mr. Nial may have been the brains (and possibly some of the muscle, too) behind that installation.

It looks like this tree has been identified, but I wanted to mention that iNaturalist (and its companion app Seek) is very good at identifying trees from photos, as well as birds, insects, fungi, etc... Its different from PictureThis in that its more about recording observations of plants and animals and sharing those with other people, than just about id'ing plants.  Observations collected through iNat feed into biodiversity databases and similar efforts.  iNat and Seek are both products of the California Academy of Sciences and are both completely free to use.

https://www.inaturalist.org/

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/south-mountain-reservation

I realize the tree has been identified. For information, a Red Oak would have acorns and not pods. A walnut tree would have round hard shells that would be black and rotting on the ground, this time of year. Picking up the walnut shells would leave you with a black stain on your hand for a day or two.