Mountain Apple Ash

I've been doing a lot of walking around lately.  Watching for new plants pushing up through the ground, checking buds for signs of opening, what plants are alive, which are dead, guessing at the species.  It's a very exciting time.  Most exciting was my discovery of the mountain apple ash.  What a lovely name.  Kinda rolls off your tongue.  Makes me think of dewy mountain meadows and apple blossoms.  Who couldn't love such a tree?

It has lots of branches like a shrub and is quite short

It has beautiful long leaves like this

and soft fuzzy leaves like this

there are flowers

and two trunks

HANG ON.  Just what exactly is a Mountain Apple Ash anyway?

Well it's an oops.  You see I thought I had uncovered a Mountain Ash in a flower bed a month back.  I checked the buds and could see old berry clusters hanging from the branches.  But obviously I didn't look closely enough to notice that there are actually TWO trees growing up in the same spot.  Not until the ash leaves opened did I realize that the branch next to it didn't look anything like it.  And then I looked at the stump which is playing nursemaid to this natural wonder and realized it's an old apple stump from the old orchard.  And it's sprouting two new trees.  One Ash and One Apple.  One on each side of the stump.  I'm not sure where to go from here.  I could sacrifice one to allow the other room to grow.  But they're intermingling so nicely.  What if I cut one down and the other died of heartbreak?  I don't think I want that hanging over my head.  Sometimes nature knows best and for now I'll enjoy my Mountain Apple Ash.