is it always that shiny.. or did you shine it up with plant wax???

reminds me of prunus serotina???

ken

Thanks for the suggestion, Ken. I didn't do anything to it but did use a flash.

The leaves are kind of thick-feeling, like a Gardenia leaf, and shiny would apply to them, no serrations at the edge. I browsed the first page of google images for the species you suggested but didn't see much in the way of the striking red petioles.

The veins on my plant kind of curl back in instead of going to the leaf edge which doesn't seem to match the bulk of the pics I saw.

I don't know how old this sprout is but did just uproot it about 2 weeks ago. The leaves weren't quite so dangly in situ although besides that, it's doesn't seem much bothered by the experience, yet anyway.

How about Illicium floridanum? If so, the leaves are very aromatic when ripped.

Thanks, Esh. There is a faint licorice odor. I would never notice it unless I was looking. I shredded a leaf into about 15 pieces.

Couldn't find any pics of Illicium floridanum with the same veins in the leaves... but wouldn't that be a nice find?!

Would Photinia show up as a sprout with red stems like that? They are ubiquitous in the area.

A closeup of a leaf, I have small hands...

The popping up weedily (in the South) and the style of branching makes me think this may be Cinnamomum camphora.

Ditto that.

Thanks for the inputs, I appreciate it. I'm hung up on the vein pattern which doesn't match pics I could find of suggestions so far, not sure what else to compare.