Help Identifying Tree

[Philip Green]

Can anybody help me identify this tree?

It was about 15 feet tall with a 10 inch diameter trunk after about twenty years. The leaves are varigated; green and white.

The attached images are of the bottom of the trunk, a piece of branch and a twig showing the reddish buds.

[Andy Coates]

Looks like one of the Acers. Possibly quick grown field maple. Was it grown in a damp position?

[Philip Green]

It was in a small border between a meadow and a slab patio. The roots had extended under the patio and along the border but not much into the meadow. When I dug up the stump, the ground was pretty dry despite recent weather and I noticed a clay layer only about a foot from the surface.

[Andy Coates]

That will be where the damp conditions come from. Water will have sat at the clay layer and the tree has taken as much as it can get.