Rapanea melanophloeos seedlings or saplings?

A couple of small Rapanea melanophloeos plants rather than trees were seen starting off in life somewhere in Fernkloof. They’re in the transition stage between seedlings and saplings.

Maybe they're older than their small size might suggest. Unaided by planned irrigation or the adding of nutrients, small specimens encountered in nature may be older than they look. How hard life has been so far is hard to assess when first meeting such ostensible beginners. There may be little to tell of trials and tribulations of a young or not so young life.

Tiny Cape beech trees don’t have the baby features of some plant species that are hardly recognisable while young, only looking familiar once they acquire some size. These two are small yet display the true to type characteristics of their species in leaves and stems (Venter, 2012; Schmidt, et al, 2002; iNaturalist).