tree id tips

[mweinstone]

got any tips for identifing the trees? i need them. i got some but want more . easy to remember ones like the number of pine needles in a bunch spells the type.three,...red.....five...white....
whatchewgot?

[JAK]

Neat-o on the white vs red pine.

Here is a generic one for Spruce vs Fir.
Spruce needles are round. Fir are Flat.

[mweinstone]

i think,,, spuce sfeer, fir flat. no? sorry. crucified sfeer and dont know how to spell it better. sorry.

most people argu about poison ivy. its incompleet to say"three shinny leaves" the original song as sung by euell gibbons was three shinny leaves pointing down.no?

[mweinstone]

oh. i got one. "giudebook trees" like the ones in guidebooks like the kissing tree. "they allways have a photo" hard to mistake for ,say,,shoe trees witch only have shoes on them at random times.

[Storm]

I'm still trying to find the "Gum" tree I hear people talking about.

[timebreaks]

hemlocks have flat needles with two white lines on the underside.

red oaks have points on their leaves, white oaks have rounded lobes.

if you scratch the bark off a twig of yellow birch, it smells like wintergreen.

....i think that's all i got, matthewski.

[fredmugs]

If you're in Vermont and you see trees with a bunch of tubes connected to them those are maple trees.

[Pedaling Fool]

This is a hard wood

[4eyedbuzzard]

Obviously a morning photograph.

And for a further chuckle:
"Men Pluck "Viagra" Off Trees In South Africa"

[weary]

Grasp the end of evergreen branches. Fir needles are soft. Spruce feels pointy.

Weary

[Dances with Mice]

You can tell a dogwood tree by its bark.

[berkshirebirder]

If you're in Vermont and you see trees with a bunch of tubes connected to them those are maple trees. --fredmugs

That's a great one for parts of MA too.

[Wilson]

red oaks have points on their leaves, white oaks have rounded lobes.

Add, red man shoot pointed arrows, white man shoot round bullets

[Tinker]

I'm still trying to find the "Gum" tree I hear people talking about.

Here it is : http://www.nysite.com/nature/flora/sweetgum.htm

[Tinker]

White pine has five needles per cluster. Red has three, (if I remember my field botany from the mid 1970's correctly). There is one with two, pitch pine, maybe.

[weary]

White pine has five needles per cluster. Red has three, (if I remember my field botany from the mid 1970's correctly). There is one with two, pitch pine, maybe.

Jack Pine, which grows in old burns, has two needles, as does red pine. But there is no confusing the two. Red has six inch needles, jack pine needles are only an inch and a half long. Pitch pine, which also has short needles, has 3 needles.

At least this is what I tell people when we run across the different varieties on our town land trust lands.

Weary

[4eyedbuzzard]

Not portable, but a cool website for IDing trees http://www.oplin.org/tree/

[Jonnycat]

I have (somewhere) a dichotomous key book, but here is a website with the same information.

[Odd Man Out]

The book "Michigan Trees" by Charles Herbert Otis is a classic book for tree identification. MI has more tree species than any state and most all of the east coast trees will be in here. Originally from 1910. I have a 22nd printing edition from 1978. It is written for serious botanists, but sill useful to casual users too.

Others you can ID by the bark:

Shagbark Hickory has shaggy bark (duh).
Sycamore is the easiest (all splotchy).
Cherry is interesting - young branches have smooth red bark, but when it gets old enough, it is black and coarse.
If the bark has "Tony loves Amy" carved in it, it is probably a Beech.
Red Pine is easy with its red scales.
If it looks like a birch bark canoe, it's a birch.

[icemanat95]

Pitch pine is easy to remember...the pitcher throws three strikes and your are out. three-pitches

There are many other pine species out there with 2 or 3 needles to the cluster...then you have to look at other indicators like the bark, branch densities, length of needles, are they straight or twisted, what do the cones look like and which way do they point on the stem, etc.

MADog is a useful thing to remember. Maples, Ashes and Dogwoods are the only trees with opposite branching (that is, the branches sprout directly opposite from one another, rather than alternating up the stem.

Walnuts and Butternuts are both Juglans Genus and are difficult to tell apart. When the nuts are developing, the nuts of the butternut are more oblong than the Walnut. The Walnut has a particularly spicy scent when you bruise the leaves.

Sassafrass is one of my favorite trees. The newer branches and twigs have grrenish bark. The leaves are somewhat leathery and can be either three lobed, two lobed (look like a mitten) or unlobed on the same twig. The Sassafrass sheds lower branches as it grows and puts most of its branching energy into the top. Young Sassafrass twigs, when broken, smell a bit like Fruit Loops. On mature trees, if you flake off a piece of the blocky bark, the inner bark is orange/cinnamon colored and has a distinctive, spicy scent unlike anything else.

Tupelo, also known as black gum is distinctive in its branching habit, which is nearly right angular from the trunk and from branches to twigs. This is most obvious in the late Fall through early leaf-out. The leaves are leathery and seem to sprout in umbrella like clusters.

Cherry trees when young have very obvious lenticels (horizontal slits) in the bark, which is a deep reddish brown. As the tree matures the bark becomes blocky and flaky. In the north, Cherry trees tend to grow in a twisted manner and tend to get rather messy looking. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny plateau, they grow taller, straighter and larger with fewer galls and sap pockets. Cherry leaves are lanceolate, slightly serrated on the edges and have a distinct mid-rib. All Cherry leaves are toxic to animals when they wilt.

Hickory and Ash are easy to mistake for one another if you are only looking at the leaves. Both have compound leaves (many leaflets on each leaf) and have similar looking bark. Hickory leaves tend to be a lot larger, with the apical leaflet being significantly larger than the rest of the leaflets on the leaf. Ash leaflets are roughly the same size. Additionally, ash bark has a distinct diamond furrow pattern which is VERY distinct. Hickory has a similar pattern but it is more rounded off and fades away as you look further up to younger branches. Additionally, hickories are alternate branchers, while Ashes are Opposite branchers.

Beeches are a northern tree with smooth gray bark and distinctly serrate, unlobed leaves with strong ribs and mid-ribs. Beeches leaves get very papery in the late fall and winter and may not drop until spring buds push them off. Beech buds are long and pointy.

Locusts are thorny trees, with compund leaves and pea pod like seed pods. Black Locust has short pods, maybe 6 inches long and short thorns mainly on the new twigs and bramnches. Honey Locust has much longer, sometimes branching thorns which may grow in clusters on the trunk, limbs, branches and twigs. The Bark on Black Locusts is deeply furrowed/ridged. Honey Locust leaves may be bipinately compound (individual leaflets may have smaller leaflets. Black Locust is invasive in many areas.

Poplars (popples) are a broad category of trees the include aspens, cottonwoods, tulip poplars and others. Up high they may resemble paper or grey birches, but the horizontal black patches dissappear down on the trunk where the bark becomes vertically furrowed. Poplars can also tend to have a greenish cast to the newer bark. Leaves are simple rather than compound, alternate, broadl spade shaped, usually serrated edges, and with long petioles connecting them to the twig. Tulip poplars have a unique 4 lobed shape rather than the spade shape. Poplar wood is weak and soft...not the place to be in heavy wind.

birches:
White Birch is a category of birches rather than a distinct species. White Birch includes paper birch, silver birch and gray birch.

Paper Birch has distinctly papery white bark that peels readily. The leaves are generally quite small, spade shaped and serrated. The interior wood is white and generally pretty weak.

Gray Birch looks like paper birch but the bark isn't nearly so peeling and the branch scars have a distinct v-shaped bark ridge pointing upward over the branches and scars.

Silver Birch looks much like Gray Birch, but the twigs tend to hang down.

Yellow Birch is a much tougher tree with thin, papery and peeling bark, but that bark is dinstinctly yellow/tan in color.

Black Birch has thick, dark gray bark. It peels, but in plates rather than papery sheets. Black Birch is prone to galling and may form burls. It's wood is very dense and hard.

That's about all I have time for right now.