Tree+Descriptions


 * The White Pine**

General Info:

The White Pine is an evergreen tree that grows all over the United States. It typically grows to become 50‐80 feet in height with a crown spread of about 20‐40 feet. Its leaves consist of bunches of five needles which are 2‐5 inches long, and its fruit is a long, brown cone. The blooming season of the White Pine is between April and May, and, during this time it produces yellow or pink flowers.The yellow male flowers are in clusters near the tip of the branch. The female flowers are light green tinged with red or pink and are at the ends of the branches.  Many animals such as rabbits, bears, squirrels, and birds eat the seeds of this tree. Mammals such as the beaver, snowshoe hair, and porcupine, eat its bark. Humans commonly use the White Pine as a Christmas tree, and as a source of lumber.

History:

During Colonial times, the British colonists used the White Pine to create ship masts. Since the supply of trees began to grow smaller, the British Parliament began to mark the trees to reserve them for the king’s men. This caused problems between the settlers and the British government, and was one of the reasons that the Revolutionary War began.




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 * The Northern Red Oak** (Quercus rubra)

A special feature of the Northern Red Oak is that it can grow well in cities and towns because it can tolerate pollution fairly well. It grows about 2 feet per year for about 10 years. When it is full grown, it is between 69-75 feet in height, with a crown spread of about 45 feet. This tree produces a fruit commonly known as acorns. Many animals and different kinds of wildlife depend on acorns for food. These include blue jays, squirrels, deer, wild turkeys, raccoons, rodents, and bears. In the autumn, the leaves change color from dark green to red. Its leaves are alternate, and simple. They are between 4-8 inches long, with pointed lobes. The blooming season is from April-May and it produces pale, yellow-green catkins during this time. Catkins are flower clusters that have no petals:

History: The Northern Red Oak has always been a popular source of lumber, ever since colonial times. Native Americans have relied on acorns as a source of food.


 * American Chestnut** (Castanea dentate)

The American Chestnut is currently threatened by extinction because of a blight. Blight is a plant disease, which doesn’t allow the tree to live long enough to produce any flowers or nuts. This blight was first discovered in New York City in 1904. The American Chestnut typically grows between Main and Florida. When it is fully grown, it can grow to be over 100 feet tall. Unfortunately, as a result of the blight, most of them remain as stump sprouts less than 20 feet tall.

The American Chestnut’s leaves are alternate, simple, and pinnately veined. They are between 5-8 inches long. The tree produces pale-green catkins, which are clusters of flowers that have no petals. These appear on the tree in the late spring, or early summer. The fruit it produces, are large, round, spiky husks. Inside these husks, the chestnuts are found.

Chestnut inside of husk Catkins


 * Eastern Redbud** (Cercis Canadensis)

The Eastern Redbud is known for its beauty in the springtime. In April, it produces many rosy pink flowers. The Redbud’s heart‐shaped leaves are reddish purple. They change to dark green, and finally to yellow. They are simple, alternate leaves that are not lobed It grows to about 20‐30 feet in height, and has a crownspread of 25‐ 35 feet. It has a diameter of about 8‐12 inches. The tree produces a brownish‐black pod, which is its fruit. These are usually 2‐3 inches long.

History The tree was first cultivated in 1811. George Washington loved this tree, and he transported many seedlings to his home. He wrote about its beauty in his diary on many occasions.


 * Sweet Crabapple**

This tree is relatively small, with a short trunk. It grows in the east‐central United States, particularly in Ohio. When it is fully grown, it is between 15‐30 feet, with a diameter of 8‐14 inches. Its leaves are broad and flat. They are simple, and pinnately lobed. The Sweet Crabapple produces small apples that mammals such as deer and raccoons like to eat. Since they are sour, humans more commonly use them to make jellies.

Black Cherry (Rosemarie) Sweet Gum (Amanda) Blue Spruce (Dorothy) Tulip (Amanda) Magnolia (Dorothy) Norway Maple (Phil) Crimson King Maple (Phil) Dawn Redwood (Harry) Mulberry (Rosemarie) Locust (Harry)


 * Sweetgum Tree** (Liquidambar styraciflua)

The Sweetgum is also commonly known as the Redgum, Star-leaved gum, Bilsted, Alligator Tree, and Liquidambar. Both common and scientific names refer to the sap that comes out from cuts in the bark. Hardened clumps of this gum are chewed by some people, as it was chewed by Native Americans and the early pioneers. In pioneer days, the gum was obtained from the trunks by peeling the bark and scraping off the resinlike solid. This gum was used medicinally as well as for chewing gum. The bark is gray and deeply furrowed into narrow, scaly ridges (hence the name Alligator Tree). The sweet gum is a large, native, aromatic tree becoming 60 to 120 feet in height, with a trunk from 2 to 4 feet in diameter. In the open it develops a very symmetric pyramidal crown, with spreading and almost horizontal branches low on the trunk. When growing in forests, the trunks are straight and clean, with a small lofty crown. Its range includes southern Connecticut to Central Florida, west to E. Texas, and north to S. Illinois. Its long-stalked seedballs mature in autumn and persist into winter. They are made up of many individual fruits each ending in 2 long curved prickly points. Each compartment of these seedballs contains many small, winged seeds. These seedballs are green when young and harden into sharp, pointed, woody capsules as they mature. The seeds are eaten by songbirds and squirrels here in New York City and by wild turkey, chipmunks, songbirds, squirrels and bobwhite in rural and suburban areas.

The City naturalist http://www.nysite.com/nature/flora/sweetgum.htm


 * Tuliptree** or **Yellow Poplar** (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Also known as tulip-poplar, white-poplar, and whitewood, this is the tallest hardwood tree in eastern North America, reaching 200 feet in height, though usually between 80 – 150 feet, and 4 – 6 feet in diameter. Coincidentally, both the bright green leaves (in outline) and greenish-yellow flowers are tulip-shaped. The tree grows in deep, rich, and moist soil, and commonly is found in bottomlands. The wood is soft and weak, but is very easily worked, and has many uses. Early settlers used the wood extensively in building, and made home remedies from the inner bark of the roots. Bees make honey from the blossoms, and various wildlife eat the fruit and twigs. Yellow-poplar grows throughout the Eastern United States from southern New England, west through southern Ontario and Michigan, south to Louisiana, then east to north-central Florida. It is most abundant and reaches its largest size in the valley of the Ohio River and on the mountain slopes of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Yellow-poplar has a singly occurring, perfect flower 4 to 5 cm wide, with six petals varying in color from a light yellowish green at the margin to a deep orange band at the center. Yellow-poplars usually produce their first flowers at 15 to 20 years of age and may continue production for 200 years. Flowering occurs from April to June depending on location and weather conditions. The flowering period for each tree varies from 2 to 6 weeks depending on the size and age of the tree.

http://www.oplin.org/tree/index.html

=__Saucer Magnolia__= Saucer magnolia trees are deciduous flowering trees. They grow to be about 25 feet tall and can have a 20 to 30-foot crown spread. The saucer magnolia is a multi-stemmed tree. The mottled gray bark of the saucer magnolia is smooth. The saucer magnolia has large, fuzzy green flower buds all through the winter. These buds can be seen at the tips of the branches. The blooms open in late winter or early spring before the leaves.

The flowers of the saucer magnolia are large white to pink flowers that are goblet shaped. The size and shape of the blooms are what gave the Saucer Magnolia its common name. When fully opened into the "saucer" position the petals range from 5" to as much as 10" in diameter. The leaves are simple, alternate and are about three to six inches in length and about 3 inches wide. They are medium to dark green in summer and sometimes turn brown in autumn.

The fruit is about 1 to 3 inches long. The fruit appears in August and contains small, pointed red or deep pink seeds. The birds are attracted to the fruit of the saucer magnolia.

Common names for the Saucer Magnolia include Tulip tree and Japanese magnolia.

// Metasequoia // was first described as a fossil from the [|Mesozoic] Era by [|Shigeru Miki] in [|1941], but in [|1944] a small stand of an unidentified tree was discovered in China in Modaoxi by Zhan Wang; due to [|World War II] , these were not studied further until [|1946] and only finally described as a new living species of //Metasequoia// in [|1948] by [|Wan Chun Cheng] and [|Hu Hsen Hsu]. In [|1948] the [|Arnold Arboretum] of [|Harvard University] sent an expedition to collect seeds and, soon after, seedling trees were distributed to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials.
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 * // Metasequoia //** (**Dawn Redwood**) is a fast-growing, [|deciduous] tree, and the sole living species, **// [|Metasequoia glyptostroboides] //**, is one of three species of [|conifers] known as redwoods. It is native to the [|Sichuan] - [|Hubei] region of [|China] . Although shortest of the redwoods, it grows to at least 200 feet (60 meters) in height. Since that tree's rediscovery in 1944, the Dawn Redwood has become a popular ornamental.
 * D ** awn redwoods once blanketed the entire Northern Hemisphere and were thought to have been extinct for millions of years until their rediscovery in 1941 by a Chinese forester in a remote corner of the Sichuan (at the time, Szechuan) Province in south-central China. Somehow, a little over one thousand trees had survived for millennia in a region that ironically is not even Metasequoia’s ideal environment! How then, did it survive in the Shui-sha Valley when it perished elsewhere? That is one of the great modern silvicultural mysteries.

While the bark and foliage are similar to another closely related redwood genus // [|Sequoia] //, //Metasequoia// differs from the California redwood in that it is [|deciduous] like // [|Taxodium distichum] // (Bald Cypress), and like that species, older specimens form wide buttresses on the lower trunk. It is a fast-growing tree to 40-45 m tall and 2 m trunk diameter in cultivation so far (with the potential to grow to even greater heights).

The leaves are opposite, 1-3 cm long, and bright fresh green, turning a foxy red-brown in fall. The [|pollen] cones are 5-6 mm long, produced on long spikes in early spring; they are only produced on trees growing in regions with hot summers. The [|cones] are globose to ovoid, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter with 16-28 scales, arranged in opposite pairs in four rows, each pair at right angles to the pair next to it; they mature in about 8–9 months after pollination.
 * Leaf: ** Opposite, deciduous, linear, one inch long, flat, generally appearing two-ranked in a flattened display; when growing on deciduous branchlets the leaf/deciduous branchlet structure resembles a feathery pinnately (or bi-pinnately) compound leaf, green to yellow-green.
 * Flower: ** Monoecious; males, light yellow brown, in narrow hanging clusters up to 12 inches long; females, yellow-green, solitary and erect with fused scales.
 * Fruit: ** Four-sided, box-like cones that hang on long stalks, round to cylindrical in shape, 1/2 to 1 inch long, light brown; peltate shields contain small, winged seeds, matures in late fall.
 * Twig: ** May be deciduous or not; non-deciduous twigs are slender, light reddish brown in color, smooth, with short, buff colored, opposite, cylindrical buds protruding at right angles; deciduous twigs are two-ranked, resembling pinnately compound leaves.
 * Bark: ** Reddish brown, fibrous and stringy, develops an irregular fluted pattern, exfoliates in strips, rope-like in appearance.
 * Form: ** Very straight, single trunk with numerous branches forming a narrow conical crown; capable of reaching heights well over 100 feet tall.


 * Norway Maple **
 * Common Name:** Norway Maple
 * Genus:** Acer
 * Species:** platanoides
 * Family:** Aceraceae
 * Order:** Sapindales
 * Class:** Magnoliopsida


 * Leaf: ** Opposite, simple, and palmately-veined, 5 to 7 lobed with long pointed "teeth", exudes milky white sap from the petiole when detached, dark green above, paler below. A purple (nearly black) leaf variety known as Crimson King is widely planted.
 * Flower:** Appear in early spring, before leaves; bright yellow-green in color, with male and female usually on different trees.
 * Fruit:** Widely divergent 2-winged samaras, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long in clusters, relatively flat seed cavity, mature in late summer and persist into the winter.
 * Twig:** Stout, brown with a large, turban-shaped, green to purple(fall and winter) terminal bud, large bud scales.
 * Bark:** Gray-brown, a bit corky, on older trees shallowly furrowed with long narrow, somewhat interlacing ridges.
 * Form:** Medium sized tree to 80 feet tall, usually with a dense rounded crown.

Norway maple is a deciduous tree that usually grows 40-60 ft. (12.2-18.3 m) tall. The opposite leaves are palmately lobed with 5-7 lobes. The margins are marked with a few large teeth. Flowering occurs in the early spring before the leaves emerge. The flowers develop into large double samaras that mature in the late summer. Norway maple is very similar to sugar maple but can be distinguished by the fruit, sap and bark. The autumn color is usually yellow, occasionally orange-red.

Once established into a forest, it has the ability to shade out the native understory and out-compete the native tree species. Norway maple is native to Europe and was first introduced into the United States in 1756. It has been, and continues to be, widely sold as an ornamental.

The wood is hard, yellowish-white to pale reddish, with the heartwood not distinct; it is used for furniture making and woodturning**.** Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects on a lathe. In North America, it is grown as a street and shade tree. It is favored due to its tall trunk and tolerance of poor, compacted soils and urban pollution. Unfortunately, despite its good looks and urban hardiness, it releases chemicals to discourage undergrowth, which create bare, muddy run-off conditions immediately beneath the tree. As a result of these characteristics it is considered invasive in some states although it has not been proven to be and is still widely used for urban plantings in many areas.
 * Cultivation and Uses**

Norway Maple itself is threatened in a few areas by the Asian long-horned beetle, which eats through the trunk of trees, often killing them. The Norway maple is also a primary host to the Asian longhorn beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis). This is a large insect that lays its eggs within the bark of the tree. The larvae then tunnel into the wood and create extensive galleries within the heartwood and cambium. This creates great damage to the trees’ structure and nutrient flow. Adults then chew their way out to infest other nearby trees. The Asian longhorn beetle is fast becoming a danger to eastern hardwood forests.
 * __Threats__**