Trees

Another Walk in Woods

My family’s house is situated in the middle of a small woods and although I’ve grown up surrounded by the same trees, I realized that other than the main family groups and a couple of exceptions, I don’t know what species of trees we have. I could easily tell you that we have maple trees, oak trees, walnuts, sycamores, pawpaws, buckeyes and red buds. We have the fuzzy leaf trees and the, so-called, thornapple trees. But what are they really? What kinds of maples and oaks? What exactly are the fuzzy leaf trees and thorn covered trees? Are there more that I never even noticed we had? I decided to start in front of my house along the driveway where I found my first and second trees. Next I walked over to the maple that we transplanted into our yard from another palace in our woods because of its unique color. Then I walked down the trail to the creek, where about half way down the hill I found my forth tree. After reteaching the bottom I found my fifth and sixth tree before heading to the left to my seventh tree. Finally I walked back to the right and headed further down the trail where I found my eighth tree. It was interesting and fun to learn about the types of trees and figure out what each unknown tree was using Trees and Shrubs Peterson Field Guide.

 

American Elm

Ulmus americana

The first tree I went to was one I was familiar with, however I didn’t actually know what it was as I always just referred to them as the fuzzy leaf trees, though the leaves are more sandpapery than fuzzy. As it unsurprisingly turns out, the Fuzzy Leaf tree is not its actual name, it’s an American Elm tree. This American Elm tree sits on the edge of my driveway and while the branches are a bit high, I can grab one if I jump. I first determined that the leaves were alternate, simple leaves. From there, I followed the key in the Tree and Shrubs field guide, determining as I went that the leaves are fan-veined, have defined teeth, the leaf base is uneven, and the leafs have more of an egg shape to them. I was then led to the Elm family where I was able to determine it was an American Elm based on the leaves being sandpapery and the base of the tree trunk base dividing at the base to make a vase-shape.

Full tree

 

Bottom of tree with unique vase-shape

 

Single tree leaf up close

   

Tree bark up close

 

Green Ash

Fraxinus pennsylvanica

The second tree was also along the driveway and like the first, I had never stopped to wonder what exactly it was. My first assumption was that it was a small type of tree since the few that we have are all small, but that was proved wrong after I keyed out the tree. First I found that the leaves were alternate and pinnately compound. As I read through the key, I observed that the leaflets were in groups of five-eleven, the twigs were hairless and not white-powered. This led me to the Ash family with blue, white, black, and green. My first step was to recount the leaflets, 9, which narrowed it down to either white or green. I then carefully compared the leaf scars and determined they were not very deeply notched and that it was a Green Ash tree. This was a bit of a surprise, since the Emerald Ash Borers arrived in Ohio in 2003 and killed off many of the ash trees. When I told my dad that it was an ash tree, he even told me that he thought the ash borers had taken all our trees out. 

 

Full Tree

Single tree leaf up close

Tree bark up close

 

Pink Lemonade Maple!!!

(Cross breed of Sugar Maple & Red Maple)

Acer saccharum and Acer rubrum

The third tree is one of my favorites, we even relocated a small one into our yard. We nicknamed them Pink Lemonade Trees since the maple trees have unique pink and yellow blotched leaves in the fall. I had never considered what exact kind of maple tree they were, so I decided to find out and got a bit of a surprise. I started with observing the leaves and determined they were opposite, simple leaves and the leaves are both toothed and lobed. Next, I determined that the twigs are not hairy or oak-like, which took me to the maple trees, as expected. I then had a slight problem; it didn’t match any of them. It was shaped like a Sugar Maple leaf but had a bit of a steeper notch and more like the Red Maple. The stem didn’t help either as it was red up by the leaf and faded to green towards the branch, where the Sugar Maple should be solid green, and the Red Maple should be solid red. This left me very confused, but a quick google search taught me that maples love to cross breed with one another (Hybridization (nativetreesociety.org)! I then concluded that it was a Sugar and Red Maple cross and that the name Pink Lemonade suits them perfectly.

 

Full tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Tree bark up close

 

Black Birch

Betula lenta

My fourth tree was one suggested by my older sister, she wanted to know what kind it was. The tree was easy to get to since it’s growing on a steep hill and is growing a bit crooked because of it, but that’s okay. The leaves are alternate and simple with fanned-veins. The twigs have a single leaf bud and the leaves have  distinctive double teeth with a mostly even base. This brought me to the birch family where I quickly determined that it was either Black or Yellow Birch based on the shape. The difference is mainly in the buds and the bark, the buds were hairless so I determined that it was Black Birch. The bark can’t be used yet, since the tree is still too young to have the distinctive traits between the two species. This tree was also surprising, since I didn’t know we had birch trees and now has me wondering how many of our tall trees that I can’t see are also birch trees. 

 

Full tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Tree bark up close

 

Tall Pawpaw

Asimina triloba

My fifth tree is one that we have quite a few of and they tend to grow in groups together. I started by determining that the leaves are alternate, simple, and fan-veined. Next I found the twigs had a single end bud and, using the very helpful ruler provided in the back of my field guide, that the leaves were over six inches long. This led me to where I expected, the Pawpaw Tree. I was not expecting to learn that there is a Dwarf and a Tall Pawpaw Tree. It was easy to determine that the tree was over four feet tall and that the leaves were well over seven inches. However, I did discover that the racoons had beaten us to all the Pawpaw fruit this year, they got it so quickly that we didn’t even know the fruits had ripened yet.

Full tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Tree bark up close

 

Chestnut Oak

Quercus montana

My sixth tree was another young, short tree that I found down by the creek. I quickly determined that it was probably an oak and wondered what kind of oak it was since it didn’t quite look like the oaks in our wood with large lobed leaves. I started with determining the leaves are alternate, simple, and fan-veined. The leaves clustered in groups of five at each end bud and I found no acorns on the young tree, which led to a Fire Cherry. However it definitely isn’t a Fire Cherry, so I determined the young tree probably just isn’t old enough to get acorns yet and headed over to the oak section. From there I determined that it was a toothed leaf, then that it was a rounded toothed leaf, which led me to the Chestnut Oak.I already knew about Red Oaks and White Oaks, but was unaware that we had other oak trees in this part of Ohio, so it was interesting to learn that there have been some in our woods that I hadn’t even noticed were different. 

Full tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Tree bark up close

 

American Sycamore

Platanus occidentalis

My seventh tree is the largest tree in our wood, nicknamed Big Ben. While I have included a picture of him, I found a nearby small one to take close ups of because I can’t get over to the base of his trunk due to the evil honeysuckle that grows thickly in the damp area by the creek. Since the branches with leaves are up too high, I had to find them on the ground to observe them up close. The leaves are alternate, simple, and lobed leaves. The leaves are also fan-lobed, and all the leaves have this distinctive fan-lobed shape and pattern. This led me to a page with an assortment of “miscellaneous” trees in the book, where I very easily determined the Sycamore was the only one it could be on the page due to the shape. The Sycamore Tree has an unusual look due to the flaking off bark. The bark flakes off as the tree grows since it is too stiff and doesn’t allow the tree to grow outwards. While dropping off the bark as it needs to grow does work, it also leaves the tree prone to certain diseases. It is definitely a sight to see as the bark piles up on the ground and the white inner bark shows, allowing you to spot the white trees from quite a distance away. 

Full tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Tree bark up close

 

Big Ben

(the tall wide tree in the back)

 

Honey Locust

Gleditsia triacanthos

My eighth and final tree was one I knew of with several individuals growing next to the trails in different places. However, I didn’t know what family of trees it was in, let alone the exact species, I had always called them thornapples, but a quick online search easily showed that they’re not. I only paid attention to them because their trunk and branches are covered in spikes that you don’t want to bump into. Upon inspection, I determined the leaves were alternate, compound, and had thorns along the branches. This brought me to the Locusts family. From there I narrowed it down to either the Honey or Water Locust as the leaves were twice pinnately compound. Then I carefully looked over the thorns on the branches that grew directly after the place where each leaf grew out from. The thorns had a second smaller spike thorn sticking out from them, which led me to conclude that it was a Honey Locust.

Full Tree

 

Single tree leaf up close

 

Thorn on branch next to leaf

 

Tree bark up close

 

Citation

Petrides,G.A.(1986).Trees and Shrubs. Peterson Field Guides.