An Introduction to the Identification and Ecology of ...api.ning.com/files/PbSeB9WLBjdO5XlY*5-b4tohM9E1NhBL4...An Introduction to the Identification and Ecology of Northeastern

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An Introduction to the Identification and Ecology of

Northeastern Hardwood Forest Tree Species

Peter J. Smallidge

NYS Extension Forester and Director, Arnot Teaching and Research Forest

[email protected] www.ForestConnect.info

http://CornellForestConnect.ning.com

Acknowledgement

www.forestryimages.org

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/table_of_contents.htm

(search “silvics manual”)

Know Your Trees:

http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/retrieve/113/art.pdf

http://bhort.bh.cornell.edu/tree/trees.htm

Trees of New York: Native and Naturalized. Don Leopold, Syracuse

University Press.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.forestconnect.info/

http://cornellforestconnect.ning.com/

http://www.forestryimages.org/

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/table_of_contents.htm

http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/retrieve/113/art.pdf

http://bhort.bh.cornell.edu/tree/trees.htm

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Learning Resources

• www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/idit.htm

Virginia tech

• http://fwf.ag.utk.edu/dendro/species/key/index.html

Univ. Tennessee at Knoxville

• Harlow and Harrar’s Textbook of Dendrology. 2000, 9th

edition. JW Hardin, DJ Leopold, and FM White.

McGraw-Hill. (paperback ~$100)

http://moodle2.cce

.cornell.edu 1. Overview and course

information

2. Maple and Birch

3. Locust, Oak, and Ash

4. Hickory, Walnut and

Cucumber

5. Sycamore and Assorted

Hardwoods

6. Conifers (Pine, Spruce,

Larch, Hemlock, Fir,

Cedar)

http://moodle2.cce.cornell.edu/

http://moodle2.cce.cornell.edu/

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Learning Objectives

• List

– tree identification learning

skills

– features of hardwoods that aid

identification

• Understand differences among

hardwoods for particular

habitats and ecological

features

• Know two best recognizable

features (BRF) of at least 5

hardwood trees

• quaking aspen

• paper birch

• black cherry

• white ash

• red oak

• white oak

• red maple

• sugar maple

• American beech

Tree ID – Components of Learning

• Match descriptive with visual (e.g.)

– Arcuate veination

– Two-ranked needles

• Some features vary more than

others

– Leaves > bark > twigs > fruit

• Manage terminology

– e.g., serrate, crenate, attenuate,

emarginate, orbicular

• Learn to use dichotomous keys

– e.g., needles borne in clusters vs.

needles borne singularly

– (“Know Your Trees” website)

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How to Learn Trees

• Flowers – inaccessible, definitive

• Fruit – result from flowers, sometime accessible

• Twigs – more useful in hardwoods than conifers

• Foliage – conifer yes, hardwoods variable

• Bark – diagnostic for some species

• Crown architecture – diagnostic for a few species

• Habitat – often helps sort within a genus

• Shade tolerance – helps narrow field of understory seedlings

Hardwood Utilization

• Paper

• Furniture

• Fuel

• Chemicals

• Wildlife habitat

• Food for humans

• other

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General Features

• Foliage

• Fruit

• Twigs

• Bark

• Growth form

quaking aspen Populus tremuloides

• Poplars and cottonwoods

• quaking, trembling

• bigtooth

• eastern cottonwood

• balm-of-gilead, balsam

poplar

• relatively soft wood,

shade intolerant, early

successional and

disturbance dependant

Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org

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bigtooth aspen

Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org

Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte, Bugwood.org


Paul Wray, Iowa State University, Bugwood.org

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Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service,

Bugwood.org

Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service,

Bugwood.org



Bugwood.org

Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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• BRF: small teeth on leaf margin, flattened petiole, moist soil, glabrous bud scales

• Shade intolerant, won’t self replace without major disturbance

• Clonal vegetative reproduction

• Used for paper, chip board, internal wood trim

• Wildlife eat buds/flowers, rotten wood for cavities

• Seeds need mineral soil, fast growth, dies young.

• Forest tent caterpillars, hypoxylon canker, among others

paper birch Betula papyrifera

• paper, white birch

• sweet, black birch

• yellow birch

• gray birch

• river birch

• eastern hophornbeam

• American hornbeam

• hazelnut

Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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Doubly serrate

(eastern hophornbeam)



Joseph O'Brien, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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• BRF: white exfoliating bark

• Early successional, disturbance responsive species

• Mineral soil required for seed germination, or stump/log

• Ecologically similar to quaking aspen

– Fast early growth, shade intolerant, dies young

• No vegetative reproduction

black cherry Prunus serotina

• Rose family (apple,

plum, rose)

• (wild) black cherry

• fire, pin cherry

• bird, sweet

mazzard cherry

• choke cherry

(clonal shrub)


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Brian Lockhart, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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• BRF: pubescence on lower midrib, singly serrate leaf margin, fleshy fruit with pit, “burnt potato chip bark”, bitter almond smell & taste. Paired glands on petiole within genus.

• Hydrogen cyanide from drying foliage

• Highly valued wood (of good form and quality)

• Early successional, full sun for best development and survival

• Wildlife eat fruits, mast crops every 1 to 5 years

• Rose family, eastern tent caterpillar (has the “tent”)

white ash Fraxinus americana

• white ash

• green ash

• black ash

• blue ash

• Opposite compound

leaves

• M.A.D, all have opposite

leaves


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Bugwood.org


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Emerald ash borer, adult

www.emaraldashborer.info

EAB, larval S-shaped gallery


• BRF: opposite compound leaves, velvety bud scales, v-

notch leaf scar, distal half of leaf margin is serrate, wing

covers ~ 1/3 of seed

• Tolerant becoming intolerant

• Moderate life span, dioecious, frequent mast crops

• Usually decent form, potentially high volume/acre

• Emerald ash borer…the big (and very scary) news!!!

– www.emaraldashborer.info

http://www.emaraldashborer.info/

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northern red oak Quercus rubra

• red oak subgenus

– northern red

– black

– pin

– scarlet

– Shumard

• Bristle tip foliage

• Dark-colored bark

• Acorn meat bitter

• Xylem porous

• Sharp pointed buds

• Stellate pith in cross section


The Dow Gardens Archive, Dow Gardens, Bugwood.org


Bill Cook, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org


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• BRF: bristle tip leaves, shallow acorn cap, “ski-tracks” in

mature bark, peach colored inner bark (vs. black oak)

stem self-prunes

• Intolerant to intermediate, regenerates best in partial to

nearly full sun, mast crops vary locally but every 3 to 5

years. Fruit matures in 2 years (anticipate seed crop)

• Heavily damaged by gypsy moth in 80’s and 90’s

• Valuable attractive wood, coarse grained

white oak Quercus alba

• white oak subgenus – white

– chestnut

– swamp white

– bur

• Rounded lobes

• Ashy gray bark

• “Sweet” acorn meat, one year to mature

• Blunt buds

• Stellate pith in cross section

Chris Evans, Illinois Wildlife Action Plan, Bugwood.org

Chris Evans, Illinois Wildlife Action Plan, Bugwood.org

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swamp white and chestnut oak

swamp white oak Q. bicolor

swamp white oak Q. bicolor

chestnut oak Q. prinus

Q. montana




USDA Forest Service Archive, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

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• BRF: rounded lobes, oblong acorn with coarse deep cap,

“sweet” acorn meat, ashy gray highly variable bark, dry

sites

• Intermediate shade tolerant, xylem plugged with tyloses

(wine barrels)

• Mast crops 4 to 6 years

• Increasingly common with pines and on drier soils and

regions

• Previous heavy infestation by gypsy moth

red maple Acer rubrum

• Maples

– red

– silver

– Boxelder (compound leaves)

– sugar

– black

– striped

– mountain

– Not genus + acerifolium

• Viburnum, Platanus

• Opposite, typically simple leaves (except A. negundo)

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striped maple


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• BRF: reddish twigs, buds, flowers; coarse but flaky bark

(compared to sugar maple); fruit in spring

• Intermediate in shade tolerance, beautiful fall color

• Often on the dry or wet sides of sugar maple habitat

• Infrequently affected by forest tent caterpillar

• Attractive wood, but seldom used

• Maple syrup, but buds break sooner in spring

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sugar maple Acer saccharum

red maple is serrate


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sugar maple

red maple

Norway maple



sugar maple

Wings parallel or

slightly divergent red maple

Wings V-shaped


Wendy VanDyk Evans, Bugwood.org

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Forest tent caterpillar egg mass

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• BRF: sharp pointed buds, smooth leaf margin and rounded sinus, samara wings parallel (fruit), tight and hard bark

• Shade tolerant, preferentially browsed

• Mast seed crops 2 – 4 years

• Valuable wood

• Maple syrup (did you have your pancakes yet today?)

• Several fungi and insects (Asian long-horned beetle)


American beech Fagus grandifolia

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• BRF: elongated sharp buds, waxy leaves, singly serrate,

smooth gray bark until BBD arrives.

• Very shade tolerant and low deer browsing preference

• Mast seed crops on 5- to 7-year cycle

• Hard wood, butcher blocks, interior trim, rail road ties,

firewood

• Reproduces sexually and asexually; stump sprouts, and

root suckers can be sufficiently prolific to exclude desired

hardwoods http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/info/pubs/FC%20factsheets/american%20beech

%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

In Closing…

• Tree ID is fun!!

• Find the right field guide for you

• Make a collection of twigs, fruits, etc. and practice

• Make flash cards

• Use all five senses (with caution)

• Structure your learning vs. independent memorization

• Accumulate knowledge through time

http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/info/pubs/FC factsheets/american beech Fact Sheet.pdf

http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/info/pubs/FC factsheets/american beech Fact Sheet.pdf

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An Introduction to the Identification and Ecology of ...api.ning.com/files/PbSeB9WLBjdO5XlY*5-b4tohM9E1NhBL4...An Introduction to the Identification and Ecology of Northeastern