Tree of the day

[tule peak timber]

We had snow near us last weekend!

[Texas Ranger]

I partially grew up on a farm where black powder was produced for the south in the war of northern aggrssion.

[Don P]

Not far from here is Saltville, the salt source for preserving meat after the coastline fell, ancient underground salt domes. They would inject water and pump out the brine then boil it down. One of the nearby iron furnaces cast the salt pots for those evaporating furnaces. Further along that old rail line that "Stoneman's calvary came and tore up again" several times is Lead Mines. If the yanks only knew they would have raided harder, towards the end the lead that was in those mines was coming out of the end of a gun in Richmond the next week.

[doctorb]

Got to tell all you smart tree guys that this thread is one of the finest in quite a while.  thx.

[caveman]

This invasive bipinnately compound leaved tree has Chinese roots, is fast growing and produces an attractive flower.  The one pictured is showing less than one year's growth since mowing it off at ground level.  Florida's state tree is in the background (technically, not a tree) and an old longleaf may be visible behind that.













Hopefully the pictures will come through.  I had a heck of a time getting them from the gallery to the post.

[LeeB]

Has another name that is very similar to the real name. I milled one once and the wood was quite pretty. had a red color to it. Champagne for breakfast anyone? 

[Magicman]

Silk Tree.  I don't mind the flower's smell, but some folks hate it. 

I have never sawed it.

[nativewolf]

We had snow near us last weekend!

I wondered if that had gotten close, seemed awfully late in the season for southern cal to be getting snow and rain.

[WDH]

Has one of my favorite scientific names. 

[firefighter ontheside]

And a fruity drink of the same name.
My goats love to eat the seed pods.

[btulloh]

The biggest one I've seen here is 4 or 5 inches.  Not quite saw timber.  They are listed as invasive in VA, but I don't find them to act that way.  

[firefighter ontheside]

We've got a few here that have been here for at least 15 years. They don't seem to be reproducing.  Here is a bowl made by a friend of mine from Lumberjocks.  She got the wood from FF member gfadvm.  He's not active anymore due to illness.


 

[lxskllr]

The biggest one I've seen here is 4 or 5 inches.  Not quite saw timber.  They are listed as invasive in VA, but I don't find them to act that way.  

I saw a huge one on a job I was on. I was gonna post it here for confirmation cause I'd never seen one so big, but my picture didn't turn out well. By memory, it had a 20" trunk, and a 25' canopy.

edit:
Here's the picture...



Doesn't look like much. It's the really leggy tree behind the wood play set.

[caveman]

I never paid attention to them until last July I cut a relatively large one down at my parents' vacation house in Franklin, NC.  I got home and noticed there were several here.

Mimosa tree or silk tree (Albizia julibrissin).  Tomorrow we will be back in the acorn tree family.

[Don P]

Has one of my favorite scientific names.  

Unrelated to mimosa, I think my favorite scientific genus name is liquidambar. The native American name for that tree translates to "tree that makes pine resin".

[caveman]

 

 

 

 

 
Today's tree of the day.  I took these pictures yesterday afternoon when I went to town to buy a new battery for the mill.  

[WDH]

"Frankly my Dear, I don't give a Dang". 

[Don P]

They really hold onto their old branches, sawed a couple up over the weekend.

[caveman]

I don't think this is a scarlet oak but its very close relative.  Quercus........ii.  A really smart forester showed me how to tell them apart by looking at the concentric rings on the pointy end of the acorn of the scarlet oak.  

This afternoon I took a few more pictures of some that will show up over the next couple of days.  One will be in Ian's wheelhouse.  One is buttressed but it is not a cypress and the other share a name of a town that my uncle is the mayor of.

[WDH]

Aside from an acorn, site can help distinguish the "Miss Scarlett I don't give a DanG" tree and one that ends in ii.  The former, in addition to the concentric rings on the acorn tip has a very deep bowl shaped acorn cup while the latter fellow has a thin, saucer shaped cup just like Northern Red Oak. 

[caveman]

Thanks, WDH.  Shumard Oak or Quercus shumardii for today.  I could not think of any movie/book hints to go with Shumard Oak.  

[Magicman]

Well DanG.  After WDH said Scarlet I didn't research further 'cause I don't have any.....but I do have Shumard.  :-\

One is buttressed but it is not a cypress

I hates them kind, well kinda.  

[caveman]

Well yesterday's tomorrow turned into today while I was reading on the FF.  I was going to use the tree that Magicman hates but he knows it, evidently, from one description so it will have to wait a day or so.

We sawed one of these right after getting the lt-28 several years ago.  It was dense and hard.  Tom used to say it made decent flooring.  Today's tree is ....






 


 

[Ianab]

Easy for us Sth hemisphere folk, that's Casuarina  of some sort. 

I've milled it and it's HARD. As it dries it gets harder.  :D

BTW, this is where we got married a few years back. What are the trees on each side of the picture?



Muri Beach, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. 

Wood is awesome if you can get it to dry straight, and have carbide tools to work it. 

[caveman]

In north America it grows in zones 10 and 11 (probably why there were not too many responses). It has a cone like fruit that feel almost the same as a sweetgum ball under a bare foot.  A lot of these trees were planted along Florida's gulf coast and provide much appreciated shade to those of us who prefer shade. The past several years local governments have decided to declare war on them and remove them in favor of native sea oats and sea grapes, which evidently do a better job of dune establishment and erosion reduction.