Trees I saw in FL

sprucebunny · February 15, 2006, 07:22:38 PM

Some of the trees I saw were completely new to me and there is a good chance half of those are not natives.

Maybe someone knows something about these species and could enlighten us about thier origin and uses. ???

At a botanical garden in central Fl there was a "sugarberry" tree. The placard implied that it was native. It had good girth... about 18" and a straight trunk. It's deciduous.

This is an evergreen who's 'needles' are 1/4 inch thick and layered. It had a 16 inch trunk.

This is another evergreen from a botanical garden ( they were a little lax on the labeling :

) The needles are kind of like yew but about 2.5 inches long.

Ianab · February 15, 2006, 08:05:12 PM

SB

The middle one looks like Norfolk Island Pine ( Araucaria heterophylla ), native to Norfolk Island strangely enough. I see online it's commonly grown in Florida.
At 16" dbh it's just a baby, they grow 5 or 6 foot dbh and usually dead straight, even in windy salt exposed locations.

Cheers

Ian

SwampDonkey · February 15, 2006, 08:26:53 PM

In Torreya state Park in Fl they have a couple of trees in the yew family protected. But they look different that your last picture. I haven't a clue. ;)

In your first pic, don't I see some saw palmento? ;D

Nice pictures, maybe Tom can help ya out. ;)

Tom · February 15, 2006, 08:38:22 PM

Even though it is natural to Florida, I'm not familiar with Sugarberry. Those seem to be cabbage palm fronds (Sabal) in the first picture rather than saw palmetto. The second, I'll second as being Norfolk Island Pine. Not to be confused with Norfolk Virginia. :D

The third picture could be a tree, "Olive", or a flowering plant, Oleander, commonly planted as an ornamental even though it is deadly poison. Oleander makes a large bush or shrub reaching about 10'.

SwampDonkey · February 15, 2006, 08:45:56 PM

See, not only did I not know what I was looking at, but I didn't know how to spell what I wasn't looking at. :D :D

sprucebunny · February 15, 2006, 09:21:01 PM

Dumb me :

I have two Norfolk pine in my livingroom. Thier needles are a little fluffier. They grow pretty fast, alright ;D

The third picture , the tree has thick needles like a yew bush but proportionately bigger. Is Oleander evergreen, Tom ???

Here is a picture of little Torryeas ;D

Tom · February 15, 2006, 09:40:15 PM

Yes, it is an evergreen.
There are some good sites on Oleander that describe its use as an ornamental and its notoriety for being toxic.

RMay · February 15, 2006, 09:54:02 PM

Sprucebunny the sugarberry has a local name southern hackberry ( Celtis laevigata Willd ) ;D

chet · February 15, 2006, 11:22:28 PM

We had a really nice Norfolk Pine in our living room too. The operative word is had, somebody forgot ta water it. :'(

DanG · February 16, 2006, 01:07:12 AM

Tom, I ain't gonna outright disagree with ya on that Oleander, but I am gonna reserve agreement. I'ma thinkin' that Oleander has a broader leaf than that. It looks like some kind of Yew to me.

DanG · February 16, 2006, 01:30:24 AM

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant52.htm

After a bit of Googling, I'm even less sure. ??? The leaves in the Purdue pic do seem a little broader, but the other attributes are there. Let's send somebody down there to eat some of it, and if they don't come back, Tom is right. ;D :

sprucebunny · February 16, 2006, 07:14:15 AM

I've been looking at oleander and olive and the pic I have of this. ??? ???

It is a tree with a 7" dbh trunk planted at the entrance to the porch in a Fl state botanical garden ( Rainbow Springs ) It's placement in the landscape doesn't seem a good choice for something poisonous

Also the leaves/needles are narrow and have a less prominent center vein than oleander and wrong color for olive.

Now, I'm wishing that I took higher resolution pictures :

sprucebunny · February 16, 2006, 07:21:15 AM

RMay, Is hackberry sawed up very often or used for anything in particular ? It was big and straight with a tight , smooth bark.

SwampDonkey · February 16, 2006, 08:15:26 AM

The leaves of that pine look similar to creeping club moss. ;D

http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz/plants/clubmosses/lycop02.htm

woodbowl · February 16, 2006, 09:01:43 AM

Sugarberry is the local name around here. I've not heard of anyone using it for anything. It seems a shame too because it grows to be a large tree with at least two logs. I cut a short piece on the mill a while back and it seems a bit tough and disobedient. I made a few bowls also. The wood is pretty and white with tight interlocking grain. It is very dense and heavy. It doesn't split well at all, and if it doesn't dry fairly soon, it developes grey discoloration all the way to the heart.

SwampDonkey · February 16, 2006, 11:49:20 AM

Sounds similar to elm. They are grouped with elms, if they are a hackberry. Celtis laevigata The dendro book calls them sugarberry or sugar hackberry.

Jeff · February 16, 2006, 12:57:07 PM

How did the bowls turn out?

Pullinchips · February 16, 2006, 05:14:14 PM

Swamp, is right on the scientific name and the commons. It resembles a winged elm in form. It is called hackberry or sugarberry. Bark can be very bumpy near the base and leaves sometimes have bumps in them. Its a weed or trash tree only use i know or can think of is pulp. The oleander is that the bush that has white and pink flowers that they plant as ornamentals in all south eastern coastal cities. I from charleston and there were bushes that grew like that all over the town that had pink or white flowers. I hated that bush dont know why though. The middle, i will not argue with others since i am not from FL but i thought of cryptomeria, but i went to Fl last year and did notice some wierd conifers there.

Tom · February 16, 2006, 06:46:52 PM

DanG, you might be right on the Oleander thing. I was just guessing as usual. To say it looks like me is a stretch though. :D :D

woodbowl · February 16, 2006, 07:07:51 PM

The sugarberry bowls turned out very nice and didn't split one bit. They have a warp to them though. It moves around while it's being worked. The grey discoloration is present and follows the grain without crossing over.

DanG · February 16, 2006, 09:11:06 PM

Tom, go back and read it again. I said they were too skinny. That ain't like yew at all. ;D :D :D :D

Tom · February 16, 2006, 09:18:41 PM

You're right, DanG. They are too skinny. They look more like Yew. ;D

Jeff · February 16, 2006, 11:14:23 PM

Olin did you get any photos of those bowls?

Radar67 · February 16, 2006, 11:24:08 PM

Hey OlEn, I would like to see pictures of your bowls too. I've only seen the one on you avitar.

Stew

woodbowl · February 16, 2006, 11:26:30 PM

I've still got the bowls and looked at them for cracks just before I posted. I'm afraid to take any pics with my camera right now (because of overwriting) untill I recover our lost pics.

Stew, there are a few in my gallery

Radar67 · February 16, 2006, 11:29:08 PM

I just pulled up your gallery and saw the sweetgum and the sycymore. They look nice.

Stew

billbobtlh · February 17, 2006, 11:21:24 AM

Trunk of first one looks like a bay laurel.
Second is a monkey puzzle or some such. It is related to the norfolk pines.
The third is used for hedges and cannot remember what it is called.

sprucebunny · July 20, 2006, 07:56:58 AM

Here is a picture showing my captive Norfolk Island Pine and a leave/needle from the tree in Florida

SwampDonkey · July 20, 2006, 08:53:25 AM

Looks like an over grown princess pine club moss ;)

http://nefern.info/picpages/lycobs2x.htm

Patty · July 23, 2006, 08:36:36 AM

In Germany we saw what I thought were Norfolk pines growing up on the mountain sides near Schloss Neuschwarstein castle. They were like giant replicas of the one in my office. Could they also be native to southern Germany?

Phorester · July 23, 2006, 10:02:21 AM

There was another discussion somewhere on this Board about hackberry/sugarberry. Hackberry is a common tree in my area. It was used decades ago for small furniture parts. I don't know how it is in long lengths as far as warp or twist, etc. A heavy, white wood for the most part.

Also makes a good yard tree here.

Phorester · July 23, 2006, 10:13:55 AM

After some research, I don't think the second one is monkey puzzle, but can't hazard a guess as to what it is myself.

PATTY, the tree on the German mountainsides was probably not norfolk island pine. They are a semitropical tree and need those year-round lush warm and humid growing conditions to survive outdoors all the time. These are native to Australia and (of course!) Norfolk island east of Australia.

metalspinner · August 01, 2006, 11:04:16 PM

I just used a little bit of Hackbery in my kitchen for drawer parts. The boards I had were 8" wide and guess what - the drawers I needed to build were 8" wide. :

:D The wood fuzzed up a little when machining and had a greenish/yellowish tinge to it, but it sanded out just fine. The figure was similar to elm and had a shimmer to it. The sawyer that milled it said it needed to go in the kiln immediately to keep the white color. At the time the kiln was full, so I stacked it out side. It did lose its brightness and began the grey discoloration Woodbowl mentioned. My sawyer mentioned this was because of the sugar and starch in the wood. Just like an apple turns brown after a bite and you let it sit.

It seems to be a good utilaritarian wood. Around the knots, the wood misbehaved. Selective cutting before drying would have solved that . The tree grows huge and there are plenty of them. My sawyer loves to burn it. He said it burns really nice even semi-dry. ???

And it is a beautiful yard tree. The roots stay underground so they aren't in the way of the mower. The leaves look alot like cherry and it has little berries on it. In fact, because of this, I've been led on several wild goose chases thinking I was picking up a huge cherry tree. The home owners didn't want to hear that their "cherry" tree was really a hackberry and had no value. :