Help Identifying Tree Stand

tomboysawyer · July 30, 2007, 11:12:15 AM

I have a stand of these trees - about 6 of them - between 50' and 80' tall. 12" - 24" in diameter. They are growing in a stone wall on my property and there are some babies scattered about nearby, but the babies only seem to grow more than a year or two if they have been given clearing.

One of the gnarliest trees of the bunch - also one of the smaller mature trees.

The bark of the lower trunk on a full grown tree.

A cluster of leaves from the full grown tree.

I think this is one of the babies - closeup of top of leaf:

Closeup of underside of leaf:

It is difficult to find a leaf on one of these trees - baby or adult - which has not be eaten to swiss cheese by bugs. Other trees on our property are not so holey.

I keep trying to pin it to one of the trees in my North American tree book, and nothing really fits. I'm located in Southwestern Vermont (about 5 miles from New York and Massachusetts).

These adult trees are grown in a stone wall that up until about 30 years ago separated a tilled field and sheep grazing pasture. They seem to only exist in a 50' diameter cluster. There are no other trees like this within 30 acres.