New to tree Id'ing... would like some help

[AdamG]

 Got a few of these growing in my woods. From northeast Ohio. the bark looks somewhat simular to some cherry slab wood I have- but it's def. not a perfect match, and I've never known cherry to grow in the middle of thick woods. The trees are real tall (40+ft).

All this started because I'm looking for some wood I can cut and split for bbq smoking. My tree knowledge is very limited though I am trying my best to learn all I can.   I have bigger versions of each pic if needed, but this is the biggest sizing --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- has that falls within the guidelines here


Thanks,
Adam

[SwampDonkey]

Black cherry, should see some brown hairs on the underside of the leaf along the mid-rib. Also a couple of resin dots at the base of the leaf where it meets the leaf stem. The second picture is indicative of black cherry up here, scaly bark.

[AdamG]

Cool! I am going to cut one prob in the next week or so to look at the grain to make sure.

Thanks for the help!
Adam

[WDH]

Oh you don't have to cut one to make sure.  The Donk is right on.  It is 100% black cherry.  Save your axe  ;D.

[SPIKER]

Cherry will grow in the center of woods too and gets pretty big in Ohio as I know, got a bunch of black cherry in the woods...

Mark

[SwampDonkey]

Depends a lot on the forest type and disturbance. The only time I've seen it in sugar maple forest was when a sugar bush was thinned out, actually more of a firewood cut because it was a big hole in the canopy where the cherry where. It seeded in by bird droppings. But the maple canopy was closing in after a few years and the cherry was declining from decreasing light. Most of the cherry I find now are on second growth, aldered pasture, old orchards, line fences, and intolerant hardwood stands. I thinned red pine on the farm here a couple years back and the black cherry had seeded in off a couple old trees along the line. Left a few, but most cherry here is full of black knot disease.

[WDH]

I saw a stand of cherry on the slope of a mountain in West Virginia that would make your eyes pop out.  Average diameter was pushing 24" and the heights were approaching 100 feet.  They were they because that mountain slope was clearcut some 80 - 100  years ago  .  Cherry is a pioneer species that likes disturbance so that the birds can spread the seed to newly opened up areas.

[tyb525]

Definitely Cherry, there is quite a bit of it in the middle of our woods. Those don't look very big, I'd save them for sawlogs when they get bigger.

[John Mc]

That second picture is a great example of what I always thought of as the "burnt potato-chip" look of Black Cherry bark.

They're not very shade tolerant, so if they are getting overgrown by other trees, they will start declining. If they are not too far gone, you might be able to bring some of them along by releasing them.