Tree of the day

[caveman]

Yesterday's tree was Cherry Laurel or Carolina Laurel Cherry (Prunus caroliniana).
Today's tree should be familiar to many.


 

 

 

 

 

[Old Greenhorn]

These I have everywhere, they'd like to take the place over. They get so thick and tight I have to HEM and poke my way around.

[firefighter ontheside]

These trees look completely different in the winter due to their nature.

[btulloh]

I must be lucky. Never picked up any stains even on wo and holly. I don't leave anything but a piece of junk sitting overnight especially white oak.

(oops - wrong topic)

[caveman]

There are a lot of interesting tidbits about today's tree and its wood.  One may make a pirogue using this wood.

[firefighter ontheside]

One may also make a floor in a log cabin.  It's kind of soft for that purpose, but there's no going back now.  It's been in service for 18 years. It's pretty distressed in high traffic areas.  I love it anyway.


 

[DelawhereJoe]

Looks like bald cypress to me

[caveman]

It is Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum).  The tree can live to be over 2500 years.  The one with the biggest diameter, 39' @ Dbh is in Real County, Texas.  There is a submerged forest of them miles off the coast of Mobile, Alabama from 50,000 years ago.  The wood is evidently still good. 

A fungus, Lauriliella taxodii, causes some trees to produce pecky cypress which is often desired for wall paneling and other decorative uses.  The heartwood contains a  chemical called cypressene, a sesquiterpene (I know how much WDH likes BIG Werdz), that makes it naturally decay resistant.


 

 

 
  They can be used for cookies.  The fluted buttresses were commonly sold along side the road when I was a child.  A lot of them became tables and clocks.
 
This is one of several buildings built at O'Leno State Park in Florida by the CCC men during the 1930's.  This is the site of Florida's FFA Forestry Camp.  I will miss attending for the first time since 2001 in a couple of weeks.
 

 
The wood is very lightweight when dry and many picnic tables and porch swings have been made from it.

[gersus]

Cool thread! So much cool info. We don't have cypress around this area. 

[curdog]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/north-carolina-bald-cypresses-among-worlds-oldest-trees-180972134/

Here is today's tree in NC... They are listed as the 5th oldest species on earth. Bald Cypress are pretty adaptable as well. I was driving up a logging road located on a finger ridge around 2000 feet on a southern aspect and I stopped to take a second look... the landowner had planted it just to see how it would do. It was probably 50 feet tall and 12"dbh give or take. Definitely a neat tree.

[Ianab]

Bald Cypress are pretty adaptable as well.

Sure can grow outside it's normal range.  This one's near Stratford in New Zealand, about 1,000 ft ASL, and in a temperate rainforest area. It's maybe about 50 years old, and just caught my eye because it's got such a nice straight form. Picture taken about a month ago (end of autumn), it's completely "bald" now. 

 

[Magicman]

It is probably my all time favorite to saw, and I also love the unique smell of fresh sawn Cypress.  Some of my "bestest" pictures:


 
A monster Sinker Cypress crotch log.


 
And what was inside.  


 
A nice butt.


 
Several Mbf.


 
My favorite Tailgunner shoveling Cypress sawdust.



And loading another Sinker Cypress log.


 
1" X 26" X 10' Sinker Cypress boards.  


 
Mineral stained Pecky Cypress at it's best.

[WDH]

Here is a nice one.  Posted this pic several times before. 



 

[WDH]

OK, here is one.  This one is only a small tree.  Leaves are serrated and the bark is a touch scaly.  Also, twigs have short shoots.  Here is a hint:  Flowers are about quarter sized, very pretty, with five clawed petals.

Leaves.
 


 

Bark.



 

A short shoot.





I believe that Caveman has seen set eyes on this very same specimen. 

[Southside]

Well, we can rule out Ash, the flower isn't right.   :D

[Magicman]

Looks mighty "fruity". 

[WDH]

All species have fruits.  

[firefighter ontheside]

Cool thread! So much cool info. We don't have cypress around this area.

Don't have to go too far to find it in southern MO in the swamps.

[Texas Ranger]

wine on this one

[gersus]

Cool thread! So much cool info. We don't have cypress around this area.

Don't have to go too far to find it in southern MO in the swamps.

True! I've never been down there to see them though. 

[WDH]

OK.  One little hint.  It has a cousin that has been much planted and is well liked but this cousin was originally found in Central Asia and imported into the US very early in the colonial days.  

[firefighter ontheside]

Cool thread! So much cool info. We don't have cypress around this area.

Don't have to go too far to find it in southern MO in the swamps.

True! I've never been down there to see them though.

Neither have I.  I live about 30 miles south of St. Louis.

[caveman]

I'm going to go out on a limb, I may be plumb crazy after my first erroneous attempt at an answer via PM, but possibly a Chickasaw Plum.

[WDH]

You got the family right!  I will post a pic of the fruit when I get home.  The fruit is round and a little larger than a marble.  If you bite into it, it is very sour.  

Sometimes those reproductive shoot shoots (also called spur shoots) can be sharp resembling and functioning like a large thorn. 

[Texas Ranger]

is it a flatlander?