Tree of the day

[Don P]

Yesterday's tree, striped maple is also known as moose maple or goosefoot maple.
Todays looks like it has 2 needles per fascicle, I believe it is probably native to my state.

[firefighter ontheside]

Yesterday's tree, striped maple is also known as moose maple or goosefoot maple.
Todays looks like it has 2 needles per fascicle, I believe it is probably native to my state.

I would say your state in particular.

[Texas Ranger]

did it cross the Pond?

[WDH]

Bark is rather scaly.  Inner lip of the umbo is purple. 

[caveman]

Don P is on the right track.  These two needle pines can be quite confounding.

[Old Greenhorn]

I thought pitch pine, but now I am not so rue. I have to work on my skills, I used to know this stuff.

[Don P]

Oh :P, if we're on the track but not there, I think TR might have scotched his train at the station already ???

I'm back over to a friends to do shingles. We're playing the edges of the day. We had a big moon last night and worked till midnight, that used to be pretty common.

[caveman]

I did not intend to mislead anyone with yesterday's tree. It was a Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana).  

Today's tree should be familiar to many of you.  

 

 

 I do not think this one has had its day until today.  

[WDH]

Pitch pine is a 3 needle pine., not a 2 needle pine.

[firefighter ontheside]

I have lots of Virginia pine here on our 13 acres of pines in the middle of the oak cedar forest.  When my grandparents bought this place right after he returned from WW2 it had no trees on it.  They bought loblolly, Virginia, shortleaf and white pines from the conservation dept.  I like the Virginia when they're young because they are pyramidal and do resemble a spruce.  When they get older though, they get kind of gnarly.  The yellow pines have been great at reseeding themselves.  The white pines have not.  We do have some young whites, but not what you'd think after almost 70 years.

[firefighter ontheside]

The round shape of today's leaf tells me something, but I'm not sure yet which one.

[WDH]

The acorns mature in a single year and sprout in the fall.  Preferred by deer.  Native Americans pounded the acorns and dried to a powder, leached with water to remove tannin and bitter compounds, and made acorn flour.  The wood has led to many a wee dram.

[Texas Ranger]

Jack and Jim proud.

[caveman]

Today's tree was a white oak (Quercus alba).  Maybe someone could show a picture of quartersawn white oak-one of my favorites.

[firefighter ontheside]

 

 

[Don P]

Probably not pc anymore but one memory trick I was told was "Red man shoots arrows, arrowheads are pointed like red oak leaves. White man shoots bullets that are rounded like white oak leaves."

[WDH]

Some white oak leaf lobes have pointed glandular tips that look like a red oak, but there is no little spike on the tip.  Chinkapin oak is one. 

Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet

[caveman]

I think Firefighter is doing the tree for today.  Thanks for sharing the Chinkapin Oak, Danny.  That is another that I was not familiar with.  While looking at dendro fact sheets you may notice that the range of a lot of the species common to most of the south eastern United States does not extend down to peninsular Florida. 

Don P, I learned a lot of the scientific names from my students the year I became an ag teacher and the students elected me to be their forestry CDE coach.  Many of the associations were not politically correct. When teaching them how to key out leaves, based on leaf arrangement, I remind them not to forget their DAM (dogwood, ash and maple) trees.  That is sometimes amended to CDAM (Catalpa).

[firefighter ontheside]

I cut a Chinkapin oak yesterday.  When I cut it, I thought it was a hickory. I saw the leaves and thought they were hickory leaves because they were shriveled up.  Later I looked closer at the leaf and saw the little tips and knew it was Chinkapin.  It's spelled chinquapin in my tree book.

[firefighter ontheside]

Today's tree of the day is going to be identified only by some photos of the cones I collected in California while on a forest fire.  You can see the size by the yard stick and also by comparing to the loblolly cones hanging next to them.  My biggest one is about 15", but they can get to 20".  I'd give some other details about the tree, but I don't want to make it too easy.  We can talk about details later.


 

 

 

[Ljohnsaw]

That is one sweet cone, must come from a pine that would have a diabetic getting nervous if they stood too close :D

[firefighter ontheside]

John are there any of these in your house build?

[Ljohnsaw]

I did find a couple cones way down on my property but I haven't bothered to figure out which tree it is, yet.  They could have bounced down the hill quite a ways.  I do have a number of bigger trees that have died (most seem to be white pine) in that area, maybe one is this tree.  It would be exceedingly difficult to get the whole tree up to the cabin.  I may have to relocate my mill down there to make use of all that timber.  My neighbor has a view of a lone tree about 1/4 mile from their back porch - interesting how the cones grow way out at the tips.

[DelawhereJoe]

Don't those pines get to be over 250' tall....if a squirrel drops one of those cones on your head from 250' I'll send my condolences to your family.

[firefighter ontheside]

Yes, tallest of all pines.