MO Trees

[WDH]

Is the sap in the small twigs milky white?  That would be mulberry. 

Basswood bud scales are only 2 - 3 and are large and overlapping.  Mulberry has 4 - 6, and the buds are sharp pointed. 

The buds of basswood are mucilaginous.  Maybe you need to chew a bud  :D. 

[mesquite buckeye]

Man, you are tough. First, I am steeplejacking the trees, now I'm sposed to smoke, I mean, chew some bud. :(

[SwampDonkey]

Bark, buds and leaves look basswoody. ;D

Flowers





My yard trees are usually covered with the fruit this time of year. The flowers turn into little round hard balls. Seeds albuminous. ;D

[Gary_C]

I'd bet money those three stems are basswood, and I normally do. Cause I cut that stuff all the time and I'd better know what I'm cutting or I'll get my joysticks slapped. Here is a basswood clump that I thinned out. Not the way the forester had marked it as that was not feasable nor smart.



 

But if you guys want to cut and search and chew, you could also cut a strip of bark and see if it peels off in long strips and is very tough and stringy. Or just cut one down and see what the wood is like.

We'll get this figured out yet. 

[RayMO]

Would be nice to see a good close up pic of a trunk like the cedar picture. But from what I see in the picture it aint a mulberry. At least not like any MO mulberry I have cut or seen.

[mesquite buckeye]

So, continuing, I have never seen a basswood fruiting leaf or any fruits ever anywhere in my woods or around there. I hear there are some maybe 10 miles away. If I remember correctly, basswood trunks are elliptical in cross section when the trees are young. These are pretty round, or a little lumpy round, but not elliptical. The sap is down, so I am not having a lot of luck getting much sap. There may be a hint of milkiness, but not for sure. Also, it appears the petioles of these leaves are quite short, consistent with mulberry.

Today, we found another one of these trees, this one with lobing on the leaves. Here are photos.


 

The upper leaf has a small lobe if you look closely. Below is one that is more obvious.


 

You can see the leaves can get quite large. I am not a small guy and those are my full size hands.

Here is the bark of this tree. 

 



Looking up into the tree. We got a pretty hard freeze last night and the leaves of all the mulberries were raining down this morning.


 


I cut a dead branch off this tree. The wood was mulberry yellow.


Back onto the subject of elephant resistant trees, Here are photos of one of my nastier honey locusts. The foreground is a single thorn my nephew picked up next to the tree. It is about a foot and a half or so long.


 


Next photo from further up the tree. Thorns quit where the elephants can't reach.


 


Next are photos of the CRP trees planted in 1999. Sweetgums are purty.


 

And another view from a different area.


 


Got a nice black locust log. Looks and weathers a bit like teak.


 


Bringing in the tractor to load up firewood from logging trail cutting. That long perfect log in the foreground is a redcedar.


 


And a little bit of black walnut heaven, with a few black cherries and redcedars thrown in just for fun.


 

[mesquite buckeye]

Anybody know paper mulberry? Broussonetia

[SwampDonkey]

I thought mulberry had 'cut' leaves, not lobes like maple. ;D The one lobed in your hands reminds me of striped maple. The leaves can be huge and the tree is a shrub, but can grow a large trunk and become rough barked. I know some go to the pulp mill. But if it were striped maple the fine limbs would show stripes. Basswood too can have very large leaves and not always non-symetrical. The ones in the yard here in full sun have big leaves like a dinner plate.  ;D

Nice looking see-dare cedar log growing there.

Hard for me to compare something unseen up here, like all the mulberries and different oaks. We grow yard mulberries, but anything non native up here has a hard struggle to stay alive. Oaks are tough though, I even have a white old from NH in the yard. Very slow growing, but strong and straight, with scarlet fall color. ;D

[WDH]

The leaves in the pic in Reply #30 are definitely mulberry.  Look at the first pic of leaves that you posted.  You will see that they are different.  Those first leaves are basswood.  Notice that they are more cordate (heart-shaped) at the base. 

Anybody know paper mulberry? Broussonetia

Yes, very scabrous leaves.  Bark does not have scales like the native red mulberry. 

[mesquite buckeye]

So.....one more time out to the infamous tree to look for basswood leaf/fruit. Here is what we found.


  
:-[ :-[ :-[ :-
It appears we have the Our Farm Champion Basswood! ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

Well, that was fun.

Here are some more of our poor quality field cedars that are not worth pruning and there is no market for.


 

This one was growing pretty fast.


 

Tomorrow I have to pull out some cherry logs from a tree that fell down. Nothing super exciting, but I sure like them. ;D

[RayMO]

Cross cut sections of cull cedars often make some awesome knife scales . The rougher the tree the better often times.
Ain't playing er working in the forest just wonderful !

[beenthere]

Cross cut sections of cull cedars often make some awesome knife scales .

Pray tell, what is a "knife scale" ?

[mesquite buckeye]

These aren't all that rough. Lots of them will be branch free to 16 ft when we are done. That was a little dig at the guys who say cedar isn't worth growing. I am extremely funny. ;D

We are going for clear cedar.

[mesquite buckeye]

Here is one of our poor quality cedars. Heavy wet snow last winter broke the top off, so time to harvest.


 

Cedar is purty. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)


 

[RayMO]

Scales are handles, nice description here...
http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Identify-the-Parts-of-Your-Knife-W64C120.aspx

[beenthere]

Thanks, Always can learn something new on the FF.   8)

[mesquite buckeye]

I also did not know that. ;D

[mesquite buckeye]

Also got a small slippery elm that tipped last winter. The bark is muy gooey and gunks up blades but the wood is pretty nice.


 

Also got some got 4 nice little cherry logs from another tree that fall down go boom. I am hilarious.


 

Now they are milled into cants. Why can't cants can ants? I just don't know.


 
I am the king of the trailer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D It must be late.

We also got a really nice double trunked bitternut hickory that made 5 good logs (the devil  you say). Clear almost all the way to the center. 

 

As the sun slowly sinks below the Missouri woods. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[WDH]

Nice pignut.

[ET]

Mesquite, you sure are busy with lots of projects!  Have you thinned a d released your entire woods?  My forester wanted me to do mine a year ago but i have not started yet. Come back to northern Ohio where you grew up and help me. We got grits too!

[mesquite buckeye]

Mesquite, you sure are busy with lots of projects!  Have you thinned a d released your entire woods?  My forester wanted me to do mine a year ago but i have not started yet. Come back to northern Ohio where you grew up and help me. We got grits too!

Now I see how you are.

We have gone through the whole woods, well mostly, a couple of times. I try to spend the most time where I will get the biggest benefit, like mixed pole stands with walnut and cherry in them. That makes a big difference long term. Some places are filled with low value trees where little is to be gained. Those I pass up unless I have lots of time, then I remove the crooked ones and try to let the better crummy trees do better. We actually have some pretty good shingle oaks now.

If I had unlimited time, I would like to adjust the stand at least every 10 years.

We spend a lot of time working on high quality redcedar by thinning and pruning and selecting the best forest form trees.

Grits are good. ;D

We did a species selection for walnut and pruning on my uncle's farm near Oak Harbor in 1973 in some doghair poles. Those walnuts are looking pretty sweet now, but need to be thinned again.

[SwampDonkey]

Have you thinned a d released your entire woods? 

I thinned 55 of 70 acres I own, all with a brush saw.  Young woods is easier to thin that way. ;D Now going through and pruning up the potential softwood logs, up to 10 feet of pruninge up the stem. I have my own criteria for that.

[mesquite buckeye]

I prune as high as I can get with my power pruner. That's about 16-17ft if you don't mind getting hit in the head with branches.
I just work up little by little as the trees grow.


These cants just can't dance.


 
But they are purty. ;D

[thecfarm]

What is that that you are using to get the logs out with? Looks like you have a few dollars in chains too.

[mesquite buckeye]

That were my newfangled invention, the 4 log simulpuller. ;D ;D ;D Hook 2 chain ends (of one chain)  to the ends of logs 1 and 2. Do the same with another chain to logs 3 and 4. Hook another chain to the midpoint of the two chains in a V. Hook the point of the V to another chain, hook to old International Farmall loader. Lift gently and watch them all pull together, missing little trees along the way. Load onto forklift once they are in the open. Bye Bye.  ;D


We use a bit of chain. Lots of our pulls out of gullies or heavily treed areas are over 100 ft.