Tree ID please?

[aigheadish]

There are a few of these big old trees in my buddy's back yard. Anyone know what they are? My guess is massive walnut but that tends to be my guess for a lot.



 

 

[firefighter ontheside]

Walnut trees would have walnuts on the ground under them most likely.  Bark looks a little light in color to be walnut.  I had a guy try to sell me what he said was butternut.  Before that he thought it was walnut.  It turned out to be cottonwood.

[SwampDonkey]

Is it boxelder? Sure seems to be a lot of suckering on it like boxelders do up this way.

[WDH]

The branching habit makes me think elm.

[mike_belben]

thats a deer stand tree.  prune it to spec

[stavebuyer]

I am thinking cottonwood.

[Texas Ranger]

T like stavebuyer with that bark

[KEC]

I'm with cottonwood. The bark looks like it and the way the branches come off the trunk and angle upward.

[aigheadish]

Hmm, so the consensus is cottonwood!

I don't think I realized they could get that big! Unfortunately, I don't have may pictures with leaves but I'll ask my buddy if he remembers fuzz floating off it ever. Thanks y'all! 

[SwampDonkey]

Cottonwood is certainly possible. I've had a lot of trembling aspens that looked just like that crown shape, big 36" diameter ones, just before they died off to feed the worms. Big old upswept buttressed limbs and all. ;D

Big old ugly widow makers. Play safe around them monsters.

[WDH]

I defer to the cottonwood clan.

[aigheadish]

He doesn't recall seeing the fluff from cottonwood but that doesn't mean it's not there. It's along a decent creek and I think the two big ones he's got are close to dead,so maybe they don't produce much cotton. Also, yeah, everything in this part of his yard is relatively dangerous, big trees could come down anytime. 

Tree ID is tough because a lot of the big trees, when I search them out on the internet, look kinda right.

I turned him on to this forum, via sharing the link for this thread, so maybe he'll pay more attention.

[firefighter ontheside]

He can do like @WDH taught me...take a pencil sized twig of the tree and split it down the middle.  If it is walnut or butternut it will have a honeycomb structure in the center.

[Otis1]

My initial thought is to agree with cottonwood. But to throw another possibility out there, what about black willow? Looks like a wet site, it would suit either.

[aigheadish]

Man, looking at some pictures, black willow is another good guess! It's definitely wet there, roots are down below creek grade with some roots out in the creek.

You guys are good! 

[WDH]

If it is cottonwood, the twigs will be 4-angled toward the tip and the pith will be star shaped.  You will not see that in willow. 

Internet ID from a picture can be challenging.  Much easier when you can personally see the whole tree, twigs, fruit, buds, growth habit, site, etc.  

[kantuckid]

How about some leaves off the ground nearby?

[aigheadish]

We didn't see any leaves that could be distinguished from any of the other lots of trees around, and the one in the picture is across a creek we couldn't get to. We'll look again in the spring and see what we can determine. 

[wisconsitom]

Looks cottonwood to my eyes.  Cottonwoods are potentially very large trees, and they do all this growing within roughly 100 years-a short lifespan for a tree.

BTW, cottonwoods, like all members of genus Populus, are dioecious, meaning there are separate "male" and "female" trees.  Hence, if these specimens happened to be males, there would be no "cotton".  Not a sufficient indicator all by itself.

[KEC]

Black Willow has dark bark and often does not grow very erect.

[Tacotodd]

Black Willow does not grow very erect.

Then I don't guess it's a male ;D