Tree of the day

[tule peak timber]

Let me mull over the "pubescent cousin " part berry well.

[Woodpecker52]

Don't they have leaf shapes sometimes like sassafras?

[caveman]

Woodpecker, they sometimes have mitt shaped leaves.  I could not find any on this particular tree.  Today's tree, Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) is serrated while the sassafras is entire.  The texture is quite a bit different also.

 

 

 Red Mulberry

[firefighter ontheside]

This was a perfect tree of the day.  I was in a training yesterday for a mock earthquake of the New Madrid fault and I sat in the shade of one of these trees and wondered what it was.  The leaves had the mitt shape.

[tule peak timber]

Earthquakes, I have had 1037 in the last 365 days as of this morning. Most centered 1/4 mile from the corner of my property.

[firefighter ontheside]

We don't have them often, but they are getting very concerned here about the "big one".  About 200 years ago they figure there was a quake between 7 and 8 on the scale.  I'm on a FEMA urban search and rescue task force in MO.

[tule peak timber]

Roger that. Better 4 small ones each day. Rock and roll ! 8)

[doc henderson]

jumping in a little late, but due to the variation I thought i would throw in a few more pics of mulberry leaves.  and a few berries here in Ks.



 

still green a few red. it'll be dark blue purple when ripe.



 

had a sprinkle of rain.  just enough that my son suggested stopping chores!





can see a few "mitt" shapes at the top of this pic.

[lxskllr]

Mine are all mitt shaped. I don't care much for the berries. They have a kind of thin sweetness, and are a little "grainy". I much prefer the wineberries which are due in a few weeks.

[WDH]

Doc,

You posted another species.  Not red mulberry, which is native, but a cousin, white mulberry which was brought over for the silk trade.  One way to tell them apart is by rubbing the top of the leaf surface.  The non-native white mulberry will have a texture on top that is smooth as a baby's bottom.  I believe that is the one in your pic.  Our native red mulberry is scabrous on top, i.e. fells like sandpaper.

[LeeB]

Thanks Danny. Which one has the tyloses, red or white?

[ellmoe]

Are you saying it's male because you looked under the leaf or did you just mull it over before coming to that berry important conclusion?

In dendrology class we were told you just had to look at the crotch!

[caveman]

Today's tree is another that grows in zones 10 and 11.  I drive past 100's used as ornamental trees each day on the way to work, which is 17 miles and 38 traffic lights away.  It is too cold for them where I live (not today but some winter days) but they thrive in town.  I did not realize that the wood Ipe comes from trees in this genus.


 

 

 The leaf arrangement is compound opposite.  It is pubescent.  Hint:  It is not an ash.  It is in the family Bignoniaceae, which is the same as Southern Catalpa.  

As a side note, several years ago I chaperoned one of my students on a FFA trip to Costa Rica.  We spent some time in the north, near Nicaragua.  While there, one of the places we stayed had some enormous, wide, long. live edged, one slab tables.  When I asked the folks who owned the place what kind of wood was used for the tables, their response was something like legumes (bean trees).  I have noticed since then that most trees that produce beans also produce good wood.

I have not sawed up any of the wood from today's tree of the day but they are on my list.

[caveman]

In dendrology class we were told you just had to look at the crotch!

DanG, Ellmoe.  I just about spewed my coffee. 

I am going to go out on a limb and predict there will not be as much "tree of the day" FF member participation today due to the limited areas in North America where today's tree grows.  

[WDH]

Red mulberry does not have tyloses.  Osage orange does.  Not sure about white mulberry. 

[gersus]

Just ate a few mulberry's off my father in laws tree a couple days ago. Love them! Friend of mine was lucky enough to snag a huge (probably 28" or so) mulberry log that was getting removed from a local college. He got some real nice slabs out of it.

[LeeB]

Allrighty then. Don't know how I crossed that up.  :D

I think I remember reading somewhere that there are hundreds of different plants in the same family from all over the world.

[Texas Ranger]

DanG, none of my Texas books have that one.  But real familiar.

[Texas Ranger]

Then again, I may want to blow my horn.

[caveman]

Texas Ranger got it.  Some call it a trumpet tree.  I have known it as Tabebuia spp.  Some have yellow flowers and some have pink.  They bloom here in the late winter or early spring.

Today's tree of the day is...



 

 I am certain a lot of you will recognize the leaves from this one.  I do not have any tree or bark pictures, sorry.  

[curdog]

I'll raise a glass of root beer while I think this one over..

[Texas Ranger]

sassy little devil

[btulloh]

Repeat?

[Don P]

I thought I was the only one having deja vu all over again

[Magicman]

I thought so too, Reply #88:  Tree of the day in Tree, Plant and Wood I.D.