Tree of the day

[caveman]

I did get a bark picture but Magicman posted a good example. I took the youngest cave girl on a dendro walk late this afternoon and we found a few more trees that we have not featured as tree of the day.  I am interested in hearing more about the bodgers use of  Today's tree, American Beech (Fagus grandifolia).

[firefighter ontheside]

So are beach nuts good for anything?

I don't know about the nuts, but the wood is good for aging Budweiser.

[Don P]

In pre industrial times mainly in England in the fagus sylvatica woods a bodger was one of those men you rarely saw in town. Beeches root sucker like crazy from that root mat, forming dense dog hair thickets if maintained that way. A bodger would take advantage of that and travelled through the polewood stands making camp and setting up his spring pole lathe. He would clear the stand, rough turning parts for the chairmakers in town. By the time he had his cart full and headed for town the rough turnings would be partially air dried. He would resupply with staples and return to his solitary life in the woods. Like the collier making charcoal he wasn't interested in big trees, he maintained a young small wood forest.

In the fall keep an eye out for beech drops, a parasitic fungus that grows up from the roots and blooms then.

My wife's family is from Holland, I imagine many of you have had the thin spiced windmill cookies, speculaas. The old molds were often carved from beech. I think you can see the ID I was taught in the pic, in flatsawn the rays look like "chicken scratches"



Her cousin was coming over here for a visit and Michelle asked him to bring some speculaas spice. Niels went to a bakery and asked for some and at first they were reluctant, each baker has his own secret blend and they suspected cookie espionage. When he explained that it was for his cousin in the US, well, when we opened the package, they had sent the poor wayward dutch girl a kilo :D

When beech bark disease rolled through here one phase is massive aphid attack, then the young branches are covered in black smut. I was thinning trying to get more light and air and burning the really bad ones. Then I started playing with a twig that was absolutely covered in aphids. I could tap it and they all did the wave, then settled down, I'd tap it again and they would do it again. I hate to admit how long we played with each other, before they went to the sauna ;D.

[caveman]

Thanks, Don P. I saw an old bodger do a demonstration Turing Windsor chair legs nearly 20 years ago. Later I saw him on PBS. 

Today's tree of the day...

 

 

This particular tree was small so I did not take a whole tree picture as I would not have helped with identifying it by its form. It is not very showy this time of the year. 

[Southside]

I hate to admit how long we played with each other, before they went to the sauna .

Sounds like you had a Men In Black moment there.  :D

[WDH]

Flowers makes very good honey.  This is the first tree that I keyed out that had a pseudoterminal bud when I first started Dendrology class.  A tree of the Mid to Upper Piedmont and Mountains.  Bark has very deep v-shaped ridges.  Leaves turn a deep red in the Fall.  You can deal with oxymorons until you are frustrated, but then you can go the arboretum to look at trees to calm down, but if you find this tree there, don't beat your own drum.  

[Don P]

That leaf looks sour, chewing on it if you're out of water in the woods quenches your thirst.

[firefighter ontheside]

Did Tim McGraw sing about it?

[caveman]

I don't know much about McGraw's music (my wife listens to him). Today's tree is sourwood (Oxydendrum  arboreum)

[firefighter ontheside]

Nope, he didn't sing about sourwood.  He sang about Tupelo.

[caveman]

The leaves of the sourwood are serrated - tupelo leaves are not, they are entire. 
I found today's tree yesterday on the grounds of the Macon County Coon Hunters Club. All of these trees that were there had injuries to the bark similar to the one in the first picture. At first glance it resembles lightening strike injury. 


 

 

 

 

[WDH]

Warms my heart and chest to see that one. 

[Don P]

Looks like a burr in the pic. Do you see orange in the injured bark?

[caveman]

The injuries were not bright orange but they were tinted a bit of a different color. Most were 18-22" dbh I would guess. There were probably 10 of these trees, all with a similar injury. 

[btulloh]

" . . .  . . .
  Jack frost nipping at your nose."

Chinese or American?

[Texas Ranger]

Well, nuts!

[caveman]

They looked to be American. 

[firefighter ontheside]

There's one in mom and dads yard and I still didn't recognize it.  Never looked close enough at it.  Always looking down to make sure I don't step on one.

[btulloh]

The bark looks a little smoother than the chinese version.  (Maybe "less course" would be a better way to say that.) 

[WDH]

Chinese is wooly tomentose on the underside.  American is smooth as a baby's bottom.

[caveman]

I am not an expert on these but they were smooth and I think they were American. These were at one time the most important hardwood tree in the eastern half of the U.S.  
American chestnut (Castanea dentada). 

[Southside]

Not sure of what the status is these days of the American variety surviving much but I do know of a population of them on an island off the coast of Maine.  A family member has some of the seed pods in his freezer, I need to ask for a couple.  

[btulloh]

Are y'all familiar with the American Chestnut Foundation?  They're doing some good work.

Saving the American Chestnut Tree | The American Chestnut Foundation

[Don P]

Matthews State Forest nearby is also working on reestablishing American chestnuts. They have some good looking trees. I hope we see its return.

[caveman]

Today's tree of the day.  

 

 

I see quite a few of these growing in the mountains of NC and north Georgia.