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| Thank you, Dianne. We all enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about North Park, the arboretum, and gentians. |
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| Evan checking a Katsura leaf |
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| Katsura tree with a memorial bench |
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| Black gum tree in fruit |
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| Red maple |
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| Walking a magical carpet of leaves with Dianne leading us. An excellent resource she recommended is The Sibley Guide to Trees. |
Thank you Dianne for the tour which we all enjoyed and we could not have had a better fall day.
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| Dianne showing Linda the handout with numbers showing the location of named tree species. |
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| Perfect day to be out for Denny and Linda |
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| Identifying tag on named trees |
1) Black Gum, aka Black Tupelo, aka Sour Gum
Nyssa sylvatica
Grows to 60' tall, likes full sun. A single straight trunk. The grain of the wood spirals in a cross gram which makes it tough and almost impossible to split. The fruit are blue-black oval drupes with a 14% fat content. The birds love it.
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| Blacd gum in fruit |
2)
Sweet Gum
Liquidambar straciflua
Grows 60-75 feet tall. Star shaped leaves and dangling round seed balls. Great fall color of yellow, orange, red and maroon on a single tree. Deer resistant. Host plant for Luna moth and Hickory Horn devil
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| Red maple leaf |
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| Sweet gum |
3) Northern Hackberry
Celtis occidentalis
related to elms and once placed in the same family Ulmaceae, but now considered part of the hemp family, Cannabacaeae.
The fruit is small and orange/brown and loved by birds. It has a 10-20 foot taproot which makes it drought tolerant. Can live 200 years. Host to snout butterfly, tawny emperor butterfly and mourning cloak butterfly.
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| Hackberry |
4) Eastern Red Cedar
Juniperus virginiana
Evergreen. Grows 20-50 foot tall. The aromatic wood is used to make storage chests. The berries are used as flavoring in gin. The birds also eat them.
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| Juniper/Red cedar |
5) Northern White Cedar, aka arborvitae
Thuja occidentalis
Evergreen Grows 30-45 feet tall.
Leaves re opposite in flattened fan shaped sprays.
6) Flowering crabapple
Only four species are native but aliens are so similar in leaf chemistry that there is little evidence that native insects can tell the difference.
7) Chinese Elm, aka Lacebark Elm
Ulmus parvifolia
It is resistant to Dutch Elm disease. Has distinctive gray-green bark exfoliating to orange patches.
The host plant for the question mark and comma butterflys
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Lacebark elm |
8) Osage Orange
Maclura pomifera
Native to OK and Texas Lewis and Clark discovered it in 1804. Jefferson had two in his garden from seeds sent to him by Lewis and Clark.
In the 1850's it was used as a hedge, thus its alias "hedge apple". The fruit is NOT edible.
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| Osage fruit, size of baseball |
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| Osage fruit (monkey balls) on the ground. |
9) Red Oak
Quercus rubra
Grows 90-150' tall.
Native. The acorns have a shallow cup. This is a "mast year" for red oaks.
10) Shagbark Hickory
Laris deciduas Grows 70' tall
Named for its shaggy bark. Host for the hickory horned devil, hickory tussock moth, american dagger moth and walnut caterpillar.
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| Shagbark hickory (tall tree, shedding bark) |
11) American hornbeam, aka Ironwood, aka musclewood
Birch Family
Carpinus caroliniana Grows 30' tall.
bark is smooth gray, fluted, muscular looking
12) Katsura
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
native to Japan
heart shaped leaves. Smells like roasted marshmallows.
13) Umbrella Magnolia
Magnolia tripetala
15-30' tall. Leaves very large. Flowers creamy white May/June
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| Umbrella magnolia |
14) Corkwood Tree
Leitneria floridana
Very light wood. Used for fishing bobbers. Prefers swamps and streambeds
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| Cork tree |
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| Many areas have not been cleared in ages, but we did see a gentian here. Other locations were better for spotting. See below for a closeup. |
