trees, week 2

Question 1

Corylus americana

Answer 1

American filbert, hazelnut

Leaves: Alternate, simple. Oval accuminate short tip. Cordate or rounded at base, doubly serrate. dark green to yellow-green.

Buds & Stems: small imbricate, gray to purplish.

Flowers:monoecious, male catkins long & drooping, similar to birches

Fruit: involucre(whorl of bracts surrounding fruit) a hazelnut!

Bark: reddish gray.

Habit: wide speading, multi-stemmed, round top, open base

Notes: nut bracts are showy and best identifier

Question 2

Viburnum dentatum

Answer 2

arrowwood

Leaves: opposite simple. coarsely dentate, ovate. dark green

Buds & Stems: imbricate, appressed, greenish brown. V-shaped. leafs scars have ciliate hairs around margins

Flowers: yellow-white cymes (flower clusters)

Fruit: berry like drupe, blueberry-like

Bark:

Habit: multi-stem, dense rounded, spreading outwards

Notes: Stems are very long & straight. clusters of small white flowers.

Question 3

Ostrya virginiana

Answer 3

hophornbeam, ironwood

Leaves: Alternate, simple. Oval-lanceolate, accuminate tip, rounded or cordate base, doubly serrate. hairy midrib w/short petiole.

Buds & Stems: imbricate, small, ovate & pointed. shiny or downy. zig-zag stems.

Flowers: abundant staminate catkins.

Fruit. nutlet enclosed in hop-like sac.

Bark: grayish brown, separates into long narrow lacerated strips that free at ends

Habit: small tree, horizontal drooping branches that create a oval crown.

Notes: hop-like nutlet sack biggest identifier. “cat-scratch” bark.

Question 4

Amalenchier canadensis

Answer 4

shadbush, serviceberry

Leaves: Alternate, simple. elliptic to oblong. fine serration, rounded base. curved veins

Buds & Stems: appressed bud, imbricate, cone-shaped

Flowers: 5 white petals

Fruit: berry- like pome

Bark: grey & mottled w/ shallow fissures

Habit: open structure, upright, suckering, tightly multi-stemmed

Notes: Flowers bloom in early spring, when shad fish are running

Question 5

Aronia arbutifolia

Answer 5

red chokeberry

Leaves: alternate, simple. small leaves, very fine serration, end in black tips. curved venation. red in fall

Buds & Stems: slender, tomentose(downy) brownish color

Flowers: white flower

fruit: bright red pome, hard to touch

Bark: glossy, amber, brownish

Habit: small, compact, dense round shrub

Notes: berries persist in winter

Question 6

Hamamelis virginiana

Answer 6

common witchhazel

Leaves: Alternate, simple. irregular attachment at base. obovate-elliptical, crenate dentate margins. green to yellow in fall.

Buds & Stems: naked tongue like wooly buds

Flowers: 3-4 bent stalks on cluster. yellow, sea urchin like. “perfect” flower; stamen & pistil in same structure

Fruit: dehiscant capsule in clusters

Bark: smooth grayish brown

Habit: multi stem, several large branches form irregular crown

Notes: virginiana BLOOMS in FALL

Question 7

Chionanthus virginicus

Answer 7

white fringetree

Leaves: thick leaves. opposite to subopposite, cluster at stem tips. oblong, cupped petiole( which is brown at the base, “whorled” at tips

Buds & Stems: green-brown stems. small ovoid buds. stem is squarish, often peeling

Flowers: 4 petals, white, many hanging from long drooping pannicles

Fruit: light blue drupe

Bark: gray, smooth when young and ridged and furrowed when mature.

Habit: large shrub or small tree, spreading, open habit.

Notes:

Question 8

Crataegus laevigata

Answer 8

English hawthorne

Leaves: simple, alternate. 3 lobed “turkey-foot”. dark glossy green

Buds & Stems: thorns present on stems

Flowers: white-pink, 5 petals, in clusters of 8

Fruit: red berry like drupe

Bark: skinny shredded bark

Habit:shrubby, low-branched, rounded top

Notes: thorns are shorter than washington hawthorn

Question 9

Cercis canadensis

Answer 9

eastern redbud

Leaves: Alternate, simple. palmate venation, broadly cordate leaf

Buds & Stems: small, blunt, somewhat appressed. Stems red-brown to black, zig-zag. several flowers to a bud.

Flowers: reddish purple or pink, spent blooms visible after dropping. blooms develop all along stem

Fruit: dehiscent legume, brown, 2”-3”

Bark: flaky brownish black

Habit: horizontal, trunk divides close to ground, rounded crown with ascending branches

Notes:

Question 10

Cladrastis kentuckea

Answer 10

yellowwood

Leaves: alternate, compound, oddly pinnate, 7-15 leaflets. ovate large leaf with accuminate tip. decrease in size to base of rachis. wide attachment at rachis base. curving venation

Buds & Stems: naked bud, roundish, surrounded by leaf scar

Flowers: pendulous terminal pannicles, white flower

Fruit: brown legume pods in cluster, flat & wide

Bark: reddish w/ small white lenticels in youth, beech like in maturity; smooth & gray w/ small cracks

Habit: low branching with rounded, spreading crown

Notes:

Question 11

Oxydendrum arboreum

Answer 11

sourwood

Leaves: alternate, simple. oblong & ovate, glossy dark green. red in fall

Buds & Stems: small conical scaled buds, stems greenissh red on new growth

Flowers: urn shaped white flowers hang from spreading horizontal pannicles.

Fruit: dehiscent capsule, persistent, first yellow and pendulous, then brown & erect

Bark: deeply furrowed & blocky

Habit: pyramidal in youth, swooping horizontal branches

Notes: notable 2-color look from leaves & fruit structures

Question 12

Benthamidia florida (Cornus florida)

Answer 12

flowering dogwood

Leaves: opposite, simple. dark green, oval or ovate, abrupt accuminate tip, round base

Buds & Stems: rounded almost blueberry shaped bud

Flowers: 4 bracts, white surround small green flower

Bark: distinct “alligator skin” bark

Fruit: bright red drupe clusters

Habit: sympodial branching. small tree, horizontal, flat-topped crown

Notes:

Question 13

Benthamidia japonica (Cornus kousa)

Answer 13

kousa dogwood

Leaves: opposite, simple

Buds & Stems: hershey kiss shaped bud,

Flowers: 4 white bracts

Fruit: strawberry like drupe, pinkish red

Bark: exfoliating scaling “camouflage” bark

Habit: erect & dense, vase shaped

Notes: bracts larger than florida, blooms later. fibers visible after ripping leaf veins

Question 14

Halesia carolina (Halesia tetraptera)

Answer 14

Carolina silverbell

Leaves: Alternate, simple. dark green, ovate, fine serrations

Buds & Stems: ellipsoid w/ thick brown scales. slender, glabrous stems

Flowers: showy bell-shaped white flowers. drooping needle structure preplaces flower.

Fruit: 4-winged, similar to starfruit

Bark: gray-brown to black, ridged & furrowed, develop into scaly plates

Habit: low branched, narrow top with ascending branches

Notes:

Question 15

Crataegus phaenopyrum

Answer 15

Washington hawthorn

Leaves: alternate, simple. 3-5 lobes, sharply serrate, triangular “deltoid” shape. dark green, scarlet purplish in fall.

Buds & Stems: small, rounded. brown slender stems with long thorns

Flowers: small white flowers

Fruit: bright red drupe in clusters of 8+, persist in winter

Bark: gray & flaky

Habit: horizontal branching, dense & thorny

Notes:

Question 16

Acer pensylvanicum

Answer 16

goosefoot or striped maple

Leaves: Opposite, simple. 5”-8”, 3 lobes, roundish obovate, lobes pointing forward; “goose-shaped”

Buds & Stems: glabrous, blunt, 2-scaled buds. smooth green to reddish brown stems

Flowers: yellow-green, 5 petals on 4-6” raceme

Fruit: wide angle 2 winged samaras, many hanging from single raceme.

Bark: green and white striped “snake bark”

Habit: large shrub or small tree w/short trunk, arching branches

Notes:

Question 17

Hamamelis vernalis

Answer 17

Ozark witch hazel

Leaves: Alternate, simple. coarsely dentate, obovate to oblong, usually low-branching

Buds & Stems:

Flowers: four scraggly-looking petals, various colors

Fruit: dehiscent yellow-green fruit pods drop black seeds

Bark:

Habit: multistemmed, dense, rounded shrub

Notes: Very similar to virginiana & difficult to differentiate, other than very different bloom times. BLOOMS IN EARLY WINTER