Tree identification

Dendrology rocks.

I'm a bit embarrassed at my lack of this knowledge. ?ÿ All that time in the field and woods, I should've made more of an effort.?ÿ Guess there's still time

I practice all the time. I see a picture with a tree, I identify if. Watching a movie see a tree, yup I ID it. Going somewhere I glance at trees along the road and identify them. I may have a problem, lol.

Before I was licensed I misidentified a decayed stump when I went out to see what kind it was, I inspected it and I said, self there is no way that's an American Chestnut. THEN when I sent a crew out to the site I had them get me a piece of it to be sent to WVU for analysis. As soon as they brought the piece to me and I saw it again, I could see the redness in it and was like CRAP, that is an American Chestnut. I sent it off anyway and sure enough, the University said it was American Chestnut. American Chestnuts got a blight back in the 1920's and all the trees died. You can still find small ones but they get sores on them and will die off well before they reach any size. It's a beautiful wood. I hope it comes back someday.

Many years ago we were extending a street in a residential subdivision.?ÿ After we staked it I went looking for the temporary benchmark that had been set.?ÿ The description in the field book was, "Nail in wooden tree X feet left of station Y+YY".

I followed a crew chief one time who only knew two types of tree.?ÿ Oak or pine, there were no others.

Andy

I are ig-know-rant 'bout trees.?ÿ If an apple falls off and hits me on the head, it must be an apple tree.?ÿ If a pecan falls off and hits me on the head, it must be a pecan tree.?ÿ If a watermelon falls off..........................................

There's a LeafSnap App for that

There's an App for everything...

NC requires such a ridiculous amount of text from all various certifications that I find no reason not to include both the common and scientific names of trees.

I wish I had the time to take Virginia Tech's dendrology course(s).?ÿ They used to require that Forestry students be able to identify all 28 native oak species by the acorn alone.?ÿ It was rare that I couldn't identify a tree or shrub in northern Maine and NH, but down here I'd be lost without a tree ID app.

?ÿ

@john-giles which chestnuts are currently still living in the lower 48?

@moe-shetty?ÿ

There's the chinquapin tree.

Which really only matters in the foraging sense of things.?ÿ Not for harvesting the lumber.

Too late to edit my post.

Posted by: @andy-bruner

Many years ago we were extending a street in a residential subdivision.?ÿ After we staked it I went looking for the temporary benchmark that had been set.?ÿ The description in the field book was, "Nail in wooden tree X feet left of station Y+YY".

I followed a crew chief one time who only knew two types of tree.?ÿ Oak or pine, there were no others.

Andy

It's TIS Wood, I don't know what it is, but, it is wood !?ÿ

@moe-shetty Only very small American Chestnuts. Some get to age to bear Chestnuts. I've found a pretty good diameter one in southern Roane county, WV many years ago. It had huge sores on it and its height was stunted. But it somehow was still alive. Usually I find very small ones, maybe a few inches in diameter and generally in Clay County WV. But again, that was years ago. We do have the ornamental Chinese Chestnut, I think it's called. The blight doesn't affect it and I've seen one in the town near me. Spencer, WV.

@holy-cow We lost all of our Ash trees over the last several years due to the Emerald Ash Borer. It is believed it came from China. Amazing how many millions of trees were killed over such a short time. They are all dead and at this point, the few they aren't on the ground are dangerous to be around.

Also, I will never be able to say the joke I said every time I found a large Ash tree...... MAN, THAT'S A BIG ASH TREE!

@murphy I didn't take any dendrology classes. I learned from others and mostly studied it myself to get better at identification. I don't like school, lol. I'm a high school dropout that lucked into surveying and I self-taught myself a lot of things and learned other things from licensed surveyors. I find it easier to learn without a classroom environment.

@john-giles Wow--Chestnut Blight, Dutch Elm, Emerald Ash Borer, gypsy moth...our Appalachian forests are really taking a beating.?ÿ Hard to imagine the hillsides being covered in Chestnut blossoms as they once were.

@frozennorth I can only imagine the return of the american Chestnut. That was the 'goto' wood for many things because of how durable and strong it was. I run across an old log cabin or barn made out of American Chestnut once in a while. It is told to me by the land owner and I doubt they are making it up. They were used for fence posts too. Now Locust is the preferred but I don't think they last as long as the Chestnut did. And you could eat the fruit! Man, I wish I could see what the forests looked like back in the day.

A few years back we had mysterious floating purple or lavender boxes hanging out of trees across our area.?ÿ It turned out to be part of a massive study trapping emerald ash borers to determine the level of infestation, if any.?ÿ I felt sorry for the guy putting them up, evaluating them and eventually taking them back down.?ÿ He had a small pickup and a step ladder to balance on in the bed of the truck.?ÿ Plenty of what I assumed to be fishing line to keep the boxes/traps aloft.?ÿ He worked alone, so one wrong move and .....................................................

@holy-cow The Ash borer devastated West Virginia Ash. My dad (step-dad) had cleared his 5 Acres and kept mostly one type of tree he thought to be Hickory. I told him years and years ago that he actually kept Ash. Well you can guess what happened. The wood, though burnable, has zero coals or anything. Burns fast and instant ashes. Crap to heat with but man, did we have a lot of it. It also doesn't season well. It has its qualities, I know. But dead Ash is mostly useless.

Ash trees got wiped out here also, but good news, the American Chestnut is on a very slow recovery.?ÿ There have been breeding efforts (insert knothole joke here) using different methods.?ÿ I have planted several 15/16 American Chestnut and 1/16 blight resistant Chinese Chestnut.?ÿ A few pure trees were unaffected by the blight and those nuts have been planted, most died eventually but at maturity, the good ones were planted and so on, so that now there is about an 80% success rate at this stage with blight resistant pure chestnuts.?ÿ It will be a long time before they are called for as property corners but in a couple hundred years, they may make a comeback.