Contrary to popular belief, these are not tiny pine trees. Their common names of princess pine, ground pine, and groundcedar lead you to believe they are. However, they are part of an ancient family of plants called a clubmoss. Clubmosses are old, really old, over 400 million years old. They are the earliest group of …
Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), also referred to as a Scotch Pine, is an evergreen conifer, native to northern Europe and northern Asia, from Scotland to Siberia. It has a crooked or twisted trunk that may split into several widely divergent branches at maturity. Scots pines frequently lean with age yet can grow to 50 feet …
White ash (Fraxinus americana) grows over most of eastern North America but has been declining for several years due to multiple environmental and insect threats. Ash decline (or “ash dieback” or “ash yellows”) is the most serious problem affecting white ash. The decline is especially prevalent in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Ash decline is …
The Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), is a rapid-growing, long-lived, needled evergreen tree that is native to the northeastern United States and Canada. It is able to grow for 200 years or more and can become 150 ft high and over three feet in diameter. White pine has thin needles growing in clusters of five. …
The Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) has been known as the Christmas tree for more than 250 years. It is one of the few types of Christmas trees native to the northeast with its range being most of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States with southern range in the Appalachian Mountains to West Virginia. Balsam fir …
Black cherry (Prunus serotina) wood is a rich reddish-brown color and is strong, hard, and close-grained – one of the most valued cabinet and furniture woods. The leaves, twigs, bark, and seeds produce a cyanogenic glycoside. If you break a twig, it will produce a very unpleasant, dirt-like smell. The inner bark, where the glycoside …
The American Black Walnut is one of the most valuable commercial hardwood species in NYS. The easily worked, close-grained wood of the black walnut has long been prized by furniture and cabinetmakers for its attractive color and exceptional durability. The Black Walnut can be fussy about where they grow, often in rich loamy bottom land. …
Native Americans and settlers used the fibrous inner bark (“bast”) as a source of fiber for rope, mats, fish nets, and baskets. Basswood is still valued for its soft, light, easily worked wood, especially for turned items and hand carving. It once was the material of choice for prosthetic limbs, but these are now made …
HONEY LOCUST Widely planted as a hardy and fast growing ornamental. It is often used in extreme urban stress areas such as parking lot islands and sidewalk tree squares and has been planted for erosion control. Honey-locust wood is dense, hard, coarse-grained, strong, stiff, shock resistant, takes a high polish, and is durable in contact …
Tree Tuesday: Honey Locust with a BONUS non-native Ginkgo Tree Read More »
Everyone can recognize that classic shape. After all, we see it so much from our friends to the north. But can you distinguish between the 4 common species we see in our area? Maple trees have a simple, opposite leaf arrangement. Actually, there are only three main families of trees that have OPPOSITE leaf arrangements; …