Woody Plant Species Identification and Dendrology Labs

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the site preferences, shade tolerance, and identification characteristics of woody plant species from Labs 1 through 8.

Black maple

Site: Mesic - floodplain. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: 3-lobed leaves with drooping sides; bark has deeper furrows; twigs have lenticels.

Sugar maple

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Leaves have 5 lobes and no teeth; bark develops long vertical plates that can peel outward with age; twigs have lenticels.

Musclewood

Site: Mesic - wet mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Trunk possesses distinct muscle-like ridges; features small brown buds.

Bitternut hickory

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Distinguished by sulfur-yellow buds.

Creeping strawberry-bush

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Entire plant is green, including green stems and green leaves; often lacks red berries; functions as an indicator for mesic, high-nutrient sites.

American beech

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Features smooth, ashy grey bark and very pointed, brown cigar-shaped buds.

White ash

Site: Dry mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Knobby twigs; terminal buds shaped like a Hershey's kiss; bark with "diamond" grooved furrows.

Spicebush

Site: Mesic - wet mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Stems are olive green while twigs are brown; distinct fragrant odor; rounded "BB" buds; bark bears numerous lenticels.

Hop-hornbeam

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Shredded "cat scratch" bark; very leaf-looking leaves with teeth; green buds; twigs have lenticels.

Basswood

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Large leaf blades with an uneven base; large green or red buds that are "Hershey kiss" adjacent.

Red maple

Site: Mesic - wet. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Leaf edges possess teeth; twigs display red buds.

Pignut hickory

Site: Dry mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Terminal bud shaped like a mosque; large "hickory-shaped" leaves.

Shagbark hickory

Site: Dry mesic - floodplain. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Striking shaggy bark; football-shaped bud; large "hickory-shaped" leaves.

Black walnut

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Drops walnuts; terminal buds shaped like a "mosque" or "Hershey Kiss"; buds and twigs are kinda fuzzy.

Black cherry

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Flaky "potato chip" bark; cherry-colored twigs that smell like bitter almonds when scratched; orange or rusty fuzzy hairs along the midrib on leaf underside; grows into a large, full-size tree with more reddish-brown buds and longer, skinnier leaves than choke cherry.

Choke cherry

Site: Dry mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: More rounded leaves; black/tan buds; weird little notches in the bark; does not grow into a full-size tree.

White oak

Site: Dry mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Leaves with rounded lobes; clustered terminal buds that are small, rounded, and come to a point.

Northern red oak

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Middle. Characteristics: Pointed leaf lobes; clustered terminal buds that are larger, more narrow, pointed, and reddish-brown in color.

Black oak

Site: Dry. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Skinnier than Northern red oak; buds are paler in color.

American elm

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: "Leafy" looking leaves with teeth similar to hop-hornbeam; spongy bark; buds resemble American beech buds but are nowhere near as pointy.

Downy arrow-wood

Site: Dry - dry mesic. Tolerance: Middle. Characteristics: Shrub species featuring teethed edges on its leaves.

Downy serviceberry

Site: Dry - mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Very finely toothed leaves; green, very pointy buds; bark characterized by grey striping.

Yellow birch

Site: Mesic - wet. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Silvery peeling bark; emits a distinct wintergreen smell when scratched.

Buttonbush

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Shrub adapted to the middle of swamps; produces little "buttons".

Flowering dogwood

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Kinda wavy leaf edges; small green or brown ball-shaped buds; scaly bark.

Leatherwood

Site: Mesic - wet mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Bendable twigs that appear segmented and pieced together with reddish tips; foliage looks like spinach; serves as a mesic/high-nutrient site indicator.

Black huckleberry

Characteristics: Reddish twigs near the leaf; tiny red buds; leaves typically leave a yellow mark when the back is rubbed on white paper; indicator of dry acidic sites.

Witch-hazel

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Possesses taco-shaped buds and little balls; wavy leaf margins.

Tuliptree

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Leaf looks like it is trying to be a maple but failed; green or brown duckbilled buds; vertical white fissures running up and down the bark.

Northern pin oak

Site: Dry. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Super skinny growth form; bark marked by flat grooves.

Sassafras

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Polymorphic leaves with a characteristic 3-lobed leaf shape; bark with super deep grooves; green twigs; aromatic smell.

Mapleleaf viburnum

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Leaves bear large teeth with more rounded notches between lobes compared to red maple.

Balsam fir

Site: Mesic - wet. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Non-prickly needles in bundles of 2 with white bands on the underside, attaching at a suction-cup-like base; greyish bark with raised lines.

Striped maple

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Large 3-lobed leaves; distinct vertically striped bark.

Paper birch

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Very intolerant. Characteristics: Conspicuous white peeling bark that sheds in wide peels.

Jack pine

Site: Dry. Tolerance: Very intolerant. Characteristics: 2 shorter needles per fascicle; produces serotinous cones.

Red pine

Site: Dry. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: 2 long needles per fascicle; trunk bark exhibits a red and grey "camo pattern".

Eastern white pine

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Foliage consists of 5 soft needles per fascicle.

Bigtooth aspen

Site: Dry mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Aspen leaves with big coarse teeth; larger buds; bark at base resembles a normal tree and transitions to greyish aspen bark higher up the trunk.

Trembling aspen

Site: Mesic - wet mesic. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Aspen leaves with small fine teeth; greyish bark; smaller buds.

Eastern hemlock

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Tiny needles arranged with 2 per bunch.

Low-sweet blueberry

Site: Dry. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Low-growing shrub with small leaves on dry sites; twigs are usually brownish green but can turn red in winter; indicator of acidic sites.

Wintergreen

Characteristics: Rounded leaves that smell like wintergreen when ripped; grows in acidic soils.

Norway maple

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Very tolerant. Characteristics: Snapped leaf stem exudes milky white sap; leaves are very wide with much sharper pointed tips; bark features deep grooves.

Tree-of-heaven

Characteristics: Crushing the leaves emits a bad smell; bark texture resembles stretch marks.

Japanese barberry

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Armed with spines on twigs; features spoon-shaped leaves.

Oriental bittersweet

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Climbing vine; nearly circular round leaves that abruptly terminate in a point.

Autumn olive

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Shrub species; leaves have wavy edges and a distinct silvery underside.

Glossy buckthorn

Site: Mesic - wet. Tolerance: Tolerant. Characteristics: Shrub with tan/brown buds; leaves are kind of glossy with no teeth along the margins.

Maack’s honeysuckle

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Round leaves that taper to a very obvious point.

Tatarian honeysuckle

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Shrub species characterized by simple, oval-shaped leaves.

Common buckthorn

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Shrub armed with thorns; oval leaves have tiny teeth.

Rose

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Green twigs armed with prickles; leaves possess toothed margins.

Silver maple

Site: Floodplain. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Underside of leaf is silvery; features very deep sinuses/notches and very big teeth.

Redbud

Site: Floodplain. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Distinct heart-shaped leaves without teeth; branches form zigzag twigs.

Red ash

Site: Floodplain. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Bark features diamond furrows; terminal buds shaped like a Hershey's kiss.

Eastern cottonwood

Site: Floodplain. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Heartish-shaped leaves with teeth; trunk bark marked by deep furrows.

Bur oak

Site: Varied. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Produces big acorns with weird little fringed hats; oak leaves kinda just look like blobs.

Willow

Site: Wet mesic - mesic. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Long slender leaves attached to yellow/orange twigs.

Prickly-ash

Site: Mesic. Tolerance: Middle. Characteristics: Thick shrub species armed with thorns.

Black ash

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Lacks the diamond-furrowed bark of white or red ash; bark appears more bumpy.

Michigan holly

Site: Wet mesic. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Bears red fruit; twigs exhibit a peeling epidermis.

Highbush blueberry

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Medium. Characteristics: Tall-growing blueberry species found in or near swamps.

Tamarack

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Features yellow/orange foliage in autumn bogs.

Black spruce

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Conifer characterized by short needles.

Leatherleaf

Site: Wet. Tolerance: Intolerant. Characteristics: Bog shrub with small, thick, leathery leaves.