Maryland Envirothon: Tree ID

Striped Maple*

A small understory tree characterized by striped green and white bark.

Opposite, simple, 3-lobed leaves.

Red Maple*

A common, medium-sized tree with 3-lobed or 5-lobed (maple-shaped) leaves that are light green on one side and paler on the other.

Silver Maple

A large tree with raggedy maple-shaped 5-lobed green leaves that are silver on one side and green on the other. The bark appears "shaggy".

Sugar Maple*

This large tree has 5-lobed yellow-green maple-shaped leaves and smooth bark that splits and curls slightly outwards as it grows older.

Poison Ivy*

An herb with upright woody stalks and shiny bright green 3-lobed compound leaves.

Paw Paw*

A small deciduous tree with large, long, pear-shaped leaves and large mango-like green fruits. It grows in rich, moist forested areas throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

American Holly*

A small shrub with distictive dark green spiny and shiny foliage. Tolerant and can grow in any soil, even clay.

Yellow Birch*

A slow-growing, medium-sized tree with oval yellowish-green leaves that forms flowers called "catkins" - slim green cylinders. The twigs smell like wintergreen when scraped. The bark peels like paper.

Sweet Birch*

A medium-sized deciduous tree in the birch family. In some older tree specimens the bark can (unlike most birches) develop vertical cracks into irregular scaly plates revealing rough darkish brown bark patterns. The twigs smell very strongly of wintergreen when scraped.

River Birch*

A deciduous tree with variable bark, usually dark gray-brown to pinkish-brown and scaly, but in some individuals, smooth and creamy pinkish-white, exfoliating in curly papery sheets. Commonly occurs in floodplains or swamps.

American Hornbeam*

A small- or medium-sized deciduous hardwood tree with alternate simple leaves and smooth but furrowed gray bark. Its catkin flowers develop into nutlets enclosed in open, 3-lobed involucres.

Hophornbeam*

A small deciduous understory tree with gray-brown shaggy flaking bark and alternate ovoid-acute pinnate leaves. Its catkin flowers develop into nutlets fully enclosed in involucres.

Southern catalpa

A medium-sized deciduous tree with a short thick trunk that supports a straggly and irregular crown. The bark is composed of hard plates or ridges and the leaves are heart-shaped and secrete nectar. Long slender capsules are its fruit.

American elderberry*

A deciduous shrub with opposite pinnate leaves that bears large clusters of white flowers in the summer and dark, edible berries in the fall.

Mapleleaf viburnum*

A short shrub with opposite 3- or 5-lobed leaves with serrated edges and a fuzzy surface.

Flowering dogwood*

A small deciduous tree with opposite simple ovate leaves.

Atlantic white cedar

A rare evergreen coniferous tree with feathery foliage.

Eastern red cedar*

A slow-growing evergreen coniferous tree with reddish-brown bark that peels off in large strips and scale-like adult leaves.

Persimmon*

A small tree with a shrubby growth form. It has oval entire leaves and very fragrant flowers on short stalks.

Mountain laurel*

An evergreen shrub with round flowers that grows on rocky slopes and mountainous forest areas.

Highbush blueberry*

A deciduous, densely-growing shrub with elliptical glossy green small leaves.

Redbud*

A large deciduous shrub with a short/twisted trunk and dark reddish-brown bark. Its leaves are alternate and heart-shaped.

Honey locust*

A large deciduous tree with thorny bark; leaves are pinnately compound and bright green.

American chestnut*

A very rare, large deciduous tree with large, serrated pinnate leaves and characteristically spiky nuts.

American beech*

A large deciduous tree with smooth gray bark, simple, dark green, sparsely-toothed leaves, and sharp nuts in spiky husks. Forms a climax community with maple and is very tolerant of shade.

White oak*

A large deciduous tree with a large canopy and light gray bark. Oak-shaped leaves with rounded ends.

Scarlet oak*

An oak with deeply lobed leaves (the sinuses between lobes are "C"-shaped) and a rounded crown. Truncated, rounded, or shortly tapered leaf base.

Southern red oak

An oak species; its distinctive leaves have 3 to 5 sharply pointed, often curved, bristle-tipped lobes, and the base of the leaf is rounded and often lopsided.

Pin oak*

A medium-sized oak with sharp, 5/7-lobed leaves with "U"-shaped sinuses between them. Young trees are a pyramidal shape, older trees have a distinctive spreading shape where the upper branches point up, the middle branches are perpendicular, and the lower branches droop down.

Willow oak*

A medium-sized deciduous tree with relatively long, entire-edged green (on one side, pale on the other) simple leaves (5-12 cm).

Chestnut oak*

A deciduous tree whose size is dependent on its environment; its bark is extremely deeply ridged and dark gray; its leaves have 10-15 rounded lobes.

Northern red oak*

A large deciduous tree with scaly reddish gray bark, 7-9 sharp-lobed but shallow-sinused leaves with bristles at each point (and the penultimate set of lobes being the longest), and acorns that grow on the tree for 2 years.

Post oak*

A small deciduous tree with distinctive leaves in which the 3 ultimate lobes are shaped like a "Maltese Cross".

Black oak*

A medium-sized deciduous tree; its leaves have 5-7 bristle-tipped lobes separated by U-shaped notches and are deep glossy green on top and yellowish below.

Witch Hazel*

A very small deciduous tree, often with multiple trunks stemming from the base; the leaves are oval

Sweetgum*

A medium-sized deciduous tree with "reptile" bark, recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard, spiked fruits.

Pignut hickory*

Shagbark hickory*

Mockernut hickory*

Black walnut*

Spicebush*

Sassafras*

Sweetbay magnolia*

Black gum*

White ash*

Green ash*

Tamarack

Red spruce

Shortleaf pine*

Table mountain pine*

Pitch pine*

White pine*

Loblolly pine

Virginia pine*

Eastern hemlock*

Sycamore*

Serviceberry*

Hawthorn*

American plum*

Black cherry*

Bigtooth aspen*

Quaking aspen*

Black willow*

Bald cypress

American basswood*

Hackberry*

American elm*

Quercus rubra

Northern red oak*

Tsuga canadensis

Hemlock

Pinus strobus

White Pine