Dendrology Field ID Review

How can you ID a Black Cherry tree?

Leaves: Alternate and simple. The underside has rusty brown hair along midrib near petiole. Bark: Black, flaky, hoizontal lenticels on twigs and young bark (smooth). Twigs: Bitter almost smell and taste due to cyanide, small buds. Fruits: Small cherry, black, long clusters.

How can you ID an Eastern White Pine tree?

Needles: 5 per fascicle, 3-5” long, slender, flexible, white lines of stomata, stand upright on twigs. Bark: On young trees smooth and greenish brown, older trees blocky and black. Cones: Elongated, pitchy, stalked, 4-8” long, scales thin and unarmed.

How an you ID a Black Walnut tree?

Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, up to 23 leaflets, terminal leaflet often missing. Twigs: Pith chambered, buff colored. Leaf scar resembles face of a monkey. Buds: Terminal bud grayish, fuzzy, and naked, superposed lateral buds. Fruit: Globose nut, husk smooth, shell corrugations rounded. Bark: Dark brown with deeep narrow furrows and thin ridges, chocolate brown color when scraped. Distinctive odor.

How can you ID a White Ash tree?

Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 7-11 leaflets, margins entire or slightly crenate, dark green color. Branching: Opposite. Twig: leaf scars usually deeply notched or U-shaped across top. Bark: Tight, interlacing diamond shaped pattern of ridges and furrows, cork colored when scraped. Seed: Single, flattened terminally winged samara aggregated into clusters.

How can you ID Trumpet Creeper (Vine)?

Leaves: Opposite and pinnately compound, 7-11 leaflets, coarsely serrate margin. Twig: Climbing vine with 2 rows of aerial rootlets protruding from the twig at every node. Fruit: Elongated somewhat flattened pod, green to brown and slightly curved with many straw-colored flat winged seeds. Flowers: Large tub or trumpet shaped and bright orange, appear in mid Summer.

How can you ID a Boxelder tree?

Leaves: Opposite and pinnately compound with 3-7 variable shaped leaflets, light green in color. Twigs: Green to purple with glaucous bloom, leaf scars whitish and V-shaped. Buds: Terminal buds ovoid, covered by white tomentu, laterals smaller and appressed. Bark: On young trees light brown with narrow rounded interlacing ridges, older trees more deeply furrowed. Fruit: 1-1.5” long, samara in V-shaped pairs, may cluster.

How can you ID Poison-Ivy (Vine)?

Leaves: Alternate, trifoliate. Twigs: Brownish, climbs with aerial roots. Buds: Naked, elongated, angular, tan or light brown. Fruit: Yellow-white berry.

How can you ID Spicebush (Shrub)?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, oblong to oval, entire. Flower Buds: Preformed, globose, in small sessile clusters. Fruit: Bright red drupe. Twigs: Slender, dark greenish-brown with white lenticels. Lemon or spicy odor of crushed leaves and twigs.

How can you ID an Eastern Redbud Tree?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, heart-shaped base, margins entire, petiole swollen at both ends. Flower: Pink, before leaves out in Spring, on branches. Twigs: Zigzag growth, dark brown, shiny with white lenticles. Buds: Leaf buds: small black and appressed, flower buds: preformed, globose, and conspicuous. Bark: Dark red-brown, on older trees scaly.

How can you ID Autumn Olive (Shrub)?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, entire, green above and silvery-white below. Petiole and underside of central vein may have orange “freckles.” Twigs: Covered with silver speckles, young twigs may be rigid and thorn-like.

How can you ID a Flowering Dogwood tree?

Leaves: Opposite, oval, arcuately, veined. Twigs: Purplish white glaucous bloom upper side, lower side greenish, slender and tend to turn upright at ends. Buds: Flower buds pagoda-shaped, preformed, leaf buds slender purple. Fruit: Bright red, oblond drupe. Bark: Blocky alligator hide bark on older trees.

How can you ID a Sycamore tree?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, large, thick, hairy on veins below, base of petiole covering buds. Buds: Resinous, nearly surrounded by leaf scars, conical shape, reddish-brown color. Fruit: Globose head of many achenes, to 1.25” diameter. Bark: On younger stems smooth, brown to brown-white mottled, later brown and scaly.

How can you ID a Wild Grape (Vine)?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, heart-shaped and long pointed tip or deeply lobed. Twigs: Brown and smooth when young, twisted tendrils often present. Bark: Splitting and shredding. No adherent rootlets present. Fruit: Clusters of purple to black berries.

How can you ID a Yellow-Poplar, or Tulip, tree?

Leaves: Alternate, truncated or notched apez, margins entire, glabrous surfaces. Twigs: Generally reddish brown, stipule scars encircling twig, diaphragmed pith. Buds: Terminal bud elongated, “duck bill” shaped with valvate bud scales, lateral buds much smaller. Bark: Smooth, green to gray with white spots or streaks on young trees developing into grayish bark with light gray or white streaks in the furrows. Ridges arranged in a coarse interlacing diamond pattern. Fruit: 2.5-3” long, an erect cone like aggregate of samaras.

How can you ID a Green Ash tree?

Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound with 7-9 leaflets, margins slightly serrate, more lanceolate than White Ash, upper side of rachis tends to be grooved, pale green color, turn yellow and brown in Fall. Twigs: Leaf scar rounded, below bud (Horseshoe like). Fruit: A single samara aggregated into clusters, the wing extending further along either side of the seed as compared to White Ash. Bark: Like White Ash, but not as deeply furrowed and flakier. Light colored when scraped.

How can you ID a Sassafras tree?

Leaves: Alternate, simple, entire margin, variable in shape. Twigs: Bright green. Buds: Green. Bark: On young trees green turning orange, older trees have a brownish, furrowed bark which is orange below surface. Fruit: Blue drupe. Crushed leaves, bruised twigs, and cut bark have a characteristic aromatic odor.