Dendrology: Shade, Flowering, and Deciduous Trees Identification

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the identification characteristics, botanical terminology, taxonomy, cultural requirements, and insect/disease pests of major shade, flowering, and small-to-medium deciduous landscape trees.

Fagaceae

The Beech family; a family of mostly deciduous high-quality hardwood trees that includes oaks (Quercus), beeches (Fagus), and chestnuts (Castanea), with a few warm-climate evergreen species such as Live Oak (Quercus virginiana).

Imbricate

Arranged in an overlapping pattern resembling roof shingles, characteristic of the bud scales of oaks (Quercus) and beeches (Fagus).

Quercus rubra (Northern Red Oak)

A deciduous oak hardy to Zone 3 that grows $60\text{--}70\,\text{feet}$ tall with russet-brown to red fall color, terminal clusters of imbricate buds, and shallow-cupped acorns.

Quercus palustris (Pin Oak)

A fast-growing oak with a strong central leader and pyramidal canopy that tolerates wet soil conditions but is highly susceptible to chlorosis on alkaline sites.

Chlorosis

The yellowing of leaf tissue due to insufficient chlorophyll production, commonly observed in pin oaks grown in alkaline soils.

Quercus alba (White Oak)

A slow-growing oak reaching up to $80\,\text{feet}$ tall that develops a broad, rounded canopy at maturity and is notoriously difficult to transplant and establish.

Quercus bicolor (Swamp White Oak)

An oak growing to $60\,\text{feet}$ tall that requires acidic soil, tolerates both wet and dry conditions, and was selected for planting at the World Trade Center memorial site.

Quercus phellos (Willow Oak)

An oak species hardy to Zone 5 growing $40\text{--}60\,\text{feet}$ tall with linear, willow-like leaves that transplants more easily than other oaks.

Fagus grandifolia (American Beech)

A native northeastern climax forest tree featuring ovate-oblong leaves with prominent parallel veins, nut fruit, and smooth gray bark.

Fagus sylvatica (European Beech)

A landscape beech featuring pointed, shiny imbricate buds, cultivars such as 'Pendula' and 'Tricolor', and mature gray trunk bark that resembles an elephant's leg.

Samara

A winged, dry, indehiscent fruit adapted for wind dispersal, found as double samaras in maples (Acer) and single-winged clusters in ash trees (Fraxinus).

Acer rubrum (Red Maple)

A maple characterized by triangular leaf lobes with a reddish blush along the petioles, featuring popular cultivars such as 'October Glory', 'Red Sunset', and 'Autumn Blaze'.

Acer platanoides (Norway Maple)

A dense shade tree with large simple leaves that exudes a diagnostic milky white sap from squeezed petioles; widely considered an invasive species in North America.

Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple)

A small-to-medium ornamental garden tree with a weeping or twisting habit, deeply dissected or palmate foliage, brilliant fall colors, and colorful winter twigs (such as the coral bark cultivar 'Sango Kaku').

Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple)

A large climax forest tree growing to $80\,\text{feet}$ or more with brilliant gold, orange, and red fall foliage and shaggy plated bark; intolerant of soil compaction and urban pollution.

Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple)

A small-statured ornamental maple reaching $20\text{--}30\,\text{feet}$ tall, distinguished by trifoliate compound leaves and lustrous, peeling copper-orange exfoliating bark.

Acer campestre (Hedge Maple)

A slow-growing, pest-resistant small maple ($25\text{--}35\,\text{feet}$ tall) with rounded lobes and a dense canopy, commonly used for pleached hedging.

Ulmus americana (American Elm)

A classic vase-shaped native street tree whose historic urban populations were largely decimated by Dutch Elm Disease (DED) and Elm Yellows.

Ulmus parvifolia (Lacebark Elm)

A fast-growing, urban-tolerant elm ($40\text{--}50\,\text{feet}$ tall) with a rounded canopy, dark green foliage, and puzzle-patterned exfoliating bark.

Zelkova serrata (Japanese Zelkova)

A vase-shaped tree in the Ulmaceae family with serrated leaves and exfoliating bark, frequently planted as an urban replacement for American elm despite self-seeding tendencies.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Green Ash)

A native bottomland ash with opposite, pinnately compound leaves (5 to 9 leaflets) that exhibits high tolerance to adverse landscape conditions.

Fraxinus americana (White Ash)

A native upland ash tree with opposite, pinnately compound leaves (typically 7 leaflets) showing pale undersides, diamond-patterned mature bark, and orange-to-purple fall color.

Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

An invasive metallic green wood-boring beetle that feeds destructively under the bark of native North American ash trees, monitored with triangular purple traps.

Tilia cordata (Littleleaf Linden)

A symmetrical pyramidal street tree hardy to Zone 3 with heart-shaped serrated leaves, fragrant cymes of flowers, and straw-colored floral bracts; highly attractive to Japanese beetles.

Liquidambar styraciflua (Sweet Gum)

A pyramidal-to-oval tree characterized by alternate star-shaped leaves, star-shaped pith, corky twigs, and persistent, spiny spherical fruiting heads (syncarp of dehiscent capsules).

Platanus occidentalis (American Sycamore)

A massive native riparian tree ($75\text{--}100\,\text{feet}$ tall) with broadly lobed leaves, camouflage-patterned exfoliating bark, and spherical heads of achenes borne 1 to 2 per stalk.

Platanus x acerifolia (London Plane)

A hybrid between American Sycamore and Oriental Planetree that is widely used in urban streetscapes due to its high tolerance to paved root zones and increased resistance to sycamore anthracnose.

Sycamore Anthracnose

A fungal disease affecting Platanus occidentalis that causes brown leaf blotches, leaf crinkling, and premature leaf drop during cool, wet spring weather.

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair Tree)

An ancient, highly urban-tolerant gymnosperm featuring fan-shaped leaves with dichotomous venation, scaly spur shoots, and bright golden fall color.

Dioecious

Having separate male and female reproductive organs on distinct individual plants, as demonstrated by Ginkgo biloba where only female trees produce foul-smelling pulpy seeds.

Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Tree)

A rapid-growing native tree reaching $100\,\text{feet}$ tall, characterized by truncate-apex leaves, duck's-bill-shaped valvate buds, large tulip-like greenish-yellow flowers, and aggregates of samaras.

Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura Tree)

A deciduous Japanese tree growing $40\text{--}60\,\text{feet}$ tall with heart-shaped crenate-serrate leaves that emit a sweet cotton candy scent during fall senescence.

Carya ovata (Shagbark Hickory)

A native hardwood tree hardy to Zones 4 through 8 with pinnately compound leaves (usually 5 leaflets), deep taproots, edible wildlife nuts, and shaggy peeling strips of bark.

Juglans nigra (Black Walnut)

A high-value native timber tree with large pinnately compound leaves and heavy, round nuts that is unsuitable for landscape plantings due to its messy habit and allelopathy.

Allelopathy

The biological process in which a plant exudes biochemical substances from its roots into the surrounding soil to inhibit the growth of neighboring plant species, as observed in Black Walnut.

Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood)

A native understory tree with 4 white notched floral bracts, alligator-like blocky mature bark, red oval drupes, and 4-sided peaked (turban-shaped) flower buds.

Bract

A modified, specialized leaf associated with a flower or inflorescence that often functions like a petal to attract pollinators, as seen in dogwoods (Cornus).

Cornus kousa (Kousa Dogwood)

An Asian dogwood reaching $30\,\text{feet}$ tall, distinguished from native dogwood by its pointed (unnotched) white bracts, exfoliating patchwork bark, and bumpy, raspberry-like composite fruit.

Cornus sericea (Redosier Dogwood)

A multi-stemmed, suckering deciduous shrub grown for massing and winter interest due to its vibrant, bright red young twigs.

Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud)

A small native legume-family tree with simple, entire, heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-purple pea-like flowers blooming directly along branches before foliage emergence.

Stewartia pseudocamellia (Japanese Stewartia)

A slow-growing ornamental tree featuring white camellia-like blossoms and smooth, marble-like exfoliating bark that peels in long plates to reveal pink and silver undertones.

Franklinia alatamaha (Ben Franklin Tree)

A small native tree in the Tea family (Theaceae) discovered in Georgia by John Bartram in the 1700s and extinct in the wild, bearing white flowers with yellow stamens and vivid red fall foliage.

Funiculus

The delicate, string-like stalk that suspends brightly colored red arils from the dehiscent follicles of a mature magnolia fruit.

Magnolia acuminata (Cucumber Magnolia)

A large native magnolia growing $50\text{--}80\,\text{feet}$ tall (hardy to Zone 4, possibly 3) with greenish-yellow tepals and cucumber-shaped immature aggregate fruits.

Magnolia x soulangiana (Saucer Magnolia)

A multi-stemmed ornamental tree ($20\text{--}30\,\text{feet}$ tall) producing large, cup-shaped pinkish-white flowers streaked with purple from fuzzy, rabbit-foot-like winter buds.

Magnolia stellata (Star Magnolia)

A compact Japanese shrub or small tree ($15\text{--}20\,\text{feet}$ tall) hardy to Zone 4 that displays small, fragrant white flowers with numerous narrow, strap-like petals early in spring.

Halesia tetraptera (Carolina Silverbell)

A small-to-medium flowering tree identified by vertical pin-striping on its bark, pendulous white bell-shaped blooms, and distinct 4-winged waxy drupes.

Styrax japonicus (Japanese Snowbell)

A small rounded tree growing to $20\,\text{feet}$ with bell-shaped, fragrant white flowers possessing yellow stamens, followed by pendulous egg-shaped fruits.

Cotinus coggygria (Smoketree)

A large shrub or small tree ($10\text{--}15\,\text{feet}$ tall) featuring billowy, filamentous flower clusters that simulate smoke; frequently managed in garden borders by annual coppicing.

Coppicing

The horticultural method of cutting woody trees or shrubs down near ground level annually to promote vigorous juvenile vegetative growth and maintain a compact size.

Chionanthus virginicus (Fringe Tree)

A multi-stemmed native shrub or small tree in the Olive family (Oleaceae) featuring strap-like lacy white flowers, leathery leaves, and dark purple olive-like drupes.

Betula populifolia (Gray Birch)

A native birch growing $20\text{--}40\,\text{feet}$ tall on poor, acidic soils, identified by dull grayish-white non-peeling bark and triangular leaves with elongated acuminate tips.

Betula papyrifera (Paper Birch)

A cool-climate northern birch ($50\text{--}70\,\text{feet}$ tall) hardy to Zone 2, distinguished by smooth, bright white peeling bark; highly vulnerable to bronze birch borer in warm climates.

Betula nigra (River Birch)

A heat-tolerant native birch hardy to Zone 9 that thrives in moist, acidic soils and develops coarse, curling cinnamon-colored bark that resists bronze birch borer attacks.

Bronze Birch Borer (Agrilus anxius)

A native wood-boring beetle whose larvae carve winding feeding galleries in the vascular tissues of birches, leaving diagnostic D-shaped adult exit holes in the trunk.

Carpinus caroliniana (American Hornbeam)

A native slow-growing understory tree ($20\text{--}30\,\text{feet}$ tall) known as Musclewood or Ironwood due to its fluted, sinewy, smooth blue-gray trunk.

Carpinus betulus (European Hornbeam)

A durable European park tree ($40\text{--}60\,\text{feet}$ tall) with smooth gray bark and clean foliage, frequently sheared into formal pleached hedges.

Ostrya virginiana (American Hop Hornbeam)

A native woodland and park tree ($25\text{--}40\,\text{feet}$ tall) with shaggy brown bark and nutlets completely enclosed within inflated, papery hop-like sacs.

Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis (Thornless Honeylocust)

A popular urban shade tree ($30\text{--}70\,\text{feet}$ tall) possessing fine bipinnately compound leaves, open shade, high salt/pollution tolerance, and long, twisting legume pods; cultivars include the golden-foliaged 'Sunburst'.

Robinia pseudoacacia (Black Locust)

A fast-growing, thorny legume tree with fragrant white blooms, discouraged in landscape plantings because of brittle wood and aggressive, suckering roots.

Styphnolobium japonicum (Scholar Tree)

An urban-tolerant legume tree growing $50\text{--}70\,\text{feet}$ tall (formerly Sophora japonica) with pinnately compound leaves, summer paniculate blooms, and diagnostic bead-like segmented pods.

Aesculus hippocastanum (Horsechestnut)

A large European shade tree characterized by palmately compound leaves, large sticky reddish-brown terminal buds, and spiny dehiscent husks containing glossy brown inedible nuts.

Aesculus parviflora (Bottlebrush Buckeye)

A multi-stemmed native suckering shrub ($8\text{--}12\,\text{feet}$ tall) featuring palmately compound foliage and erect $12\,\text{inch}$ bottlebrush-like white flower panicles with pinkish stamens in mid-summer.

Aesculus x carnea (Red Horsechestnut)

A hybrid tree (Aesculus hippocastanum $\times$ Aesculus pavia) possessing a compact pyramidal canopy and erect panicles of fiery red flowers.

Nyssa sylvatica (Black Gum / Tupelo)

A native tree growing $30\text{--}50\,\text{feet}$ tall, known for its lustrous alternate leaves, blocky black alligator-patterned bark, dark blue drupes, and fluorescent orange-to-scarlet autumn color.

Elaeagnus umbellata (Autumn Olive)

An invasive Asian woody plant with silvery-scaled leaves and speckled red fruit that was historically planted for soil erosion control but has invaded wild ecosystems.