Week 3 Trees

Amelanchier arborea

Amelanchier arborea

downy serviceberry, downy shadbush

Family: Rosaceae

Natural history: Several species native to North Carolina, including A. arborea and A. canadensis in the Piedmont, and A. laevis in the mountains. Taxonomy of Amelanchier fluctuates often and the exact number of species remains controversial. Songbirds, squirrels, and humans eat the fruit. Several cultivars planted for spring flowers.

Carya glabra

pignut hickory, pignut

Family: Juglandaceae

Natural history: In the “true” hickory group. Wood is dense but shrinks considerably when dried - used in agricultural equipment, tool handles, and firewood. Nuts eaten by bear, deer, fox, and racoon.

Carya ovalis

red hickory, false shagbark hickory

Family: Juglandaceae

Natural history: In the "true" hickory group. Wood and wildlife use similar to C. glabra.

Fraxinus americana

white ash, American ash

Family: Oleaceae

Natural history: Sexes borne on separate trees (dioecious). Wood used for boat oars, baseball bats, and other sporting equipment, as well as cabinets and flooring. Beavers eat the inner bark (the phloem). Sometimes used in landscaping. Trees in the east are being killed by the emerald ash borer (EAB), an exotic beetle.

Gaylussacia frondosa

huckleberry, dangleberry

Family: Ericaceae

Natural history: Fruit eaten by songbirds, upland game birds, and humans. Commonly confused with blueberry.

Ilex decidua

deciduous holly, possumhaw

Family: Aquifoliaceae

Natural history: Usually dioecious. All Ilex fruits irritate human stomachs and should not be eaten. Fruit eaten by turkey, songbirds, and raccoons. Shrub to small tree, common in low areas, gaining popularity as an ornamental.

Magnolia tripetala

umbrella magnolia, umbrella-tree

Family: Magnoliaceae

Natural history: Songbirds eat the red fleshy seeds.

Pinus echinata

shortleaf pine, shortleaf, shortstraw

Family: Pinaceae

Natural history: Wood use same as loblolly, but usually produces denser lumber. Lumber sold as southern yellow pine, southern pine, or yellow pine. Many seedlings have a characteristic basal crook, an adaptation for fire. Seeds eaten by songbirds, game birds, squirrels, and chipmunks.

Quercus coccinea

scarlet oak

Family: Fagaceae

Natural history: Like many oaks, the young shoots and acorns are poisonous to livestock, if eaten. Commercial value of wood low, owing to the numerous dead branches. Wildlife value similar to southern red oak. Associated with dry, upland sites and rocky soils.

Quercus rubra var. rubra

northern red oak, red oak

Family: Fagaeceae

Natural history: Extremely valuable lumber species, especially in western NC, owing to the defect-free lumber. Used for molding, furniture, paneling, flooring, cabinets, and occasionally pulp. Wildlife value similar to other red oaks. Typical of dry areas but widespread.

Styrax grandifolius

bigleaf snowbell, bigleaf storax

Family: Styracaceae

Natural history:

Symplocos tinctoria

sweetleaf, horse-sugar

Family: Symplocaceae

Natural history: Leaves, fruits, and inner bark contain yellow dye. White-tail deer browse the foliage.

Tsuga canadensis

eastern hemlock, Carolina hemlock

Family: Pinaceae

Natural history: Wood used for lumber and pulpwood. Bark formerly used as a source of tannic acid, used in tanning leather. Infestation and death from hemlock wooly adelgid, an exotic insect, causes conservation concerns in the Appalachians.

Tsuga caroliniana

Carolina hemlock

Family: Pinaceae

Natural history: Grows almost exclusively in western North Carolina; a southern Appalachian endemic. Also attacked by hemlock wooly adelgid.

Tsuga heterophylla

western hemlock

Family: Pinaceae

Natural history: Fast-growing conifer found in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. Wood commercially valuable; grown in plantations; used for lumber, plywood, and pulpwood.

Vaccinium pallidum

hillside blueberry, low sweet blueberry, low bush blueberry

Family: Ericaceae

Natural history: Grouse, songbirds, black bear, chipmunks and humans eat the fruits; foliage eaten by whitetail deer. This is the most common of the lowbush blueberries in the Piedmont, often growing in large colonies.

Viburnum acerifolium

mapleleaf viburnum

Family: Viburnaceae

Natural history: Our most common viburnum. Fruits eaten by wildlife in late fall and winter after other fruits have been eaten.