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what kind of tree?

W

WODAD

Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
64
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Location
Beresford, South Dakota
Neighbor cut down this tree, don't know what it is. Large leaves with little hard berries, look like peas. Wood is very pale & light and not much character. Located in So. east South Dakota. Took some home and they have another just like they will be taking down.

Thanks for your help,
 
Basswood

Hi Frank!

To me it looks like Basswood (= Linden), or for the Brits, 'Lime', probably Tilia americana given your location. To confirm the identification, you can have a look at some images (search Google Images for 'Basswood') or have a look at the 'Tilia' Wikipedia entry HERE. If you still have fruits available, you can confirm the identification if the small branched clusters of fruit have a flag-like bract on the stem connecting the fruits to the tree. A telltale character for Tilia that you can see at a distance.

Some like to turn the rather bland wood, and you can do searches on here and Woodcentral to see opinions of others on this matter. I generally don't waste my time having on basswood on the lathe when there are so many other more attractive woods to turn.

Woodcarvers love this wood given its generally neutral characters of color and grain texture, fibrousness, and ability to cut very cleanly. Cutting and drying the wood quickly will tend to keep the wood whiter than will leaving it in log form; in my experience the wood color darkens to a somewhat dirty grey-brown if not dried quickly.

Hope this helps!

Rob Wallace
 
In Oklahoma we call that a cottonwood. I tried cottonwood once. Made the shop smell like a sewer plant. Some of the fellow turners in the club got a laugh over that.
 
Looks like bass to me, as well. Mulberry is orange in the middle, cottonwood is so fuzzy the sharpest chain couldn't make it look as clean as the picture.

Lots of yellow flowers in the spring, and bees everywhere? All the confirmation I'd need.
 
Mulberry. Cut down every one you see. The female tree produces purple berries that birds dearly love but can't keep from dropping the digestive residue (big purple splats!) on my cars.

But, the mulberry I've cut down has a yellow heartwood that turns brown over time when it's exposed to light.
 
captjim said:
Also check out mulberry
Click to expand...

Jim:

Mulberry is ruled-out by the fruit and wood color characters (...as well as leaf shape and margin characters, although these are very variable in mulberry). Additionally, there would be a much greater disparity between earlywood and latewood density seen in the cut section of the log. Mulberry appears ring-porous and basswood is diffuse-porous without much differentiation seen as 'grain' bands of different cell sizes. If it were mulberry, you would certainly see much more grain character than is shown in the cut wood image.

As mentioned already, mulberry heartwood is typically dark yellow to orange in color and the bark is not nearly as thick or as fissured as is shown; this thick fissured-bark character is common in basswood. Also, mulberry wood would not be described as "very pale and light", whether in green or dried form.

The fruits that were originally described as being "little hard berries" and being "pea-like" rule out mulberry in which female trees have fruits that are 'raspberry-like' (technically they are multiple fruits; a complex of drupes) and would never be described as 'pea-like'.

Rob Wallace
 
Before moving to Hawaii, we had a weekend home in Clearlake, Ca and it came with several "nasty" trees referred to as fruitless mulberry. The leaf and bark seemed similar to the pictures. I threatened to cut them down several times, but didn't so I can't speak of the heartwood color.
I didn't start turning until the move to HI so I am completely ignorant of the characteristics of the timbers I grew up with.
But if you need to know about mango, milo or Norfolk Pine, I'm the guy.

Rob Wallace said:
Jim:

Mulberry is ruled-out by the fruit and wood color characters (...as well as leaf shape and margin characters, although these are very variable in mulberry). Additionally, there would be a much greater disparity between earlywood and latewood density seen in the cut section of the log. Mulberry appears ring-porous and basswood is diffuse-porous without much differentiation seen as 'grain' bands of different cell sizes. If it were mulberry, you would certainly see much more grain character than is shown in the cut wood image.

As mentioned already, mulberry heartwood is typically dark yellow to orange in color and the bark is not nearly as thick or as fissured as is shown; this thick fissured-bark character is common in basswood. Also, mulberry wood would not be described as "very pale and light", whether in green or dried form.

The fruits that were originally described as being "little hard berries" and being "pea-like" rule out mulberry in which female trees have fruits that are 'raspberry-like' (technically they are multiple fruits; a complex of drupes) and would never be described as 'pea-like'.

Rob Wallace
Click to expand...
 
Maple Fungus

Rob,

While we have you speaking professionally, I have another question.

I live in north Central Illinois where hard Maple trees mostly of the age planted inthe 1970's are dwindling a slow death from a mold or fungus. In kills a branch at a time, year after year until after 4 to 7 years the tree is dead. The outward vissible sign of the fungus are white/grey discoloration on bark. Neighborhoods built back then are losing trees just as they reach their peak value and a stately shade tree.

One tree guy told me he could treat each of the 6 trees in my yard at the cost of $300/year, each and he might save half of the 6. Another tree guy said enjoy them while they last.

Large 80 year old maples do not seem to be effected nor do small more recent plantings.

What is it and can I save my trees while turning the dead trees I cut from my neighbor's yards? Selfish but true.

Frank Kobilsek
Mendota, IL
 
Hi Frank!

Sorry for the delayed reply. I've been away for a short time, and had a Board of Trustees meeting yesterday for our local Center for the Arts that I had to do some homework for (I was just elected to the Board of Trustees in May). I'm just now getting caught-up on turning message boards today...

Frank Kobilsek said:
Rob,

While we have you speaking professionally, I have another question.

I live in north Central Illinois where hard Maple trees mostly of the age planted in the 1970's are dwindling a slow death from a mold or fungus. In kills a branch at a time, year after year until after 4 to 7 years the tree is dead. The outward vissible sign of the fungus are white/grey discoloration on bark. Neighborhoods built back then are losing trees just as they reach their peak value and a stately shade tree.

One tree guy told me he could treat each of the 6 trees in my yard at the cost of $300/year, each and he might save half of the 6. Another tree guy said enjoy them while they last.

Large 80 year old maples do not seem to be effected nor do small more recent plantings.

What is it and can I save my trees while turning the dead trees I cut from my neighbor's yards? Selfish but true.

Frank Kobilsek
Mendota, IL
Click to expand...

There can be a number of different diseases (or several in combination) which can cause die-off of trees and other plants. You are pushing the edge of my limits about a providing comprehensive answer, since I have no formal training in plant pathology, am not a plant pathologist (nor do I play one on TV), but only have been hanging around with these folks for about 20 years. (Their offices are just down the hall from mine!) What little I know, is by "osmosis", not by training.

Maples can be effected by several different kinds of pathogenic fungi. It sounds like this cohort of maples may be suffering similar stresses from the environment, whether that is from heat, cold, drought, too much water, insects, or pathogens or combinations of any of these.

One or two types of fungal infections which are common (particularly during wet summers) are black spot and anthracnose. These typically attack the leaves, producing discolored "black spots" (duh!) or dark, multi-colored lesions on the leaf surfaces. I do not know to that extent these infections travel down the stem to give the die-off effect you describe. Powdery (or downy) mildew also can effect leaves with whitish powder-like spores on the leaf surface, or discoloration of the leaf tissue with eventual leaf loss.

There is also a fungal infection called verticillium-wilt which sounds more like what you are describing. This can travel through the vascular system of the stems, eventually killing off branches over time, and eventually the whole tree. (I don't know anything about the white/grey discoloration on the bark; it sounds more like lichens to me than fungal structures.) If forced to guess given the brief description and without seeing any living or dead material, this (as far as I know) comes as close to being a possible causative agent. there may be other infections of maple that I am not aware of (which is very likely, since this isn't my area of expertise), but getting the maaterial to someone knowledgeable about tree pathology.

I don't know enough about what the cost effectiveness and success of treating your trees with a systemic fungicide (whether through root application of through stem injection techniques). It sounds a bit steep for a relatively low efficacy/cure rate. Whatever you do, you should be sure the causative organism(s) is/are identified so that the treatment can be directed against the correct kind(s) of organism(s). So-called "shotgun" treatments may not be effective, and you could be just "peeing money away into the wind" without any benefit to the trees or you!

My advice would be to try to send a sample of the effected tree parts to your local County Agricultural Extension office to see if they can determine specifically what the fungus (or fungi) is/are that are damaging your trees. They should be able to provide advice on treatment recommendations or the likelihood of recovery.

If you can't get anywhere with your local county extension office, you could contact the Iowa State University Plant Disease Clinic (contact information found HERE) and send samples for analysis and disease identification. There is a handling and materials supply fee of $ 20 per sample. Read the details about how the clinic works, and especially how to sample properly and provide as much information as possible to improve the chances of an accurate determination. (Some of this analysis may involve trying to culture-out the fungus from the wood [in your case] and then doing a morphological determination of what the possible disease causing fungus is.)

I'm not sure I've helped any, but good luck with your maple problem there - at least you may get some nice spalted wood out of the situation if the situation continues to be the unfortunate death of these mature trees.

Rob Wallace
 
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Tree?

Can't say what tree it is, but if it is hanging over a body of water, carp love mulberries! However, they don't fly and cause problems like birds.
 
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