I brought home a few pieces of this tree today, cut on a city lot. I’ve tried to key it out and I’m coming up with persimmon or sourgum. No experience with either of them. Do either of those sound correct? Any other ideas? Thanks!
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Wood identification help
- Thread starter Lou Jacobs
- Start date
I brought home a few pieces of this tree today, cut on a city lot. I’ve tried to key it out and I’m coming up with persimmon or sourgum. No experience with either of them. Do either of those sound correct? Any other ideas? Thanks!
For what it's worth I'm getting Balsam Poplar on PictureThis app.
Google Lens agrees
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Maybe Basswood. I’m not real familiar with basswood. I does grow in MD. we got a couple trees when we lived in MD
It is a soft light weight wood. duck carvers like it.
Check out this short video
Persimmon is dense and heavy.
Balsam poplar- grows naturally much further north but could be a planted tree.
It is a soft light weight wood. duck carvers like it.
Check out this short video
Persimmon is dense and heavy.
Balsam poplar- grows naturally much further north but could be a planted tree.
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I am getting Poplar or Cottonwood
The leaves are much to small to be basswood and the bark is also not right for basswood. Note I live on Basswood lake and my address is on Basswood Lake Road in the MN lakes area so I have plenty of examples of basswood on my 5 acres and the majority of the land on the lake that is not developed.
so which of the six? houses is yours?
If you want to know for sure, send a chunk to the USDA Forest Products Lab. They will identify three submissions per year for US citizens
www.fpl.fs.usda.gov
Forest Products Laboratory | US Forest Service Research and Development
I’m not inclined to think balsam poplar, as we are below it’s range, although yes, it could be planted. Also leaf stems are completely round. Balsam poplar stems may be round or slightly flattened. Also the leaves are less heart shaped than poplar, more symmetrically elliptical. FWIW, these pieces are from a large branch that broke off high up the trunk. I’ll go look at the bark on the lower main trunk and see if that helps. Thanks for all the brainstorming!
Edit: JOHN, I’ve used the US FPLab in the past. Good suggestion as a last resort. We’ll see if I get that far…
Edit: JOHN, I’ve used the US FPLab in the past. Good suggestion as a last resort. We’ll see if I get that far…
There are only 4 permanent residences on the lake with 2 of them on Basswood Lake road and 2 on Basswood road and they are on the SE end. There are 3 small cabins with 1 between me ( farthest south) and the other of the SE permanent residence. The SW cabin has electricity and indoor plumbing then the hunting camp on the W and the small cabin on the NW do hot have electricity and are seldom used.
There are at least three basic varieties of basswood/Linden around in the US. American Linden has the giant, plate sized leaves and is probably what Don has in his woods. Then there is the "little leaf Linden", with leaves varying from aspen sized to palm sized. The third variety is the "Redmond" Linden, which may be a horticultural creation from a cross of the first two. The leaves on it are generally in the palm size range. None of them has quite the correct leaf shape, which is asymmetrical, if I remember correctly.
The leaves are deep green and also not quite right for any western poplar, but who knows what you guys in crab land have growing.
In case anyone is still interested in further clues, here’s a slice from one of the logs when I removed the pith and cut blanks. Also, the odor was somewhat objectionable - sort of sour, FWIW.
And one more clue. A branch with a few buds.
To me the leaves have the typical Dogwood veins and shape, though there are a number of Dogwoods and hybrids of them and not all are the same but for the veins.
I hold it as a Dogwood tree, certainly not Balsam or other Poplar, they grow all around here and I can tell them from a distance.
OK I think I found the species and and leaves and bark plus another Dogwood shrub leaves, you will see the typical (TO ME) Dogwood leaves with the veins.
This is also called giant Dogwood
I hold it as a Dogwood tree, certainly not Balsam or other Poplar, they grow all around here and I can tell them from a distance.
OK I think I found the species and and leaves and bark plus another Dogwood shrub leaves, you will see the typical (TO ME) Dogwood leaves with the veins.
This is also called giant Dogwood
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Leo, you make an interesting argument, but I did not consider dogwood because of the size of the tree. The pieces I got are from an upper branch that broke out of the tree, about 10” in diameter. The main trunk is more like 16-18” diameter. I’ve never seen dogwood anywhere near that size, but I am open to the possibility. I’ll keep investigating.
Plantnet says cottonwood @ 75% confidence!
I was thinking that is what it may be when he commented that it was a broken off branch since that is typical for cottonwood.
I have seen a couple of dogwood trees that were in the 18 inch diameter trunk size. They are not common that size. One I drive by a couple of times a week is the Pacific Dogwood, and it has beautiful green flowers that turn white as they age. I drool every time I drive by...
robo hippy
robo hippy
Lou there is a good reason that it is called GIANT DOGWOOD, the info I found tells me it can grow as tall as 60 feet, more commonly in the 40 feet range.
Here is some. info on it.
The Cottonwood leaves are certainly not the same, neither is the bark in a mature tree.
Lou, one of the things that struck me when I first looked at your picture is that the leaves sprout in a cluster. This seems like a very distinctive feature, not shared by many trees in my neck of the woods. When you find a scientific description that seems to fit, this would be something they should mention, even emphasize.
Definitely not cottonwood as Leo says, the leaves are very different. I like the idea of dogwood. I’ll ask the neighbors who told me about the tree if they’ve noticed flowers in the spring. Dean, I agree about the leaf clusters, which I think are consistent with Leo’s dogwood idea.
FYI, Basswood/linden has been planted over the last 30 yrs in shopping center and office park parking lots here 45 miles north of Baltimore. So much that birds are now spreading the seeds. I have 10 or 15 saplings growing in my hedgerows. I am 20 miles north of Whiteford MD. I have seen it in fence rows there too, whether American=native, European (Lime) or hybrid, I don't know.
Here are a couple pictures to compare Linden an Giant Dogwood bark and leaves, where it will be clear of the difference between the two.
BASS or LINDEN TREE LEAVES
GIANT DOWOOD BARK
LINDEN TREE BARK
BASS or LINDEN TREE LEAVES
GIANT DOWOOD BARK
LINDEN TREE BARK
Leo, I think (once again) you’ve pegged it. I’ve asked someone who lives near the tree if they’ve noticed the white flowers in the spring. They don’t recall, but will be asking neighbors. Everything I read about giant dogwood fits my specimen. Thank you all for your brainstorming!!
Dang it Leo, now I am going to have to try and find some seeds for that giant dogwood. Maybe get some seeds off of that one big tree I know of.... I probably won't live long enough to harvest it, but it would be nice to have.... Wish I had more acres to plant trees on....
robo hippy
robo hippy
Nice ID Leo!
As much as I was intrigued by the idea of something like giant dogwood, I’m afraid the Forest Products Laboratory agrees with many of you who said a poplar species (i.e. balsam poplar). They only identify genus and not species, but I think we can rule out cottonwood due to the leaves. That points towards balsam poplar. An interesting proocess. Thanks everyone who expressed an opinion!
I do not agree with Poplar, especially Balsam Poplar leaves, look that up, and you will see a different shape and color, the reason I said I can tell that from a distant is for the color of the Balsam leaves on the tree, it is quite easy to see.
Leo, as you see, they only identify genus, not specie. I wonder if it could be another member of the poplar family?
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Populus is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (/ ˈpɒplər /), aspen, and cottonwood.
(The above from Wikipedia)
So, One would think, if one were curious enough , to look up all the species and see what different names fall under that .. (Might be some form of dogwood in the list?)
(The above from Wikipedia)
So, One would think, if one were curious enough , to look up all the species and see what different names fall under that .. (Might be some form of dogwood in the list?)
Dogwood is a different genus completely. Cornus. Characterized, among other things, by opposite leaves. In forestry school, I was taught the mnemonic MADCapHorse (maple, ash, dogwood, Caprifoliaceae, horsechestnut) were the primary species with opposite leaves. All other deciduous trees are alternate. There may be exceptions, but dogwood is not one of them.