Another Tree ID question(pic)

[johnnylabguy]

Camped under them last week at a river's edge. Brother has some on his property too back by his creek as well so they like water. Seed pods like a maple but I don't recognize the leaf. Thats the trunk of the young tree behind the leaves in the pic. Thanks for any help!

 

[3fordasho]

Box elder I'm pretty sure - a member of the maple family also called manitoba maple. Don't leave it in the round too long, likes to rot in that form. similar btu's to silver maple, but I like silver maple better.

Camped under them last week at a river's edge. Brother has some on his property too back by his creek as well so they like water. Seed pods like a maple but I don't recognize the leaf. Thats the trunk of the young tree behind the leaves in the pic. Thanks for any help!

 

[Steve NW WI]

Box elder, Manitoba Maple, frickin weed, die you fencline overruning SOB, whatever ya wanna call it. LOTS of Tordon will take care of em, most of the time. I'm fighting a neverending battle with them here on the farm. I ain't winnin, but I win a battle or two now and then.

 

[stumpy75]

+1 on boxelder

Boxelder Tree

 

[Whitespider]

...at a river's edge. Brother has some on his property too back by his creek as well so they like water.

Not just water, they like anything, wet soil, dry soil... no soil, sunny spots, shady spots, under the porch, in the asparagus patch... I even found one growing from the bark litter in the bed of my pickup once. Damn pain, they are.

A few years ago I decided to cut every last one out of my wood lot... gave up trying after felling 137 of them. Besides, when you cut one down the stump sends up dozens of sprouts and than you've got box elder bushes growing everywhere. Darn near worthless as firewood... burns like newspaper.

 

[3fordasho]

Yep, between the box elder, buckthorn and siberian elm I am suprised anything else gets a chance to grow around here.
Noxious weeds - all of them. Buckthorn can be pretty good firewood, just doesn't get big enough to be worthwhile.

Boxelder is about as worthless as a tree can be.... limbs break easily (main trunks too), they can be soft and squishy inside, barely support their own weight, larger ones are almost always full of rot and ants in the center. I bucked some up this spring and just split the rounds in the last couple days - stinky, slimey and almost seemed to be starting to rot already. It does dry quickly and will burn once dry ;-)

Not just water, they like anything, wet soil, dry soil... no soil, sunny spots, shady spots, under the porch, in the asparagus patch... I even found one growing from the bark litter in the bed of my pickup once. Damn pain, they are.

A few years ago I decided to cut every last one out of my wood lot... gave up trying after felling 137 of them. Besides, when you cut one down the stump sends up dozens of sprouts and than you've got box elder bushes growing everywhere. Darn near worthless as firewood... burns like newspaper.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Thanks for the quick replies. I thought it might be boxelder from one I cut down for a neighbor years ago but forgot they had compound leaves. Thanks for the good links too! The shoots and sapling starts definately resemble poison ivy. They had me doing double takes our whole trip because there was poison ivy everywhere there wasn't a boxelder sapling on the way to the river!

I agree it is crappy firewood. Probably burned my last boxelder as firewood when I cut down that first one!

As a thankyou here's a pic of my nieces and nephews making "mudpies" for us all at camp. My son's digging up some more "main ingredient" at the base of the boxelder in question at the left. Sounds like no one would mind if he dug up the tree's roots too!

 

[Steve NW WI]

As noted, it does burn well when dry, and dry box elder bark has almost the same match light quality as birch bark. It makes great campfire wood if you keep it covered. It will suck up rain water and become almost as wet as it was green if not covered. If ya find one covered in burls, the wood turners really like them, especially with the red streaks the wood often has in it.

Enough waxing poetic, I consider them a pest as noted above. Every one I cut gets a shot of Tordon on the stump to keep the sprouting that 'spidey mentioned at bay. I still have some growing in places I only mow once a month or so, they'll shoot up 2' in that time. They will stretch their branches further out over a crop field than any other tree I know.

Kill em all, I say!