Please help me identify this tree

[retoid]

I was walking in the woods the other day looking for deadfall and came across this long straight tree. There was so much brush and other foliage around it I could not see any leaves from this tree.

It is possible to identify the tree type by the bark?

Anybody know what it might be?

 

[lumberjack333]

Wow stumped me, unique! Kinda looks like a giant alder (thats impossible though) also a bit a resemblance to yellow birch but I honestly have no clue, gettin my book out...

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Various cherry / prunus have those trunk markings - but maybe not quite so long.

Did you cut it down, or is it horizontal?

I've seen trunks a couple of times in odd positions.

Anyhow, that's one guess.

 

[tree_beard]

obviously im not in the US and cant say anything with authority about your local trees, but..

Kinda looks like a giant alder (thats impossible though)

alders can get allot bigger than that.... though ive not seen an alder with trunk markings like that



looks to me like a cherry of some sort, we get alot of 'wild cherry' in woods around here that have very similar bark and form (tall and lanky) when surrounded by other trees.

cut that bad-boy up, if its cherry it should be quite distinctive


my 2pence

 

[lawmart]

cut the end to get the positive id but my best guess is cherry family.
lawmart

 

[masterarbor]

i thought cherry too, but the trunk gets rough on a cherry, but the upper leaders look very much like that. also, young cherry trees will have not developed the rough bark yet. but you're a long way from me, so you might have trees we don't. i guess i'm not too sure...

 

[Dadatwins]

I would guess cherry, from the bark. Quick way to check is to take a chunk out with an axe or hatchet. Cherry wood has a very distinct smell.

 

[kennertree]

I would guess cherry, from the bark. Quick way to check is to take a chunk out with an axe or hatchet. Cherry wood has a very distinct smell.

I like the smell it makes when chipping it.

 

[JeffL]

I like the smell it makes when chipping it.

Same!

I'm going to guess cherry as well.

 

[retoid]

Nope didnt cut it down. It seems like it was recently blown down from our seasonal winter winds. Had to have been very recent since nothing is growing on it and there arent any leaves on it.

I am heading out to cut a thin round. I will post up a picture in a bit.

 

[retoid]

Just cut a small piece and it smells kind of sweet and does not smell like the other birch tree's that grow everywhere here.
It is kind of odd to find this tree out here in the woods. I've walked around the woods observing tree's alot and this is the first one I have seen like it.

 

[OLD CHIPMONK]

Looks like some kind of Cherry ?

 

[retoid]

hmm, since there is no foliage present how can I better identify this tree?

 

[retoid]

After looking at several pictures of cherry tree bark it definitely looks like cherry. But wow I have never seen a cherry tree so big!
Is that normal?
Or maybe a black birch?

What are some good uses for this tree?

 

[buzz sawyer]

Without foliage, it would be difficult - are there any similar trees nearby? You could wait till the leaves come out.

Looks like a sour cherry to me - prunnis avium. Just cut and split some last Fall. The bark was about 1/4" thick and really bound the log together - made it very tough splitting till I slit around the bark with the saw. Also looks similar to water birch - Betula occidentalis. Cherry would have the sweeter smell, but not as pronounced as black cherry. Still makes good firewood.

 

[retoid]

Without foliage, it would be difficult - are there any similar trees nearby? You could wait till the leaves come out.

Looks like a sour cherry to me - prunnis avium. Just cut and split some last Fall. The bark was about 1/4" thick and really bound the log together - made it very tough splitting till I slit around the bark with the saw. Also looks similar to water birch - Betula occidentalis. Cherry would have the sweeter smell, but not as pronounced as black cherry. Still makes good firewood.

Well, it was ripped from its roots from the wind. I doubt it will produce leaves. From the look of the bark and outer layer of the wood, I would guess it fell last year.

I am very curious about it though as there are no other tree's like it, not even close.
It also seems that most cherry tree's do not grow so straight and long making me guess its beech related.

 

[buzz sawyer]

It also seems that most cherry tree's do not grow so straight and long making me guess its beech related.

Yeah, I noticed how straight it was. Made me think twice about cherry but that could be influenced by how thickly wooded the area was as it grew. Does the bark come off like thick, heavy cardboard? In the first cut photo, the wood looks fairly whitish, but the second is more reddish, like cherry.

 

[buzz sawyer]

My guess is that it is a sargent cherry that has escaped cultivation.

http://www.shuttermoments.ca/articles/sakura/cherryguide.htm



Sargent Cherry -- Prunus 'sargentii'

One of the tallest flowering cherries, growing as high as 24 meters, it produces delicate light pink, single 5-petal flowers up to 4cm wide with deeper pink stamens and bronze-red foliage each spring. The bark is a shining polished brown.

The sargentii is one of the few that will not stand pollution.

Can grow to 3.0 - 5.0 meters wide at maturity.

Prunus sargentii 'Rancho' is an upright, vase-shaped tree sometimes described as being columnar. This habit is the shape of the younger tree, but broadens somewhat as the tree ages. The coppery bronze leaves open just as the flowers begin to fade.

In the late 1800s Professor Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum, among others, collected seeds from the mountain slopes of Japan. The Japanese name for this rather large deciduous tree means "great mountain cherry."

Sounds like a winner, TreeCo!

 

[retoid]

Hmm definitely a good description but still hard to say for sure.

Today I am going to go cut another piece off from the base of the tree instead of from a trunk.

I ripped some of the bark off of the smaller piece I cut yesterday and most of it came off fairly thin. About 1 mm thick. I am not very knowledgeable about tree's but it seemed like there is an outer layer of stronger skin like bark and beneath that is another layer of softer thicker bark about 1/8" thick.

I will have more pics of the larger cut later on today.

Thank you all for helping me identify this tree I am learning a lot from searching around the internet and finding very helpful uses of some of these tree's.

 

[Mark Currie]

hmm.. I know around here, I've spotted a few big mountain ash trees (showy mountain ash - sorbus decora). Big for a mountain ash is like 6 or 7 inch DBH or so. They're rare, but they do exist.

http://www.treecanada.ca/trees/photo_info.php?photo_id=319&lang=en

That tree looks bigger than that though, and the range for the showy mountain ash doesn't extend even close to that in the west. Not sure what you have out there for mountain ash. There's Sorbus sitchensis (Sitka Mountain Ash), but I can't find any good pictures of them. No idea how big they can get. Probably not that big though.

Just figured I'd throw another option out there.

Mark