Black Tupelo
The black tupelo (also called
sour gum, black gum or pepperidge) is a tree having simple, more or
less oval leaves with smooth edges. The winter buds are conical, a
bit stubby but pointed and they jut out from the twig in a sort of
zigzag pattern. Black Tupelo often occurs, and probably grows best,
in very moist or wetland soils.
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Fig
22 Black Tupelo leaves and flowers
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Fig
22 Black Tupelo twig |
Eastern
Cottonwood
The eastern cottonwood is a true
poplar and is another stream bank or wet area tree. The leaves are
somewhat delta shaped or triangular with the bottom edge being fairly
straight across. Winter buds are elongated and pointed, often
diverging or jutting out from the twig and may be slightly sticky.
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Fig
24 Eastern Cottonwood.
USDA-NRCS Plants Database / Britton,
N.L. and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the
northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions.
Vol. 1: 590. |
Fig. 25 Eastern Cottonwood twigs
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Walnut
As with white ash, black walnut
has compound leaves. But in the black walnut there are many more
leaflets per leaf than in ash. One feature that distinguishes black
walnut from most other trees is a characteristic in the center of its
twigs. The center of the twig, the so-called pith, is chambered in
black walnut trees, meaning that it is essentially hollow with
periodic diaphragm-like divisions.
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Fig. 26 Black Walnut twig showing chambered pith
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Fig. 27 Black Walnut twig with leaves and fruit
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Hickory
Hickory trees, members of the
walnut family, have compound leaves that are divided into generally
five to nine leaflets. The hickory nut, in contrast to the walnut,
has an outer husk that splits open when mature. The twig’s pith is
not chambered in hickory as it is in the walnut.
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Fig. 28 Shagbark Hickory twig with leaves and flowers
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Fig. 29 Shagbark Hickory twigs
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Birch
The paper birch or white birch
features, of course, the familiar white bark. It also has simple
leaves reminiscent of those of the Cottonwood, although paper birch
leaves are not as straight edged along the bottom. The flowers and
fruits of birches are produced in caterpillar-like structures called
catkins.
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Fig. 30 Paper Birch twigs with leaves and catkin
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