Index

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dendrology Demystified: A Tree Tutorial by D. Glenn Miller

continued from page three

Conifers/Softwoods 

 

Eastern White Pine

 

Pines are grouped or classified in two basic ways.  One of these is by the number of needles bundled together at their bases.  Eastern white pine is a five-needled pine because it has five needles per bundle.  Even though pines overall are considered softwoods compared to hardwoods like oak and hickory, pine trees are themselves also grouped as hard or soft.  Eastern white pine belongs to the soft pine group.

Fig. 31 Eastern white pine twigs, needles and cone.   

USDA-NRCS Plants Database Wetland flora:

Field office illustrated guide to plant species. 

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

 

Pitch Pine

 

Pitch pine is a three-needled pine.  It is categorized as a hard pine, as are most other pines with fewer than five needles per bundle.  The cones are somewhat egg shaped when closed and more or less oval when open.

Fig. 32 Pitch Pine branches, needles and cones

Even though pines are evergreens, they do shed and replace their needles, though not all at once.  The ground beneath pine trees is usually well supplied with circumstantial evidence to help in identification.  A tall pine whose lowest branches are too high to allow an observer to easily see details of its needles and cones often has an abundance of shed needles and cones beneath it.  So look for this circumstantial evidence to help with identification. 

 

Tamarack

 

There’s a group of deciduous conifers—needle-leaved trees bearing cones that drop their needles in the winter—called larches.  The tamarack is a specific kind of larch native to the northeastern US and its range extends northwestward across Canada and includes parts of Alaska.  Tamaracks have many relatively short and soft needles bunched together at the base; the needles generally turn yellow in the fall before dropping.  Tamarack cones are small and roughly oval, usually less than an inch long.  The tamarack typically occurs in wetlands, especially boggy areas.

Fig. 33 Tamarack twig, needles and cones

 

Red Spruce

 

Spruce trees, as conifers go, are different from both pines and larches in that their needles are not borne in groups or clusters but are attached singly to the twig.  The needles are comparatively short and fairly dense along the twigs.  There are three species of spruce trees native to the northeastern US with ranges extending into Canada.  They are the white spruce, red spruce and black spruce.  The red spruce has some characteristics that are generally intermediate between the red and black.  All three of these spruces have cones that are relatively small.  The white spruce cones are the largest at about an inch, the red spruce are somewhat smaller and the black spruce cones are smaller than those of red spruce.

Fig. 34 Red Spruce twigs, needles and cones

 

Eastern Hemlock

 

The hemlocks form another group of conifers or softwoods having needles that are attached singly to the twigs rather than in groups or clusters.  Eastern hemlock, at maturity, is a very large tree but has short needles, usually measuring less than an inch, and small cones.

Fig. 35 Eastern Hemlock twigs, needles and cones

 

Balsam Fir

 

The balsam fir is a true fir.  It has soft needles, longer than those of hemlock, attached singly to the twig as in spruce and hemlock.  The cones are medium-sized, somewhat barrel-shaped and grow upright from the branch.  Unlike other conifers in which the mature cone falls from the tree intact, balsam fir cones disintegrate in place.  Cone scales with their accompanying seeds fall off, leaving the bare central-spiked axis of the cone on the tree.

Fig. 36 Balsam Fir needles and cones

 

Eastern Red Cedar

 

Trees in North America going by the name “cedar“ are not true cedars; botanists tell us that there are no true cedar trees native to the Western Hemisphere.  But the common name “cedar” is so deeply ingrained in our usage that for all intents and purposes we’ll consider the trees that we call “cedar” to be cedars.  The eastern red cedar is one of these.  This tree is technically a juniper and it has small pointed, scale-like needles or leaves.  On the newer or faster growing parts of the tree the leaves tend to be angled somewhat away from the twig and are prickly.  On the older or slower growing parts the leaves are appressed more tightly to the twig.  The Eastern red cedar is a conifer even though outwardly the cones look for all the world like pale, blue berries.

Fig. 37 Eastern red cedar twigs,

leaves/needles and cones/”berries.” 

 

Read Part Two

 
 

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