Descriptions of trees arranged by scientific name
Scientific Name: Carpinus caroliniana
Common Name: Hornbeam, ironwood
Family: Betulaceae /bet·chew·LAY·see·ee/ The birch family
Bark: Smooth, dark, with vertical fluting (undulations)
Buds:
Cones:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Habit:
Habitat:
Leaves:
Similar trees
Twigs:
Scientific Name: Carya ovata
(CARE·ya oh·VAY·tuh) "ovate hickory"
Common Name: Shagbark Hickory
Family: Caryaceae
Bark: Dark grey, with long,
vertical, shaggy plates.
Buds:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Bark.
Distribution: Native. Locally common.
Flowers:
Fruit:
Habit: A big, upright tree, with sparse branches on
twigs (noticeable in winter) which are much more slender than those of other
trees with few branches (Gymnocladus, Ailanthus).
Because of its valuable wood, large trees are not common in wild.
Habitat: Dry woods. Rarely cultivated.
Leaves: Alternate, seven pinnate leaflets.
Similar trees Ostrya has shaggy bark, but
it is much finer and more shreddy, and the trees are otherwise dissimilar.
Once the shaggy bark develops, no other hickory resembles the Shagbark.
Twigs: Grey, round, slender, somewhat snaky. Young
trees in winter have the graceful, sparse look of a bonsai.
Scientific Name: Castanea
Common Name:
Family:
Bark:
Buds:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Fruit:
Habit:
Habitat:
Leaves:
Similar trees
Scientific Name: Catalpa
Common Name: Indian Bean Tree
Family: Bignoniaceae.
Bark: Grey, ridged.
Buds:
Distinctive Characteristics: Twigs, leaves, fruits.
Distribution:
Flowers: Showy, in erect racemes 6 in. high. Petals fused. Actinomorphic. White with pink on the corolla.
Fruit: A foot long capsule, splitting laterally to release winged seeds.
Habit:
Habitat: In cultivation, and spreading to waste places because of its wind borne seeds.
Leaves: Cordate, opposite or whorled.
Similar trees
Twigs: Stout, smooth,
with cup-shaped leaf scars, usually in whorls of three.
Scientific Name: Celtis
Common Name: Hackberry
Family: Ulmaceae
Bark: Grey, covered with rough corky excrescences.
Buds: Terminal bud downy.
Distinctive Characteristics: Bark, witch's brooms in twigs, leaves.
Distribution:
Flowers:
Fruit: A dull maroon berry?.
Habit:
Habitat: Usually seen in cultivation.
Leaves: Lanceolate with
asymetrical base.
Similar trees
Twigs: Usually filled
with witch's brooms, a pathological growth, due to a
fungal infection, consisting of clumps of twigs growing
close together.
Scientific Name:
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
Common Name:Katsura tree
Family: Cercidiphyllaceae
Bark:
Buds:
Cones:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Habit:
Habitat:
Leaves:
Opposite in two horizontal rows, 10 cm long with 3 cm
petiole. Ovate, with rounded teeth, obtuse tip and
cordate base.
Similar trees
Twigs:
Scientific Name:
Common Name:
Family:Caesalpiniaceae
(see·sal·pin·ee·AY·see·ee)
Bark:
Buds:
Cones:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Habit:
Habitat:
Leaves:
Similar trees
Twigs:
Scientific Name:
Common Name:Yellowwood
Family: Papilionaceae
(pap·PILL·ee·on·AY·see·ee)
Pea Family
Bark:
Buds:
Cones:
Distinctive
Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Habit:
Habitat:
Leaves: Alternate,
pinnately compound.
Similar trees
Twigs:
Scientific Name: Colutea arborescens (coeLOOteeah
arboreESSenz)
Common Name:
Family:
Bark:
Buds:
Cones:
Distinctive Characteristics:
Distribution:
Flowers:
Habit: Mostly a bush.
Habitat: Mostly waste
places.
Leaves: Alternate,
pinnately compound.
Similar trees
Twigs:
The genus
Cornus comprises
the dogwoods, small trees or shrubs, with showy
flowers.
Common Name:
Flowering Dogwood
Family: Cornaceae
/core·NAY·see·ee/ The dogwood family
Bark: Blocky.
Buds: Flower buds flattened
longitudinally, broad and round with pointed tip.
Distinctive Characteristics: Flowers.
Distribution: Native
tree, widely planted.
Flowers: Four large
white bracts, with browned notches at tip, surround an
inflorescence of many small green flowers. Petals 4.
It blooms in April to May, before C. kousa does.
Fruit: A scarlet-red
drupe, with 1-2 mm thick yellow flesh about an
elongated pit. 2.5 cm long, less than 1 cm in
diameter.
Habit: Short trunk, usually,
spreading. Not usually more than 25 feet high.
Habitat: Lawns and parks in
cultivation--not a street tree. In the wild, a tree of the
wood's understory, in shaded locations.
Leaves: Simple,
opposite, entire, 4-6 inches long , elliptical. Veins curve
parallel to margins.
Similar trees Rhamnus cathartica's leaves have similar
venation and may be opposite. They are smaller and serrate.
C. kousa
is much similar in habit and leaf. The bracts are pink and
pointed in C. kousa, and the fruit is totally different.
Kousa blooms about a month after the flowering dogwood, C. florida. Kousa's blooms are usually
denser and more spectacular (though often with a greener tinge).
Twigs:
Common Name:
Kousa dogwood.
Family: Cornaceae.
/core·NAY·see·ee/ The dogwood
family
Bark: Scaly.
Buds:
Distinctive
Characteristics:
fruit; flowers.
Distribution:
In cultivation only. Japanese native.
Flowers: Small, green
inflorescence is surrounded by four pointed pink bracts
an 2-3 cm wide and 6 cm long.
Fruit: A fleshy
pink ball an inch in diameter.
Habit: Dinky little
tree, spreading.
Habitat: Lawns and
parks.
Leaves:
Similar trees:
Other tree-sized dogwoods.
Twigs:
