Wood ID quiz
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Some of those pictures the bark of Pin Oak and Northern Red Oak look a lot like the pictures I posted, but a tree with a 12 inch trunk would not be a large specimen of either species.
I would have said bitternut hickory if you didn't say that it large for its species. I can't think of anything that grows around me that looks like that. Real curious about the tree...
OK the answer is below:
The tree is a Juneberry - Amelanchier arborea. This is a really large one for my area. Most of the time when it grows under larger trees it is a skinny understory tree with a trunk in the 4 to 6 inch range and maybe thirty feet tall. In the open they often grow more like a big shrub than a tree, with multiple trunks. This one was probably fifty feet tall and the trunk I chopped up was around 12 or 14 inches in diameter, making it among the largest ones I have seen. It is native all over the northeast.
Juneberry, also called Shadblow, Serviceberry, and other regional names, gets lots of small white flowers in early spring. They are becoming popular landscaping plants around here. There are several native species, but Amelanchier arborea is the largest one in this part of the country. The others are shrubs. The berries look like blueberries and are edible, but they don't ripen all at the same time, so the birds pick them off one by one and it can be pretty hard to find ripe ones, which are blue or purple when ripe. They are edible and taste like blueberries. Some of the trees here get nice big berries, others seem to only get small, seedy ones. Saskatoon berries are another type of Juneberry that grows out west, and tend to have larger berries.
The smooth grey bark with the pignut hickory like pattern is typical of this species. I have never seen the wood before, so I can't tell you how typical the wide white sapwood and dark heartwood are. juneberry is related to apples, so I expect the wood is similar - it seems similar when cutting. I doubt this wood will ever really season, since it is in a stack at a boy scout camp. It may be burnt already. All chopping was done with the Fiskars pro splitter ax, which I usually carry when backpacking. It is light enough to carry on a pack and allows me to cut real firewood along the trail instead of having to burn only dead sticks that I can break by hand.
The tree is a Juneberry - Amelanchier arborea. This is a really large one for my area. Most of the time when it grows under larger trees it is a skinny understory tree with a trunk in the 4 to 6 inch range and maybe thirty feet tall. In the open they often grow more like a big shrub than a tree, with multiple trunks. This one was probably fifty feet tall and the trunk I chopped up was around 12 or 14 inches in diameter, making it among the largest ones I have seen. It is native all over the northeast.
Juneberry, also called Shadblow, Serviceberry, and other regional names, gets lots of small white flowers in early spring. They are becoming popular landscaping plants around here. There are several native species, but Amelanchier arborea is the largest one in this part of the country. The others are shrubs. The berries look like blueberries and are edible, but they don't ripen all at the same time, so the birds pick them off one by one and it can be pretty hard to find ripe ones, which are blue or purple when ripe. They are edible and taste like blueberries. Some of the trees here get nice big berries, others seem to only get small, seedy ones. Saskatoon berries are another type of Juneberry that grows out west, and tend to have larger berries.
The smooth grey bark with the pignut hickory like pattern is typical of this species. I have never seen the wood before, so I can't tell you how typical the wide white sapwood and dark heartwood are. juneberry is related to apples, so I expect the wood is similar - it seems similar when cutting. I doubt this wood will ever really season, since it is in a stack at a boy scout camp. It may be burnt already. All chopping was done with the Fiskars pro splitter ax, which I usually carry when backpacking. It is light enough to carry on a pack and allows me to cut real firewood along the trail instead of having to burn only dead sticks that I can break by hand.
Cool! I've only seen Shadblow Serviceberries in bush form. I don't think I'd be able to identify it in any other way... and probably not at all. I remember it had a pretty distinctive bud though... a little like a beech. Thanks for the lesson!
Matt
Matt
Huh. It does look remarkably like certain hickories. Pignut (smoothbark) in particular- including that heartwood.
Neat stuff
Neat stuff
Wow
I don't think I've seen a serviceberry any bigger than a blueberry bush here.
and serviceberry is a lookit up in the book bush because it's one of those ya don't remember the name of but have seen it and looked it up before bushes/trees.
probably wouldn't recognize it if it wasn't in bloom, either.
I don't think I've seen a serviceberry any bigger than a blueberry bush here.
and serviceberry is a lookit up in the book bush because it's one of those ya don't remember the name of but have seen it and looked it up before bushes/trees.
probably wouldn't recognize it if it wasn't in bloom, either.
Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that without leaves. This is a tough group of trees (the juneberries) for identifying individuals species. I do biological consulting as a side gig, and had a fun time figuring out several Amelanchier spp. this past summer. Cheers!
I have to admit that, although I am certain this is a Juneberry, I am not certain it is Amelanchier arborea. The ones I have tried to ID in the summer at the same camp are A. arborea (I am fairly sure), but there could be other species nearby. I am not sure how many of the species get as big as this tree was.
WoodDuck - they are for sure tough to separate to species, but you are likely correct, I think serviceberry is the more common of the genus in your area (I was working in NE and NC PA). Cheers!
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