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Need help identifying a tree that was cut down

2019 Views 35 Replies 12 Participants Last post by PCDub, 8 mo ago

Tony1212

Discussion Starter · Oct 21, 2021 (Edited by Moderator)

6

A tree died between the sidewalk and street and the township crew came out this morning to cut it down. They were nice enough to cut the trunk up into 3 pieces and leave them for me.

The tree had a few leaves last year, but none this year. This pic was taken back in June (we also had to cut down the evergreen tree that is leaning over my house). It's the bare tree along the left side of the pic.

Cloud Fire hydrant Sky Plant Leaf

I never got around to identifying it when it was alive figuring it would probably outlast me. But alas…

From what I remember of the leaves, it is either:
- ash,
- hickory
- (possibly) a shademaster honey locust.

It had that type of compound leaves similar to all of these trees. I seem to remember a lot of "helicopter" seeds in the area (which would indicate an ash tree), but we have some maple trees around as well. I do not remember any type of nut or fruit (which would indicate NOT a hickory).

I'm hoping someone can tell by the bark and the color of the sap and heart wood.

Plant Wood Trunk Tree Natural material

Wood Bedrock Trunk Groundcover Grass

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21 - 36 of 36 Posts

HokieKen

· #21 · Oct 22, 2021

Kenny, you should "accidentally" back into that tree with your truck and take home the trunk.

- Steve

Every 5 years or so they have to have larger limbs cut back for insurance reasons. I have several pieces from last time they trimmed them up that are bigger than the trunks of most trees

TDSpade

· #22 · Oct 22, 2021

Fresh cut locust (all types) will glow under a black light.

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/fluorescence-a-secret-weapon-in-wood-identification/

ibewjon

· #23 · Oct 23, 2021

You can call the arboretum just up the road. I just found out they will help identify trees for no charge.

Sycamoray

· #24 · Oct 23, 2021

Your tax dollars at work: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/wood_idfactsheet.php

I only heard about this service recently here.

adot45

· #25 · Oct 23, 2021

8

I have a 11~12 year old pecan in my yard. The bark on your tree looks like it and maybe the difference is age?

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Plant Flower Terrestrial plant Tree Flowering plant

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Lazyman

· #26 · Oct 23, 2021

Bark definitely doesn't look like ash to me. I see why river birch was mentioned but down here they don't get that big. Hickory or Pecan are possibilities if it had compound leaves but not if it had winged seeds. Pecans, here in Texas at least, are one of the last to leaf out in the spring and first to lose their leaves in the fall. If it came up wild, there are probably other pecans nearby so I would have expected nuts or at least husks on the ground. If planted, they are usually grafted so they will bear nuts within a few years at most. Occasionally, you will see types of maples with shaggy bark like that. Silver maple comes to mind. They usually only live about 30-40 years so they often just die suddenly like you described. Light sapwood and light brown heartwood is common in silver maples. Not that hard though.

therealSteveN

· #27 · Oct 23, 2021

Nathan that was what I was trying to say earlier about Ash. There are about a zillion Ash types, and all of them have different bark, and leaf patterns. So the question is what does Ash bark look like?

If there is an arborist nearby that can identify for free, my money says Ash still, and EAB killed the tree.

Around here the running joke for tree ID is ALDER. Here in Ohio that dubious honor always went to Gum, but actually Ash isn't just Black Ash. far from it. At our old place I had planted over 40 types of Ash, and they looked nothing alike for the most part.

Lazyman

· #28 · Oct 24, 2021

2

Most of the common ash species have a rather typical bark pattern like this.

In fact the wood commonly sold as poplar (which isn't a poplar at all, BTW) is sometimes called green ash because its bark looks like the typical ash bark. Black ash (I never seen one in person) is one that may grow in Illinois that has an atypical bark pattern but I have never seen a picture where the bark looked that shaggy plus I think that the heartwood would be much more pronounced.

BTW, if it is an ash killed by the EAB, there are likley some visible borer holes coming out of the bark. If it has been sitting outside since it was cut, there may be other types of borers attacking it too which may have bored out since then but if you see any emerging like this, burn it.

If there is any chance that this could be an ash tree, I would strip off the bark now just to avoid any chance that there are EAB or any other borers harboring in the log over the winter. They overwinter in the bark so removing the bark now will prevent them from spreading to other nearby trees. Burn any bark you strip off.

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HokieKen

· #29 · Oct 24, 2021

...

BTW, if it is an ash killed by the EAB, there are likley some visible borer holes coming out of the bark. ...

- Lazyman

+1 There have been a lot of Ashes felled around here over the past few years. And being a turner, whenever I see a felled tree cut up into lengths, I stop and check it out

I don't recall seeing a single Ash that didn't look like it had been used for target practice because it had so many holes in the bark from the lil bastards boring into it.

ibewjon

· #30 · Oct 24, 2021

There are native ash borers and the emerald variety. The natives leave round holes in the bark. The EAB leaves a 'D' shaped hole.

Tony1212

Discussion Starter · #31 · 8 mo ago (Edited)

4

Tony1212 said:
A tree died between the sidewalk and street and the township crew came out this morning to cut it down. They were nice enough to cut the trunk up into 3 pieces and leave them for me.

View attachment 646068

A bit of a follow up for those that may be interested. I FINALLY got around to cutting these logs up. Took a day and a half just to chainsaw them up into quarters. I bought a 20" Troy-Bilt 46cc saw. It did a good job, but overheated often and would just stop. During those cool down periods, I would go slice up the quarters on my bandsaw. I got through that little one in the background (in the pic above) and halfway through the one on the right.

Wood Flooring Floor Beige Font

Got some nice spalting in there. It's been almost a year since they were cut down, but they were still very wet to the touch. It's measuring 35% right now.

Wood Rectangle Gas Font Landscape

I still have half of the log on the right in the original pic and all of the log on the left to finish slicing up.

Wood Gas Flooring Hardwood Brick

Wood Interior design Floor Flooring Curtain

And yes, that is my 70 year old 12" Craftsman bandsaw that is doing all of the slicing. I've got it running an Olson resaw blade and it is doing alright.

Once I finish slicing the rest up this week, I will square up the ends and paint them with a latex paint and sticker them in my shed. The boards are all around 1 1/2" to 2" thick, so it should only take a couple of years or so to get them down to a workable moisture level.

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Reactions: 1

PCDub

· #32 · 8 mo ago

weird, the pix in your last post are not showing up for me...???

Tony1212

Discussion Starter · #33 · 8 mo ago

PCDub said:
weird, the pix in your last post are not showing up for me...???

There are 4 pictures. None of them are showing up? I may need to contact Cricket, because I see them just fine.

Edited to add that I just looked at it in a Firefox browser and I'm not seeing the pics there either.

ibewjon

· #34 · 8 mo ago

No pictures for me either. Just a black space.

Tony1212

Discussion Starter · #35 · 8 mo ago

ibewjon said:
No pictures for me either. Just a black space.

I think I fixed it. Please let me know if you cannot see any images in post #31.

PCDub

· #36 · 8 mo ago

Tony1212 said:
I think I fixed it. Please let me know if you cannot see any images in post #31.

Pix are there now!!

Reactions: 1

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