A southeastern Michigan forest scene in winter. / Photo by JOHN HEIDER
The beech tree
The shagbark hickory
The black cherry
The black walnut
The red oak
The white oak
in winter, a tree is without its (s)leaves, but not its jacket, if you know what I mean...
By John Heider
Gannett News Service
You’re walking in the woods in winter.
You see a bunch of trees. They all have trunks and branches and some of them even have a few leaves left on the branches or some have fallen near the trees base.
Like me ten years ago, you for the most part, cannot tell one tree from another.
Oh sure, you can tell an evergreen or pine tree from a deciduous tree (those that drop their leaves in autumn).
But beyond that, you’re lost.
Well, class is in and we’re going to start you on the way to learning a few tree identifications at the toughest, most challenging time of year: winter.
Winter when the trees are mostly sleeping and devoid of their leaves.
Leaves that would help in their recognition.
All you’re confronted with in your walk in the woods or your neighborhood is bare branches, trunks with various bark patterns and maybe a lot of snow.
to the beech!
We’ll start off with one of the easier trees to ID in the winter: the beech.
The American beech, or Fagus grandifolia, is a gift to the novice botanist, especially in winter. It’s bark is silver and smooth. Let me repeat, silver and smooth.
Someone described it as looking like an elephant’s skin. It doesn’t always have the bumps or growths seen in this photo, but even if it does, you’ll be able to figure it out by the bark.Beech are beautiful trees and if you can find one whose base isn’t covered in snow, you’ll marvel at their usually long , large sinewy root system as they enter the ground.
Next up is probably the second easiest to pick out in the winter months: the shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa) , also known as big shagbark hickory. The shagbark hickory has light gray bark that separates into long, narrow strips of bark. Hence the “shaggy” moniker: The bark looks really shaggy. You’ll find a lot of these trees in the Michigan woods.
black cherry, on the rocks, please.
Now we have our forest friend the black cherry. The black cherry (Prunus serotina), has bark that’s quite unique to itself. The bark of the tree is fracture into black, roundish shapes. Some say they look like dark potato chips. Underneath the bark’s immediate exterior, you’ll see another layer of bark that’s dark brown to red in color.
just nutty about them walnuts
Walking along our Michigan winter forest we now see a black walnut tree. You’ll be able to discern the black walnut (Juglans nigra) but is deeply fissured bark. This tree’s bark looks like a small scale mountain range. There’s probably no other tree that has such dramatic exterior: tall ridges that angle here and there and the bark’s deep valleys make for an incredibly visual feast.
the mighty ironwood
Strolling along a path in the woods we see an American hophornbeam. The hophornbeam (Ostrya Virginica), also known as “ironwood” - for its hard wood, has another distinctive bark pattern. Usually small in size (less than six inches in diameter) and quite often standing near the trails, this tree has bark that’s serrated in small strips, but not falling off the tree like the shagbark hickory. One of its nicknames is “cat scratch” for its appearance of being attacked by a cat who tears up its bark. It’s in the beech family of trees and sometimes, helping in its winter identification, it will usually have a few yellow, elliptical shaped leaves left on its branches - even in the dead of January.
oak. red oak.
Now how can we tell what trees in our winter forest are northern red oaks. Red oaks (Quercus borealis) are one of the more numerous species in Michigan forests; they’re everywhere. Big, small, short, and tall. The tree’s bark can be described as dark gray to black and while it is furrowed and somewhat scaly, of the all oaks it probably has the smoothest bark. Put it this way, it definitely doesn’t have the deep, close dramtic ridges of the black walnut. If you look at the photo accompanying this description, it’ll give you a pretty good idea of what to look for.
the white oak, paler than the red oak...
Lastly, we’ll describe the white oak (Quercus alba). There are a lot of white oaks in Michigan forests and once you can identify them, you’ll have about a third of the forest’s species down. The trees are usually pretty tall and substantial in size and probably average three to four feet in diameter once mature. The bark is described light gray with shallow fissures that break up the skin of the tree into small oblong patches; like a puzzle that doesn’t quite fit together.
So there you have it: a good start in pinpointing a good amount of trees in winter. Seven of the more numerous deciduous species in Michigan. And think about it: it only gets easier once the darn things have leaves on them. Good luck and we’ll see you out there in Your Wild Michigan.