Ten trees that tolerate flooding

Native trees that thrive in wetlands

Do you need trees for a swampy area where water sometimes stands for several weeks at a time? Perhaps you are looking for trees that will thrive at a pond's edge or a stream margin where the water level fluctuates with the rainfall.

Here are ten native trees that tolerate standing in water for extended periods of time. These are native trees often found growing in wetlands in various parts of the continental United States. Linked names lead to the USDA Plants database, which contains a great deal of information about each species.

Alnus serrulata -- Smooth Alder (Hazel Alder)
Betula populifolia -- Gray Birch
Fraxinus nigra -- Black Ash
Larix laricina -- Eastern Larch (Tamarack)
Picea mariana -- Black Spruce
Salix amygdaloides -- Peachleaf Willow
Salix bebbiana -- Bebb Willow
Salix discolor -- Pussy Willow
Salix nigra -- Black Willow
Taxodium distichum -- Baldcypress

These ten aren't the only wetland trees. There are many willow species, for example. However, I hope the tree names in this list will provide a starting point for your research.

Strong boughs of the pignut hickory tree

Splitting hickory firewood

My husband has been cutting up a hickory tree for firewood. The tree was uprooted by Hurricane Isaac when it ripped through Kentucky in September of 2008. I've identified the tree as a pignut hickory based on its bark and nuts and the location in which it grew, though I didn't ever get to see the tree's leaves.

We have a mid-sized Huskee hydraulic log splitter that exerts 22 tons of pressure, and usually, it does a great job of changing a slice of tree trunk into firewood-size pieces of wood.

The photo at right shows the results of applying the log splitter's force to a slice of the hickory tree that had a big knot -- that is, a big branch growing out of it. An outer section of four or five inches (or more) split away, but the branch remained firmly attached to the log.

That's why you don't often see a hickory tree with a limb that has broken off and torn the bark off the trunk of the tree. Their branches are attached extremely well.

I noticed also that these branches are attached at a right angle to the trunk they came from -- wider angles ("crotches") are less likely to split off. Narrow crotches can be correctively pruned out sometimes, but some trees are just built strong by nature. Hickory trees fall in that category -- I'm sure this tree never received any corrective pruning.

Hickory firewood is some of the best. It burns bright and hot, and it makes coals that glow and produce heat for hours after the flames are gone. When the coals finally burn out, very little ash remains.

It's too bad that this tree came down in the storm, but as the saying goes, "It's an ill wind that blows no good." The fine hickory firewood will be much appreciated next winter.

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P.S. That's not hickory that the split pieces are leaning against. I think it's something Dennis brought home when the Boy Scouts were cleaning up an old cemetery.

Nature Blog Network

Journals about the natural world

Tree Notes is now a member of the Nature Blog Network, a portal for 777 (so far!) sites about our planet's flora, fauna, ecosystems, and other topics related to the natural world. If you enjoy reading about nature, or if you're researching a topic that relates to nature, the Nature Blog Network is a site worth exploring.

I learned about the Nature Blog Network from Carolyn at Nature Art Photography and Paintings, who is also a member. You might enjoy seeing the beautiful art at Carolyn's site as well.

Post oak flower

Blossom of Quercus stellata

If you live in western Kentucky, you can probably find a post oak (Quercus stellata) in bloom right now. I photographed this one yesterday in Christian County. The blossoms are inconspicuous -- small without much color.

Related post with an image from the same post oak tree:

A good tree for a mourning dove nest

Common bird of the urban forest

This small tree with overlapping branches and
narrow crotches might give an arborist nightmares,
but it's "Home Sweet Home" to a pair of mourning doves.

Yesterday morning, as I waited to meet a friend in a downtown parking lot, I saw a mourning dove fly past, carrying a small twig. Only then did I notice a nest in a little tree between the busy street and the parking lot. Even though the tree doesn't have leaves yet, the nest is hard to see.

Mourning doves are notorious for constructing flimsy nests, so it's good that the closely-spaced branches of this tree provide a strong foundation.

The nest of this bird is an astonishingly poor makeshift, composed chiefly of a handful of twigs thrown together so loosely that the eggs are in danger of rolling out of it, or falling through the interstices. . . Very likely if the birds employed some of the time and ardor they usually put into billing and cooing in trying to construct a safe and substantial home, the result would be a better nest, but after all, their poor workmanship is probably due primarily to the fact that both their bills and their feet are ill-adapted to nest-building.

Source: Birds of America, part II page 47, edited by T. Gilbert Pearson, John Burroughs, et al. Published in 1936 by Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY.

An interesting fact about mourning doves is that (like deer) their numbers increase when forests are thinned. Mourning dove are not birds of the deep woods. They thrive in open woods, farmland, and backyards. The urban forest suits them well. They are found throughout the continental United States, and also southern Canada.

Mourning doves are said to prefer coniferous trees for nesting, but as you can see, they adapt when a conifer is not available. In my own yard, mourning doves nest in the apple trees every summer.

What kind of a maple is it?

Hybridization of maple species

Usually, a positive identification of a maple tree can be made with a tree field guide and a close look at the bark and leaves of the tree.

However, if you're really perplexed about the identification, you might be looking at a hybrid maple, a cross between two different maple species. This can happen in areas where two maples species bloom simultaneously. It occurs commonly enough that an entire chapter of the book, Maples of the World, is devoted to hybrid maples.

Black and sugar maple hybrids

In the eastern United States, hybrids of black maple (Acer nigrum) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) are common, according to the U.S. Forest Service Sylvics Manual and other sources.

The black and sugar maples have crossed and backcrossed so many times that the two species are nearly indistinguishable in some areas. In other areas, the black maple still retains its own unique characteristics.

There appear to be two broad populations of black maple with respect to its hybridizing with sugar maple. One is in the western part of its range, where it maintains its identity and shows little tendency to cross with sugar maple. The second population is in the eastern section, where it hybridizes readily with sugar maple. (Source: U.S. Forestry Sylvics Manual)

Red and silver maple hybrids

George Ware of the Morton Arboretum writes "Natural hybridization between red and silver maples is fairly common in the swamp and streamside forests of eastern Wisconsin and eastwood to New England " (source: pdf). Hybridization is also reported in southern Canada. In these regions, red and silver maples bloom at the same time, and the trees grow in similar habitats.

Because the blooming periods of silver and red maple overlap, there is a possibility of natural hybridization between them. Under controlled artificial conditions, the two species hybridize easily, producing prolific seed sets. The hybrids are intermediate between their parents in leaf characters. Their growth was much faster than that of red maple seedlings but did not equal that of silver maple. Source: U.S. Forest Service Sylvics Manual

In fact, red/silver hybrids have a name -- Acer x freemanii or Freeman maple -- and a number of named cultivars, including  Jeffersred (patented as "Autumn Blaze"), Armstrong, Celzam (patented as "Celebration:), and others. The name Acer x freemanii is pronounced "Acer hybrid freemanii".

Related: A comparison of the leaves of red, silver, and Freeman maples

Bald cypress swamps in Midwestern states

Northwestern range of the bald cypress tree

When you hear the words "bald cypress", do you think of the cypress swamps of Georgia or Florida? If so, you are absolutely right -- bald cypress trees are common in the coastal wetlands of the Southeast. We've all seen images of moss-draped baldcypress trees and their impressive knees, even if we've never personally visited a cypress swamp.

However, it may surprise you that the range of the baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) includes a small portion of several Midwestern states. The bald cypress occurs naturally in the Mississippi River valley of southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri, and in the Wabash and Ohio River valleys of southern Illinois and southern Indiana.

Before the land was settled, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri had many acres of cypress swamps, perhaps not as famous as those of the southeast, but every bit as genuine. Many of these wetlands were drained and the land was put into cultivation, as Charles Clemon Deam noted in the 1916 book, Trees of Indiana.

In recent years, an effort has been made to conserve remaining swamps, such as the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Missouri, Twin Swamps and Goose Pond Cypress Slough in southern Indiana, and the Cache River State Natural Area in southern Illinois.

Dozens of baldcypress have been planted in the Fort Defiance park at Cairo, Illinois, on the last bit of land between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers. The image at right, taken at the park in October of 2008, shows baldcypress in the background as well as the foreground . In fact, the baldcypress in the Fort Defiance park were the first of that species that I ever saw.

Bald cypress has been successfully planted much farther north than the area where it occurs naturally. While writing this post, I've read about bald cypress trees that are surviving the winters of Minnesota, Michigan, and even southern Canada.

More about Midwestern cypress swamps:
Mingo: Last of the Bootheel Swamps
Mitch and Amy's Mingo Swamp Adventure
Cache River Wetlands
"Cypress swamps Illinois" on Flickr

Credit:
Range map from the USDA Silvics Manual, Volume 1