A walk in the park

[thecfarm]

SD,yes I know what mountain ash you are talking about.Wrong name I used.I'm wrong anyways,but the tree I'm thinking of is down by the coast more.It's a native of Maine,not brought in like that tree with berries.I stayed in Bar Harbor a couple summers and these trees were everywheres.Probaly 25 years ago,how we forget things.What I'm thinking of is some sort of maple too.I'm way off.Oh well,I tried.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah I was off to. 

Ash sometimes has more flattened ridges at the butt end and often flaky and as you go up the ridges are sharper.

[SwampDonkey]

Here's your smiling Charlie. 



Leaf scars U shaped with a U shaped bundle scar. Looks like a fine line formed with tiny dots, that's the bundle scar.




White ash with tight lateral buds around terminal bud.

[WDH]

I feel much better about Sassafras then I do about White Ash, it just doesn't look like Ash to me.
.
.
I drilled a little hole in it with my knife.
It was a really bright almost irdescent greenish yellow and changed to a darker bright yellow after a minute or two.  So I belive it is indeed Walnut.

I am positive it is sassafras. 

On the second tree, that darkening bright yellow inner bark of walnut is like a sign hanging on the tree .

[SwampDonkey]

Yup, no argument from me. 

[SwampDonkey]

Walnut



Butternut: Even the gray weathered bark of butternut is chocolate brown as you slice a razor thin area off the outer bark.


I thought they might be the same, both being walnuts. 

[Stump Jumper]

for the sassy frassy i would have guessed black locust .o well lets brew some tea.

[OneWithWood]

Furby, think back.  You have seen Sassafrass before.
The Indians called it 'greenstick' because of the appearance of the twigs and shoots.
The smell is almost licorice or anise like.  If ever you dig up an old sassafrass root the smell will quickly permeate the air. 

[Furby]

Yeah I've seen it, we have it ALL over here.
I just don't see them bigger than bush sized very offten.
Sassafrass was the closest thing I could find in my book before I posted it here, but the pics didn't match.
The smell from that branch is different than the smell I get from the leaves, but not much.
Trying to recall every tree I've ever seen don't work.
If I see the same thing over and over, usually the image gets burned into my head at some point.

[OneWithWood]

Think of a certain walk in the woods.  You turned to me and said 'What is that tree?"  "It be a sassafrass" says I.  "Wow", you intoned, "never seen one that size before." 

[Furby]

Yup, I hadn't!
If I had seen that tree several times over the next week, I probly wouldn't have needed to ask the question here.
As it was, all I had was a faint ghost image.
What's it been, over two years now?

[OneWithWood]

Must've been.  Last year there was too much snow over mud to take that walk.

[SwampDonkey]

I ain't ever seen one, let alone a dozen or brush sized ones.  I've seen very few walnut to, most yard trees and the ones up here are very young yard tree.  Seen some down in the Jefferson Forest area and in NC and Tenn I think. Cherokee is in TN isn't it??

[WDH]

NC

[SwampDonkey]

Makes sense WDH.  We were on the corner of 3 states, so it was hard to know which side of the line I was at times.

[Furby]

We went to a different park today, along the Grand River.
Found some 3-4" posion ivy, some nice and straight.
Sorry Tom, I know you are right, but for some reason I really want to know if there is a way to do it, but I'm too chicken to try it myself.

This park is manged by GR as well and in as bad or worse condition tree wise.
Lots and lots of dead stuff, standing and on the ground.
Some good stuff that would probly be veneer, but mostly low grade all the way around.
Actually had several dead falls across the senic drive that is closed for the season.

[SwampDonkey]

So where's the pictures? 

[Furby]

Only took a couple and I'm not sure there is anything worth looking at, I'll check when I get my camera back.