Tree bark ID please

[SwampDonkey]

One exception to the chambered pith description of butternut, it has thick diaphragms. Those are the "dividers" you see that make the chambers. Just thought I would clarify further. Walnut has thin diaphragms. Just so I know I'm not going bonkers on yas.

[ARKANSAWYER]

 




This is what black gum bark looks like on my side of the Ozarks.  It is often confused with a post or white oak.



 




This is the bark of a turkey track oak which looks alot more like the bark on the tree Larry had.  It is a red oak and quite common.

  So with out a leaf or twig sometimes the bark is not a good indicator.  I have a book of trees and the bark in it does not look like Larry's or mine.

Now this is just my opinion ( I know birds and peckers need homes) leaving dead standing oaks here where we have had so much borer problems and so many trees damaged you are just leaving a nursery for more bugs to hatch out of and then invade the trees you have left standing.

[WDH]

Big old blackgum on an upland site around here gets real knobby like the pic Larry posted.  Back in the dark ages, I was a teaching assistant for Dendrology, having to grade countless little tree ID slips that the undergrad students filled out during their tree ID tests.  Of all the tree species in that area of North Georgia, the tree that caused the most consternation and confusion among the students was blackgum.  Balckgum has multiple personalities .  It gave the students fits because it was so variable and nondescript.  If I come across a rather unassuming tree with no real unique characteristics, I always check the pith because that diaphragmed pith is a dead give-away.  Blackgum has confused me so many times that now I can spot it a quarter of a mile away .

Also, around here, the turkey oak will get knobby bark like Arkansawyer showed, but this far south, the color is much darker, almost black. 

[woodtroll]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but black gum that size get hollow but stay solid making great den trees. The scars that develop look very similar to a barn owl face.
But from the timber beast side, keep some gum for wild life but watch your regeneration. Black gum can quickly dominate an understory and out compete desirable trees such as your oaks.