TREE ID Question for New Hampshire

[GRANITEstateMP]

Hi guys,

Not sure if I posted in the correct section and if I didn't I'm sorry.  We've got a tree down here at work thanks to a recent storm and I'm taking it home (in 6ft pieces) just don't know what it is.  It's here in NH buy the coast, in a wet almost swamp like area, grayish in color, probably 40ft tall, not a lage canopy, and has a pussy willow / soft bud on the ends of some small top limbs.

Any info is a big help. Thanks

Matt

[icolquhoun]

soft "furry" buds kind of water-drop shaped with the fatter part attached to the branch about that size sounds like hickory to me.  Does it have very dark brown heart that is about 40% of the total diameter, with a very light sapwood?

top portion of the tree with appear smooth and steel-like with lower portion appearing to be furrowed bark that resembles "x"'s

[GRANITEstateMP]

ICOLQUHOUN,

I don't think it's a Hickory, the wood is the same light color all through, no heartwood.  The buds sound spot on and the top bark is smoother the the bottom where it "splits" and has texture.

Thanks

Matt

[SwampDonkey]

Not a willow or aspen? They will soon be out up here in this mild weather. Hickories like walnuts have two separate flowers for male and female. The male flower hangs down like a birch and the female has a feather-like pistol. Seems too early for a hickory to be flowering.

Aspen


Willow


Aspen bark


Butternut Male


Butternut female


I think hickory would look similar to butternut.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Thanks SwampDonkey, judging by your pic of the tree section and flower, I'd say Aspen.  Haven't seen many down around here, are they supposed to be common or do I just not spend enough time in the swamps!

Matt

[SwampDonkey]

It's a fringe tree down there, your on the edge of aspen range. They are mostly a Canadian tree. I noticed today the aspen flower buds are swelling as big as the end of your little finger.

[DirtForester]

There is actually a fair amount of aspen in the state.  People often call it "popple" around here.  Many people confuse that with poplar and I am always trying to point out the difference to them. 

We have two types of Aspen in the state, the only visual difference between the two being in the leaves.  The quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and the big toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata). 

Quaking aspen



Big toothed aspen



For what it's worth, aspen is considered very poor firewood, given the availability of other hardwood species.  Some people really do not like the odor it gives off while burning.  On the other hand, many old-timers claim it has a cleaning effect on your chimney.

[SwampDonkey]

We have a third, balsam poplar. Known locally as balm-of-gilead. It's a swamp tree and will replace cedar, if the cedar is clearcut and eventually cedar comes in under it and dominates again when the poplar dies off. People use aspen for fall wood when they don't want to get the house too hot.

[Tom]

Maybe y'all can answer me a question.  Why is Aspen called Popple?  I can see how that could be confusing.

[SwampDonkey]

populus popple, poplar

The locals have never called it aspen around here, that's a foresters terminology used in "book learning".

For some reason folks don't like to use tulip tree, instead prefer poplar.