Author Topic: I need help identifying a tree species (Read 1772 times)

whitepe · « **on:** August 30, 2004, 09:30:21 am »

I sawed a small 15" log yesterday for
a guy. Tree is native to Illinois
as it was cut only a mile from my house.
Very white sapwood and heart wood. Bark pulls
off in long strips and underside of bark
is kind of orange. Sorry I don't have
pictures but does anyone have an
idea what species this tree is?

OneWithWood · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2004, 09:32:26 am »

Sounds like slippery elm to me. The bark was used as a medicinal for upset tummies and such.
Was the bark a light color?

whitepe · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2004, 09:53:18 am »

OWW,
Yes, the inside bark was light orange and
very stringy.

Norm · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2004, 10:25:09 am »

It sounds like the pith elms we have around here, I think the slippery elms have reddish colored heartwood.

I was told by our local forester that the elms are hard to intentify true as they interbreed easily. I have some in a field that will get huge and then up and die quickly. They are more of a nuisance than anything. The slippery elms don't seem to do this.

whitepe · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2004, 12:16:29 pm »

Thanks Norm.
It sounds like it's an elm. It didn't
have that nasty smell of pith elms though
when I sawed it. It didn't have any odor at all.
I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow.
I won't get home till late tonight.

Gary_C · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2004, 09:30:20 pm »

Long stringy bark, white wood, and red to orange tint to bark is a good description of Basswood. The bark is so stringy it can easily plug a debarker. The wood is creamy white with sometimes orange streaks in the heart.

Gary

Tom · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2004, 06:47:04 am »

I was a little concerned that a common name of a tree might be as annoying to some people as profanity. I looked it up

Here is a site that put my mind at rest a little bit. Now I have two choices of a mental picture of this tree when it comes up in conversation. and I can pick the one that doesn't annoy me at the moment.

It's a pretty good article, by the way.

http://www.uaex.edu/monroe/forestry/champion_trees/winged_elm.asp

beenthere · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2004, 07:33:29 am »

Thanks Tom.
Helps to be enlightened (once in awhile, anyway

).

Now that we know more about it, and that the tree itself isn't 'smelly' (unless it has bacteria growing in it like other species that cause the odor), we can call it by it's 'winged' elm name (and work on identifying it from the other elms by its characteristics other than smell).

In 'tree identification' class, this isn't one of them that could be decided based on the smell, per se. There are some that smell like 'dirty toes' that can be picked based on smell.

whitepe · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2004, 08:12:33 am »

Gary,
Hmmm. I am inclined to agree that it is a basswood.
Definitely creamy white wood and stringy bark.
I didn't get home till 8 PM last night so I didn't
get any pictures taken. I have a sawing appt.
tonight so I'll take some pictures then.

Tom,
Noble showed me one of those winged elms
on his place last spring. Almost looks like
a cactus. The ones he showed me were only
three or four feet tall.
Oh.. sorry, I wasn't trying to offend anyone.
I thought the term originated from the offensive
smell when they are cut with a sawmill or chainsaw.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:01:32 am »

I didn't know the inner bark was orange in basswood. But, digging around in my dendro text I found a reference to using basswood with its strong tough bark for making rope by the Iroquois indians. The bark was soaked for several weeks to allow the nonfibrous portions to ret, after which it was twisted into the desired form. Did you notice the leaves were not symetrical and if it has fruit they are attached to a large bract. The flowers of basswood are prized by honey bees. Ever smell them when in bloom? Smell almost like orange blossums to me. sniiiiiiffff ----/--@<

Norm · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:18:54 am »

I sure wasn't trying to use profanity on here, the name I used was one that has been told to me by many oldtimers around here. I can see how it changed from pish to todays term.

To me profanity isn't so much the word but how it's used intention wise. My intentions were not profane.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:30:00 am »

Personally, I wasn't offended. And to add to the confusion, just ask any stovewood cutter in these parts about cutting red maple and your liable to get a response something along the lines as....'pith maple'? not worth cuttin.

whitepe · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:44:30 am »

SwampDonkey,

I didn't get to see the branches and leaves.
When I got onto the scene, there were only
logs to pick up. The branches had been burned.
The owner of the lot had one more tree felled yesterday.
After they staked out the house, it was obvious that
one more tree needed to be taken down
I was considering helping them fell it until I arrived
to look at it. It was a 30" dbh oak with a widowmaker
about 50 feet up and the bottom 4 four feet of the
stump had interior rot. I was afraid of it. So, they
hired a tree service to drop it which was fine with me.
Felling trees is not my favorite thing to do but
milling logs on my Woodmizer is one of my favorite
things to do. Tonight I am sawing a 20" diameter
cherry. I like to saw cherry because the LT15 doesn't
grunt too hard to saw it unlike red oak or hard maple.

Bro. Noble · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:54:50 am »

Those winged elms (pronounced in two sylables locally----el-um

) that I showed Whitepe are about as big as they get here. According to the article, we are on the fringe of their range but you also have to consider that the source was from Arkansaw

You gotta divide any thing they tell you by two and then subtract three to get an accurate picture

We also have trees here that they call red elm and pith elm, but they aren't winged. But then again those guys from Arkansaw are pretty bad to make up their own names and rules etc.

Hope I'm not offending anyone

Sorry David, sometimes I can't control myself

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:55:54 am »

Asymetrical basswood leaf blade

basswood seed and bract

Jeff · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2004, 11:05:36 am »

I say pith Elm when I am refering to pith Elm.

Jeff · « **Reply #16 on:** August 31, 2004, 12:22:06 pm »

Perry, Basswood will be very white when you saw it, but over night it will turn a light orange color. Maybe honey colored would be a closer discription, as for the inner bark. The wood will be quite soft compared to other white wood you may have sawn.

Tom · « **Reply #17 on:** August 31, 2004, 12:44:51 pm »

At the risk of getting off on one of my tyrannical tangents, I'll say that I find no problem with the word "pith" nor in its use identifying an Elm tree. I do find it entertaining to research the use of words and find that, most of the time, there is a reasonable use for using words that some find abhor-able.

Using a word that "could" be considered profanity dosen't make it profane. That's one reason I like looking stuff up. Heck, I might want to say it one day.

Buzz-sawyer · « **Reply #18 on:** August 31, 2004, 01:32:25 pm »

Red elm el-um....is a big tree here ....red wood (color of oak) and VERY strong and stringy , near impossible to split ....you can CUT it with hydraulic log splitter....

and smells like horse urine STRONG

....no if ands or BUTS

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #19 on:** August 31, 2004, 01:42:29 pm »

Tom:

I for one know the nature of your posts and I wasn't offended by your previous post one bit. Sometimes folks are a little on edge at times. But, I don't have any issues with anyone on here that post on a regular basis or otherwise. (I say that with reservation)

I figure a fella is inclined to talk the local talk so the rest of us just better get used to it. I figure we're all a good bunch of folks, so don't no one ever forget it. There, I said my piece.

So lets get down to it, what's this tree anyway? Whitepe, where's my pics.

I concur with Jeff, and to add something its like carving cheese to.

whitepe · « **Reply #20 on:** September 01, 2004, 01:13:56 pm »

SwampDonkey,
I took the pics on the way out of the driveway this morning
and I sent the pics to da Man. Jeffy says it's basswood.

I don't have a decent tool to resize pics here at work.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #21 on:** September 02, 2004, 04:24:38 am »

whitepe

cool, too bad you didn't have demand for it by local wood carvers. They look for it here, but mainly because its uncommon here north of Florenceville. Only here near the the Saint John river valley mostly. The pics I took were from trees I transplanted off the woodlot in 1992. They sure grow fast. Do you norice the wood is kinda stringy when coming off the saw? I had some band milled and I noticed that. I only found 1 on my woodlot and its a sucker. They seem to do well from stump suckers. They've gotta be the worst for that, well maybe poplar is worst with all them root suckers.

whitepe · « **Reply #22 on:** September 02, 2004, 08:30:15 am »

Swamp Donkey,
I only got 8 boards out of the log and I agreed
to go halves on it with the guy who has the logs
so I only have 4 boards.
I still have about 10 or 12 red & white oak logs
to saw for him. Right now he is focused
on getting his lot fully cleared so the builder
can get started digging his basement.
We got the final tree cut up last night but
since it is a 28" diameter oak, my little bitty
32 hp JD compact utility tractor is just not
enough to drag the logs out with the loader bucket.
I am going to get my friend with the propane
tank hauler to move the logs.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #23 on:** September 02, 2004, 11:52:28 am »

Now where's that loader truck when ya need it?

A 25 inch oak is gonna be some dandy sawing. Its not that easy to get a 25 inch sugar maple and be sound in the middle also... in my area. And red oak that big has been cut and hard to find. Oak is only scattered along two river valleys here. I did visit a woodlot on the weekend that we were interested in buying, 300 acres, and I found two bur oak along the woodlot trail, side by side. One had acorns too. I remember one being there 7 years ago when I did the management plan. Boy did the woods grow alot in that time, after it was thinned out. Anyway, that bur oak is definately uncommon up here. There's another thread in Tree ID, I think? on that tree in NB. Happy sawing, too bad its too far away or i'de help stack it.

cheers

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Author Topic: I need help identifying a tree species (Read 1772 times)