My (non)Dogwood Tree LEAVES (NOW WITH NEW PICTURES)

[beefy]

when i do the key i only get 3 hits:

river birch (which it definitely is NOT)
Hornbeam
Hophornbeam

 

[PunkinPeep]

when i do the key i only get 3 hits:

river birch (which it definitely is NOT)
Hornbeam
Hophornbeam

O.k. now, i guess i have to go analyze the bark. It stinks that i can't take pictures of it! Whoever heard of a hornbeam! Not me, i guess.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Well, i guess i will conclude it is an Eastern Hophornbeam. The branches are grey and really smooth, but trunk is super shaggy, which i think is my way of saying this

Bark of the trunk of this tree is light brown in color. It is fractured into narrow scales, which are loose at their ends. This gives the trunk a shredded look.

which is what the description on oplin.org says.

Thanks for your help! Too bad it's not an elm. It would be cooler to have elms.

 

[beefy]

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...tbnw=99&prev=/images?q=hophornbeam&hl=en&um=1


(over to the right of this page you can click on hornbeam and compare the two)
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=hophornbeam&ndsp=20&hl=en&sa=N&start=20&um=1

 

[PunkinPeep]

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...tbnw=99&prev=/images?q=hophornbeam&hl=en&um=1


(over to the right of this page you can click on hornbeam and compare the two)
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=hophornbeam&ndsp=20&hl=en&sa=N&start=20&um=1

Thanks for those.

I was leaning toward the hornbeam earlier because its description of where it grows is like describing my land. However, the bark is striking, and these trees' trunks are NOTHING like the hornbeam. So, Eastern Hophornbeam it is!

 

[beefy]

shreddy bark? sounds like hophornbean.

 

[injunjoe]

I vote we cut it down and send it to the lab!

Joe

 

[Greensage45]

I vote that you go out and get yourself a Dogwood instead!

Ron

 

[PunkinPeep]

I vote that you go out and get yourself a Dogwood instead!

Ron

Good news! I have several actual dogwoods. I simply hadn't learned to distinguish between the dogwoods and these. :happy_flower

 

[PunkinPeep]

I got batteries in my camera today, and i thought, for the sake of knowledge and posterity, i would post pictures of the difference between the trunk bark of the Eastern Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) the American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), so far as my amateur newbie plant-loving self can decipher, but i'm pretty sure i've got it.

The leaves as far i can tell - see the pictures previous - are indistinguishable, but it's the bark of the trunk (and not so much the branches) that tells the tale.

The hophornbeam's trunk bark is described as 'shaggy.'

The hornbeam's trunk bark is described as 'muscley,' (which is not a word but is meant to describe what looks like it contains muscles).

So there you have it.

Shaggy and muscley.