A Day in the Life of John Shane, A.K.A. Tree ID!

Being a forester, there is really nothing I like more than tree ID.  Over the summer, before I even had any semblance of tree knowledge, I would often sit down in my off time (I was living in the woods) and look around, trying to identify the trees around me.  I got pretty good at identifying 15 or 16 trees, an accomplishment I was very proud of until I found out I needed to know 160 for John Shane's dendrology class (which I still haven't taken, but I am very excited to).  However, for now, I just need to know those 15 or 16 and can usually ask one of my friends that has taken dendro to identify the trees for me — which is how I identified the majority of the trees for this assignment!

If it wasn't for my friend, I would have only been able to identify the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) and the ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica); thanks to her help, I was also able to identify balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), american elm (Ulmus americana), and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides).

These trees were not actually at my place.  If you look at my post from last week, there is one little shrub by the rock that I call the center of my place, but besides that, there is really no flora.  I had to go back maybe another 5 meters to find the sumac and an additional 5-10 meters to find the rest of the trees.  Doing some quick research on these trees shows just why they love my Place.  Most of them love moist soils and don't really seem to care what the sunshine is like, but for the most part aren't so shade-tolerant (which perhaps explains one reason for occupying a sunny rivebank). One thing that did surprise me is that F. pennsylvanica prefers deep soils.  I thought most of my Place was substantially bare rock (hence I had to go away from the center of my place to find trees!) but if F. pennsylvanica prefers deep soils, perhaps I will get too see some interesting soils after mud season.  Also, just a fun aside: P. balsamifera is the northernmost American hardwood (http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/populus/balsamifera.htm) and is extremely prevalent in my Place.

Happy tree identifying, everyone!