What kinda tree????

[jeff...]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Too bad I can't bring any cypress home from here in Southern IL, I'm sitting here looking out the window at several huge cypress.

Also got a question I've seen a large tree here the bark kinda looks like white birch smooth and white, but has huge hanging round fruit from it about the size of an apple. The fruit has not fallen off yet and held on through the winter but the tree shead it's leaves. Any ideas what that tree might be?

Noticed that sugar maple (hard maple) grows around here about like sweet gum does back home.

 

[Jim Murphy]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

http://www.gpnc.org/osage.htm ?

 

[jeff...]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Jim that might be it - but the fruit is not orange like in that pricture. I wonder if it turns brown at the end of winter? Also the tree is quite large I would say it has a 40" trunk and is atleast 60' tall.

Thanks

 

[Jim Murphy]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Read on...

It is a large, dense, green wrinkled ball up to 6" in diameter that often persists on the tree after the leaves have fallen off.

 

[DaveO]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Also got a question I've seen a large tree here the bark kinda looks like white birch smooth and white, but has huge hanging round fruit from it about the size of an apple. The fruit has not fallen off yet and held on through the winter but the tree shead it's leaves. Any ideas what that tree might be?

Jeff...you're killing me. I can't think of what that tree might be. This is going to bug me all night. Any chance of pictures, to alleviate my insanity.
Dave

 

[jeff...]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Jeff...you're killing me. I can't think of what that tree might be. This is going to bug me all night. Any chance of pictures, to alleviate my insanity.
Dave

Not today - but I can snap one and post it when I get home.

 

[Gofor]

I grew up in Southern IL. My guess is a cottonwood (based on the bark description and size) and the seedpods froze before they could ripen and blow away. I have seen them on trees until spring. Other trees prevalent to the area with large "fruit" but don't fit the bark description are: Hedge Apple (Osage Orange) as they hedge balls do turn brown after frost - If it has big sharp thorns and the fruit is big (about 5 - 6" diameter) its Osage; Hickory - The nuts there in the husk are about 4" diameter and some stay on the tree through winter. They also turn brown to almost black in the husk (Fruit too small to be Pignut); Buckeye - if the fruit is bumpy and about 2" diameter; or Black Walnut - fruit about 3" in the husk. All are prevalent in the area. It would surprise me if it was Hickory or Buck Eye due to the bark description and the fact that the squirrels usually clean them off. Also have Hazelnut, but never heard of one near that size.
Over in the western part of the state, there were a lot more silver maple than sugar maple, although we did have both.

Go

 

[Jim M.]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Here's my guess - Platanus occidentalis Fact Sheet

Jim

 

[Gofor]

Yeah, that's the tree we always called a cottonwood. Probably not correct but it was the local name for it.

Go

 

[DaveO]

Re: Poplar Exterior use

Here's my guess - Platanus occidentalis Fact Sheet

Jim

That was my first guess, but I think that Jeff... knows his Sycamore seeing as he has been sawing it up for a while. But it does fit the description very well :icon_scra

Dave

 

[Jim M.]

Common names for trees vary so much, this is what I always knew as the cottonwood tree, your right, it's a local thing. Jim

Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides)

 

[jeff...]

Here's a few pics of the mystery tree - off to the left is an old school house we are looking at purchasing and converting into a house.

Thanks

 

[DaveO]

Jeff...based on your picture I believe that is Sycamore Platanus occidentalis. The mottled camouflage like bark especially near the top of the tree, and your description of the fruit make me think that.
Sycamore fruit -

My $.02579,
Dave

 

[Jim M.]

Not a bad first try. Jim

 

[Gofor]

Yep, That looks like what we called a cottonwood (actually I guess it probably was a sycamore) back home. Leaves the size of (what for us was) a dinner plate. I think the stonger winds and ice storms might burnish them more than what they get here on this side of the mountains, so could result in them looking different. After a strong winter, the outer bark would peel off in sheets. Kinda looked like a dog with the mange.

Go

 

[DaveO]

Mark, Sycamore is often called Cottonwood, because when the fruit dries and breaks open to disperse it looks like Cotton harvest season...the stuff goes everywhere.
Dave

 

[Jim M.]

36 some odd years ago we also were taught to call it "American Planetree" - Dave I'm sure you can appreciate the beauty of Latin names when working with different regions and local flavor, although they are not as descriptive. Enjoy the view Jeff, they're one of the most beautiful trees in the winter, Jim

 

[sapwood]

Cottonwood = Sycamore 8-O
Learned something new today. Thanks folks. I've always liked sycamore because of their beauty in the winter . . . but LOML won't let me plant any :BangHead:

Roer

 

[DaveO]

American Planetree is probably one of the most accurate common names as it is kin to the London Planetree Platanus acerifolia.

Dave (Plantus geekus)

 

[Jim M.]

Latin names are a common disease among plant geeks - cure - people giving strange looks and paying clients who could care less! Jim