Forest Trees of Illinois: How to Know Them

Part 1

Produced by Mark C. Orton, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's note: | | | | Names in bold characters are enclosed within plus signs. | +-----------------------------------------------------------+

STATE OF ILLINOIS

OTTO KERNER, Governor

FOREST TREES

OF ILLINOIS

HOW TO KNOW THEM

A POCKET MANUAL DESCRIBING THEIR MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS

Revised by Dr. George D. Fuller, Professor Emeritus of Botany, University of Chicago, Curator of Botany, Illinois State Museum, and State Forester E. E. Nuuttila.

(1st. ed., 1927, by Mattoon, W. R., and Miller, R. B.)

Revised 1955

DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION DIVISION OF FORESTRY SPRINGFIELD WILLIAM T. LODGE, Director

(Printed by Authority of the State of Illinois)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Ailanthus 54

Alder, black 19 speckled 19

Apple, crab 45

Arbor vitae 7

Ash, black 65 blue 65 green 64 pumpkin 65 red 64 white 64

Aspen, large-tooth 8 quaking 8

Bald cypress 6

Basswood 60 white 60

Beech 22 blue 19

Birch, black 21 river 21 white 20 yellow 21

Black locust 53

Black walnut 11

Bois d'arc 37

Part 2

Box elder 58

Buckeye, Ohio 59

Buttonwood 44

Butternut 2

Catalpa 66

Cedar, northern white 7 red 7

Cherry, black 50 choke 50 wild red 50

Chestnut 22

Coffee tree, Kentucky 52

Cottonwood 9 swamp 9

Crab, apple 45 Bechtel's 45 prairie 45 sweet 45

Cucumber, magnolia 39

Cypress, bald 6

Dogwood, alternate-leaved 61 flowering 61

Elm, American 34 cork 34 red 35 rock 34 slippery 35 water 35 winged 34

Gum, cotton 62 sour 62 sweet 43 tupelo 62

Hackberry 36 southern 36

Haw, green 48 red 48

Hawthorn, cock-spur 47 dotted 47 green 48 red 48

Hedge apple 37

Hercules' club 63

Hickories, key of Illinois 13

Hickory, big shell-bark 16 bitternut 14 Buckley's 18 king-nut 16 mockernut 17 pecan 15 pignut 18 shag-bark 16 sweet pignut 17 water 14 white 17

Honey locust 51

Hornbeam, American 19 hop 20

Horse-chestnut 59

Kentucky coffee-tree 52

Larch, American 6 European 6

Part 3

Linden, American 60

Locust, black 53 honey 51 water 51

Magnolia, cucumber 39

Maple, ash-leaved 58 black 56

Norway 58 red 57 river 57 silver 57 sugar 56 swamp 57

Mulberry, red 38 Russian 38 white 38

Oak, basket 26 black 29 black jack 32 bur 25 chinquapin 26 jack 29 northern pin 29 northern red 28 overcup 24 pin 30 post 27 red 28 rock chestnut 26 scarlet 30 shingle 33 Shumard's 28 southern red 31 Spanish 31 swamp chestnut 26 swamp Spanish 31 swamp white 25 white 24 willow 33 yellow chestnut 26

Oaks, of Illinois, a key 23

Ohio buckeye 59

Orange, osage 37

Papaw 41

Paulownia 66

Pecan 15

Persimmon 63

Pine, Austrian 4 jack 5 Scotch 5 shortleaf 5 white 4

Plane tree 44

Plum, Canada 49 wild 49 wild goose 49 yellow 49

Poplar, balsam 9 Carolina 9 European white 9 Lombardy 9 yellow 40

Redbud 52

Red cedar 7

Sassafras 42

Service-berry 46 smooth 46

Shadblow 46

Sour gum 62

Spruce, Norway 5

Sweet gum 43

Sumac, shining 55 smooth 55 staghorn 55

Sycamore 44 European 44

Part 4

Tamarack 6

Thorn, cock-spur 47 dotted 47 pear 47 Washington 48

Tree of Heaven 54

Tulip tree 40

Tupelo gum 62

Walnut, black 11 white 12

Willow, black 10 crack 10 peach-leaved 10 weeping 10 white 10

See pages 70 and 71 for Index of Scientific Names

+WHITE PINE+ Pinus strobus L.

Two-thirds natural size.]

THE white pine is found along the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan in Lake and Cook counties and is also scattered along river bluffs in Jo Daviess, Carroll, Ogle and LaSalle counties. The only grove of this beautiful tree in Illinois is in the White Pines Forest State Park near Oregon, Ogle County, where there are trees over 100 years old that have attained a height of 90 feet with a diameter of 30 inches. This tree formerly formed the most valuable forests in the northeastern United States, stretching from Maine through New York to Minnesota. The straight stem, regular pyramidal shape and soft gray-green foliage made it universally appreciated as an ornamental tree and it has been freely planted throughout the State.

The leaves, or needles, are 3 to 5 inches in length, bluish-green on the upper surface and whitish beneath, and occur in bundles of 5, which distinguishes it from all other eastern pines. The pollen-bearing flowers are yellow and clustered in cones, about 1/3 inch long at the base of the growth of the season. The seed-producing flowers occur on other twigs and are bright red in color. The cone, or fruit, is 4 to 6 inches long, cylindrical with thin usually very gummy scales, containing small, winged seeds which require two years to mature.

The wood is light, soft, durable, not strong, light brown in color, often tinged with red, and easily worked. It was formerly much used in old colonial houses where even the shingles were of white pine. It is excellent for boxes, pattern making, matches, and many other products.

Its rapid growth and the high quality of the wood make it one of the best trees for reforestation on light soils in the northern part of the State. The white pine blister rust was introduced into America about 35 years ago, and has since become widespread and highly destructive of both old trees and young growth.

The Austrian pine, Pinus nigra Arnold, has been naturalized in Lake County and has been planted as an ornamental tree throughout the State. Its leaves in 2's, from 3 to 5 inches long, stiff and dark green. The cone is heavy, 3 inches long with short prickles.

+SHORTLEAF PINE+ Pinus echinata Mill.

Leaves, one-half natural size. Fruit, natural size.]

THE shortleaf pine, sometimes called yellow pine, occurs in very small stands in the "Pine Hills" of Union County, in Jackson County, in Giant City State Park, and near "Piney Creek" in Randolph County. It forms forests on light sandy soils in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. At maturity, the tree has a tall, straight stem and an oval crown, reaching a height of about 100 feet and a diameter of about 4 feet.

The leaves are in clusters of two or three, from 3 to 5 inches long, slender, flexible, and dark blue-green. The cones are the smallest of our pines, 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches long, oblong, with small sharp prickles, generally clustered, and often holding to the twigs for 3 or 4 years. The bark is light brownish-red, broken into rectangular plates on the trunk but scaly on the branches.

The wood of old trees is rather heavy and hard, of yellow-brown or orange color, fine grained and less resinous than that of other important southern pines. It is used largely for interior and exterior finishing, general construction, veneers, paper pulp, excelsior, cooperage, mine props, and other purposes. The tree transplants readily, grows rapidly, succeeds on a variety of soils and has proved valuable for reforestation.

A few trees of jack pine, Pinus banksiana Lamb., are found in Lake County. It is a small northern tree with leaves about an inch long, borne in 2's, with cones about 2 inches long. It is planted for reforestation in the State. The Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L., has been freely planted in Illinois and may be known by its orange-brown bark and its twisted leaves 2 to 3 inches long, arranged in 2's. It has become naturalized on the sand dunes in Lake County.

The Norway spruce, Picea abies Karst., has been freely planted throughout the State. It forms a dense conical spire-topped crown and reaches a height of 50 to 70 feet. The leaves are needle-shaped, about an inch long, dark green, and persist for about 5 years. The pendulous cones are from 3 to 6 inches long. It is desirable for ornamental planting.

+BALD CYPRESS+ Taxodium distichum Richard

Natural size.]

THE bald cypress is a tree found exclusively in deep swamps and was found in southern Illinois from the Mississippi bottoms to Shawneetown. Its straight trunk with numerous ascending branches, and narrow conical outline makes the tree one of considerable beauty. In old age, the tree generally has a broad fluted or buttressed base, a smooth slowly tapering trunk and a broad, open, flat top of a few heavy branches and numerous small branchlets. The original-growth timber attained heights of 80 to 130 feet and diameters of 5 to 10 feet.

The bark is silvery to cinnamon-red and finely divided by numerous longitudinal fissures. The leaves are about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in length, arranged in feather-like fashion along two sides of small branchlets, which fall in the autumn with the leaves still attached.

The fruit is a rounded cone, or "ball", about one inch in diameter, consisting of thick irregular scales.

The wood is light, soft, easily worked, varies in color from light to dark brown, and is particularly durable in contact with the soil. Hence it is in demand for exterior trim of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat and shipbuilding, shingles, posts, poles and crossties.

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