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Making tree friends in the winter

2011 February 3
by Robert

Burgundy red twigs characterize sourwood trees. Photo by Ken Moore


By Ken Moore
Flora Columnist

Participants in winter plant identification classes at Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the N.C. Botanical Garden are making friends with numerous trees that are easily recognized when they are bare and leafless.
Twig color is one of several easy-to-spot clues to the identification of some trees at this time of year. The burgundy reds of sourwood twigs are an immediate marker for that tree. To verify your identification, scrape a bit of the thin bark near the end of the twig and give it a sniff. A fresh, pungent smell will confirm that you are correct.
To further verify your identification, step back a bit to view the entire plant. The dark bark of sourwoods displays a pattern of deep vertical fissures that meet to form arrow-like points up and down along the trunk. The sourwood has another striking characteristic that you are unlikely to associate with other trees. In the wild, this understory tree seems incapable of growing straight. It has a most curious habit of leaning to one side or another as it grows upward, eventually making twists and turns that give it a truly bizarre personality.
Near sourwoods, you may spot the glossy yellow-green twigs of sweetgum saplings or stump sprouts. These twigs may be accompanied by corky growths along their sides. Such corky ridges can be quite pronounced on some of the larger specimens. Look around for the big sweetgums; in contrast to the sourwoods, you’ll find them reaching straight up high into the canopy and exhibiting a lighter, grayish bark that’s not nearly as deeply grooved as the sourwood’s.
The barks of some trees are so steadfastly true and distinctive that one can almost always recognize those trees. Both white oak and shagbark hickory are readily identified by their distinctive peeling or scaling bark. It’s easy to distinguish between the two.
The grayish bark of the oak peels or sloughs away from the tree horizontally. In contrast, the bark of the shagbark hickory peels off in thin vertical strips, with the lower and upper ends pulled away as though the center were glued to the trunk. Though it may take some thoughtful observation to discern this, the difference is really evident when you find the two in proximity. (Compare in photo.)
Shagbark hickory is not as common as white oak, but can be spotted beside oaks along some trails in our area. If you’re observant, you’ll find the two trees side by side at the Mason Farm Biological Reserve and along Trail 11 in Duke Forest’s Durham Division.
The beauty and interesting characteristics of some plants are more noticeable now than at any other time. One can look across forest contours and admire giant tree stems that are obscured in the overwhelming greenery of summer.
The snow-white upper trunks and limbs of sycamores along streams and rivers are one of winter’s most beautiful and easily recognizable features. Now is the perfect time to enjoy outdoor explorations and meet new tree friends.
Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com

Shagbark hickory bark peels away as vertical strips. Photo by Ken Moore


Bark of white oak peels away from the side. Photo by Ken Moore

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