aqh88
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ID some trees

I had a long post and lost it. :( Try try again. Shorter version this time. The old trees planted 50-100 years ago have been steadily falling down year after year. In order to keep tradition alive (my great great uncle planted several of those trees along with building this house) and continue to feed the wildlife new trees need to be added. Before I can do that I need to know what is left and to decide what still needs to go before it kills someone. Unfortunately I started my tree ID late and few trees have good leaves on them. One has no leaves so it may have to wait until spring. I took pics of 6 trees today that still had some leaves. The other downside to being this late is the squirrels have taken most of the nuts dropped by the trees so I couldn't find any to take pics of. Here is what I do have in links so that slower computers aren't killed loading this thread.

Mystery tree 1:
Large, thick tree with fairly open branching and thick branches that head off in random directions.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1902.jpg[/url]

Thin skinny leaves:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1880.jpg[/url]
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1881.jpg[/url]

Closeup of trunk and bark:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1904.jpg[/url]

Mystery tree 2:
2 close growing trees near tree 1 with tall skinny trunks and short close branching. My guinea fowl love hiding in these trees because of that.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1899.jpg[/url]

I'm not sure what happened to the pic of leaves I pulled off the tree but I did have one of a bunch of leaves on the a low branch.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1908.jpg[/url]

Layered peeling bark. These guys are messy.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1900.jpg[/url]
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1909.jpg[/url]

One of these mystery trees drops a round nut in a smooth green hull that dries to a thin very hard black hull. It peels off in quarters to reveal the nut. I'm not sure which one though and the squirrels have already eaten all the nuts. I think I stashed 2 away in a drawer last year when I was going to get these IDed so I'll take pics if I find them tomorrow.

On to the partially IDed trees. Not real important to know exactly what they are but it would be nice.

Oak 1:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1915.jpg[/url]

Oak 2:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1917.jpg[/url]

Left oak 1, right oak 2 on both leaf pictures.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1918.jpg[/url]
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1919.jpg[/url]


Maple 1:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1910.jpg[/url]

Maple 2:
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1911.jpg[/url]

Again leaves from 1 on the left, 2 on the right.
[url]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/trees/SANY1912.jpg[/url]

That's it for now but I have 20 acres of trees to take pics of this fall and next spring before deciding what and where to plant new ones.

bullthistle
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Mystery #2 looks like a hickory, possibly shagbark.

bullthistle
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Mystery #1 also looks like a hickory. When you mentioned squirrels where at the food, it was a give away.

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applestar
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I agree, #2 looks like a Shagbark Hickory. There's a tree on the other side of my back fence, and I've been trying to gather the nuts to try because I've heard that they're good eating. But generally squirrels get the lot. Last fall I was able to scrounge 2 or 3. The nut meats were rather thin and not well filled out but they did taste sweet.

They're pretty high up in the lists for favorable native and Permaculture edible forest trees, but I don't know if you'll need to re-plant them. The squirrels crack and bury the nuts everywhere, and usually forget to retrieve a % every year. I had 6 volunteer seedlings in my garden this year. :roll:

For the oaks, leaves with points belong in the red oak family and the rounded lobes belong in the white oak family. They say that most white oak acorns have less tannin and are sweeter/edible.

aqh88
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Location: Iowa
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Yep those are the exact nuts. Unfortunately none of the nuts have sprouted anywhere. They seem to get devoured too quickly. There is a rather insane amount of wildlife around here fed by the plants gone wild from over 50years of using this land to grow food for the whole family including those that lived states away. Then in the past 30years it was not tended so there are walls of things like raspberry bushes and grapevines alone the edges of the property and where ever the land has not been mowed for a period of time. I do get tons of black walnut seedlings that I have to destroy or they'd just plain take over. We have an excess of black walnuts and the maples tend to sprout up in the landscaping a few dozen at a time. The acorns and other nuts though just disappear over night and I never see any new trees. Maybe I will try to plant the 2 I have but they are from last fall.

I do not see any hickories that would match the first mystery tree. It has lots of very narrow long leaves. The only thing I know the name of with leaves that narrow are honey locust but there are no thorns or seed pods. I also don't remember any other nuts in the area but that doesn't mean anything around here. Aside from the walnuts it's impressive if a tree produces enough to have their nuts hit the ground in a noticeable amount.

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bewildered_nmsu
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I'm pretty sure tree #1 is a pecan variety (they're related to hickory).

Forester Morgan
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1. Black Walnut
2. Shagbark Hickory

Oak 1. Cant tell exactly from photo, definately a red oak, probably a scarlet oak
Oak 2. Cant tell exactly from photo, definately a red oak, probably a northern red oak

Maple 1. Cant tell exactly from photo, definately a hard maple, probably a black maple.
Maple 2. Cant tell exacrly from photo, definately a hard maple, probably a sugar maple.

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rainbowgardener
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I'm surprised you get all those walnut seedlings. I have a huge old black walnut tree. It drops bushels of nuts every year, but we get hardly any seedlings. Every once in awhile if a squirrel plants one in a flower bed and forgets it, it will sprout, but only the ones in nice soil in flower beds.



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