# Most Common and Rarest Trees in North America



## Turkeyslayer (Apr 25, 2009)

Just curious/bored, and would like to hear peoples thoughts/guesses. I'm guessin white pine for most common, and dont have a clue for the rarest


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## Kate Butler (Apr 25, 2009)

I'll play. Define rarest: do you mean the actual number, or do you mean a certain number of trees growing out of their natural habitat (like a Zone 7 tree growing in Zone 3)?


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## windthrown (Apr 26, 2009)

For most common in the western US, I'd guess Douglas fir. For rarest, I would say Foxtail pines. I was at one of the two places that Foxtails grow in a remote area in Northern California in the Klamath Mountains. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_Pine


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## M.R. (Apr 26, 2009)

If common is determined by being the most wide spread or to be found growing over the widest range in N America----The Quaking Aspen will have to rate pretty high. 

The rarest? 
Money tree. Washington DC is apparently the only place it is found. :monkey:


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## Turkeyslayer (Apr 26, 2009)

I was thinking common as most widespread, and rarest as smallest population/least widespread. All native north american tree species.

Interesting replies keep'um coming


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## funky sawman (Apr 26, 2009)

The pacific yew tree is the rarest tree i know of, they use the sap to cure some kind of cancer. The most common wood has got to be cottonwood.


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## Turkeyslayer (Apr 26, 2009)

Here is an interesting link I found on tree distribution http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/


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## frenchy85 (May 1, 2009)

I would have to say around here the most common would be either red oak or maple. The least common would have to be chestnut.


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## stumpjumper83 (May 1, 2009)

I know the most common isn't sugar maples for they only grow on the northeast coast. As for what I think is the most common, I'm betting on either the aspen, found from pa thru ak and in large numbers, or the douglass fir, again a very common tree, or maybe the black willow tree / bush.

As for least common native tree... every area is going to have the own endangered species, my vote from pa is for the Native North American Chestnut Tree.


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## M.R. (May 1, 2009)

fwiw: A quick google search pulled this up.

Quaking Aspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America, ranging from Alaska to the Atlantic coast of Canada, southward to New England on the east and California on the west, central in the upper Midwest, and also through the Rocky Mountains down to the mountains of northern Mexico.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/trees/aspen_quaking/tabid/5333/Default.aspx


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## Meadow Beaver (May 1, 2009)

I think Bird's eye maple would be one of the rarest.


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## Turkeyslayer (May 1, 2009)

M.R. said:


> fwiw: A quick google search pulled this up.
> 
> Quaking Aspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America, ranging from Alaska to the Atlantic coast of Canada, southward to New England on the east and California on the west, central in the upper Midwest, and also through the Rocky Mountains down to the mountains of northern Mexico.
> 
> http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/trees/aspen_quaking/tabid/5333/Default.aspx



Very interesting, in my local area there aren't to many large stands of quaking aspen except along the shore of lake erie. I think most of these trees where probably cleared to make room for more valuable tree species. As for the rarest in my area I would say it is red mulbery for it is endangered in Ontario. Kentucky coffee-tree and blue ash are also very rare here.


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## Turkeyslayer (May 1, 2009)

MMFaller39 said:


> I think Bird's eye maple would be one of the rarest.



I am not positive but I think birds eye maple is a sugar maple in an early stage of decay. This past winter I cut a dead standing maple stalk that the top had blown out of a couple of years ago, after I had bucked it and was splitting it I noticed it had the "birds eye" pattern in the grain. To bad I didnt know this before bucking the stalk for the wood may have had more value for a cabinet maker than what I will get for it as firewood


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## stumpjumper83 (May 2, 2009)

bird's eye maple is not a species, its a growth pattern, it can happen to cherry and oak as well. Its the same as tiger maple, it just depends on the angle of the sawyers blade when he cuts it.

Spalt is what you call wood in the early stages of decay. It can happen to several species. It looks like black lines running with the grain.


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## ericjeeper (May 3, 2009)

*Around my place it seems to be*

The Money tree. My kids think that I know exactly where it is located though.


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## Hlakegollum (May 27, 2009)

Ash by me in PA is most common, I see some wild apples once in a while (don't know if they count).


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## Meadow Beaver (May 28, 2009)

Harveys Lake isn't too far from me, and I don't see a lot of ash around here more oak and hickory. You must be at a lower elevation or it isn't as rocky.


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## Hlakegollum (May 28, 2009)

MMFaller39 said:


> Harveys Lake isn't too far from me, and I don't see a lot of ash around here more oak and hickory. You must be at a lower elevation or it isn't as rocky.



I think the elevation is about 1350. Loggers take out the oak. Lots of hickory and red maple also, but ash is everywhere and aspen.


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## Deadwood Kid (Jun 5, 2009)

this is a hard one to guess, considering it's near immpossible to tell what tree's grow elseware in the country.

in western oregon i'd have to say its between the almighty doug fir and the cancer-like alder. because it grows so fast no matter where.


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## windthrown (Jun 5, 2009)

Deadwood Kid said:


> this is a hard one to guess, considering it's near immpossible to tell what tree's grow elseware in the country.
> 
> in western oregon i'd have to say its between the almighty doug fir and the cancer-like alder. because it grows so fast no matter where.



Ah, but alders fetch a good price at the mills, often times more than Douggies. They are also fast growing, and good for errosion control. Of course, they also grow fast on newly graded roads, and thick as snot. I like burning and cooking with alder, and we have several cords of it here split and stacked.

I think Dougs have to be the most common here. They are massively planted, invasive as all hell, and everywhere this side of the Cascades and Sierras. They also burn good, and I have several cords of that here as well. Funny, I just realised: I have about the same amount of red alder as Doug fir firewood put up. Far more than any other species of wood in the woodpiles.


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## Kydan (Jun 15, 2009)

That was my first guess also' ..Maybe a rare find over a big range, the surviving native American chestnut trees. 

Not counting the millions of American chestnut sprouts, growing in the native range. Which is susceptible to blight disease and will die off.


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## Meadow Beaver (Jun 15, 2009)

Yeah where I live is about 1700-1800ft in elevation


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## prentice110 (Jun 16, 2009)

Red Elm, or a true Chinese, they must be damn near extinct by now. There are very few Reds left, and Ive only seen them in southern wiscon, and Ive havent seen a true chinese in a long time.


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## ShoerFast (Jun 17, 2009)

Lodge Pole (Pinus contorta) is up there for common in the Colorado Rockys , Cottonwood in the drainages of the plains.

For Americas rarest, my $0.02 cents vote goes to Desert Ironwood (Olneya tesota) also one of the longest lived, slowest growing and hardest of hard. Link:


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## Turkeyslayer (Jun 17, 2009)

ShoerFast said:


> Lodge Pole (Pinus contorta) is up there for common in the Colorado Rockys , Cottonwood in the drainages of the plains.
> 
> For Americas rarest, my $0.02 cents vote goes to Desert Ironwood (Olneya tesota) also one of the longest lived, slowest growing and hardest of hard. Link:



Interesting link!


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## jonsered 820 (Jul 10, 2009)

i would have to say in my area hemlock and maple for common and black walnut for rare


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## eastside (Jul 12, 2009)

going along with deadwood and windthrown, doug-fir or alder is definitely the most common by a long shot in the pnw. as for least, not sure...madrone? don't see a lot of it around here, esp. big ones. valley ponderosas too. 

turkeyslayer-hawaii has some variation of ironwood and that stuff lives up to its name for sure


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## ZeroJunk (Jul 26, 2009)

Rarest is probably the American Chestnut since all in there normal range were killed by the blight.


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## smokechase II (Jul 26, 2009)

*This gets complicated*

Any bet in a bar does.

==========

Aspen (and many other species) often generate from roots.

So is what we see above ground a new tree (statistically) or just the old one spreading its canopy?


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## smokechase II (Jul 26, 2009)

*Never even heard of it*

*"Franklinia alatamaha sounds exotic, and it truly deserves to be. Known as the Franklin tree, the lost camellia, or the lost Gordonia, it has perhaps the most romantic, mysterious past of any native American plant species. John Bartram and his son William discovered a modest grove of this unusually beautiful small tree in Georgia in 1765. By 1803, and perhaps a decade earlier, it had disappeared completely from the wild. Framklinia only survived due to the Bartrams’ collecting plants and seeds as avid horticulturists and propagating them in their Philadelphia garden the last quarter of the 18th century. All cultivated plants today descend from one or more of their collected specimens."*


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## Turkeyslayer (Jul 26, 2009)

Found a link http://www.zilkha.com/superlativetrees.html to some interesting stuff, a little off topic but still good stuff


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## smokechase II (Jul 26, 2009)

*Wow*

Great Trivia Turkeyslayer

http://www.zilkha.com/superlativetrees.htm


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## brisawyer (Jul 30, 2009)

I think the rarest in my area is the Virginia roundleaf birch. They are in smyth county near Marion or so I am told.

http://www.treetrail.net/betula_uber.html


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## throbak (Aug 19, 2009)

never seen an american chestnut


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## cam76034 (Aug 19, 2009)

Lost Maples of Texas. These are bigtooth maples believed to be surviving relics of the Pleistocene Ice Age, when these trees migrated from ancestral sugar maple stock eastward across Texas. As the climate became more hot and dry in recent times, the Texas maples were restricted to sheltered canyon pockets like the park.


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## TheLazyBFarm (Aug 20, 2009)

Turkeyslayer said:


> Found a link http://www.zilkha.com/superlativetrees.html to some interesting stuff, a little off topic but still good stuff



That's pretty cool! Thanks,


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## blueatlascedar (Sep 3, 2009)

frenchy85 said:


> I would have to say around here the most common would be either red oak or maple. The least common would have to be chestnut.



:agree2:


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## Austin1 (Sep 26, 2009)

Most common for me Lodge Poll, rarest Limber Pine I don't no if I spelled that one right. Rarest Firewood tree would be a Doug fir We have them but they are all hard to get to. But Calgary has a park along the Bow River that is full of Doug Fir dam I wish I could cut them


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## Brmorgan (Oct 5, 2009)

Austin1 said:


> Most common for me Lodge Poll, rarest Limber Pine I don't no if I spelled that one right. Rarest Firewood tree would be a Doug fir We have them but they are all hard to get to. But Calgary has a park along the Bow River that is full of Doug Fir dam I wish I could cut them



Hm, didn't know that - can't say I've seen any Dougs east of the Rockies in Alberta before. The main reason is that the elevation is too high in the foothills where trees of any significance actually grow in quantity. They don't seem to like it very much above ~1400m elevation around here.

By far the most widespread deciduous tree is in fact the Quaking Aspen (or Trembling as I've usually heard it called). An enormous Aspen colony, I believe in Utah or Colorado, is believed to be the largest single living organism on Earth. They can form huge clone colonies since any root that comes to the surface can potentially sprout another tree, and since they grow like a weed the roots can cover large areas quite quickly.

The most widespread Coniferous tree is the Common Juniper, which covers pretty much all of Canada & Alaska east to west and north to the treeline, and much of the northern US and intermittently south through the Rockies almost south to Mexico. This is also considered the most common Conifer, and possibly tree in general, in the world, with most of Europe, Russia, Siberia, and some of Asia falling within its range as well. This is largely due to their natural hardiness and the berry-like nature of their seeds, which are eaten by migrating birds and deposited possibly hundreds of miles away. Most other trees rely on either just the wind or perhaps more local animals such as squirrels to spread their seeds.

I'd guess that the conifer with the smallest range would be the Monterey Cypress or one of the other native Californian Cypresses or Pines. Monterey Cypress only grows in two small groves on their namesake coast of California & doesn't even register as having a native range on that USGS map site. BTW thanks for that link, that's a handy site.

I'm less educated about the Eastern hardwoods, so I really have no idea there. I do know that in Ontario (where my family is from) it's increasingly rare to see an Elm of any significant size since Dutch Elm Disease went through years ago.


My favorite tree fun fact from that list:



> Most Isolated Tree
> 
> A solitary Norwegian Spruce tree on Campbell Island in the Pacific is the most isolated tree on earth. The next nearest tree to it is located on the Auckland Islands, over 120 miles away.



Those friggin' Norway Spruce will grow anywhere!


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## Austin1 (Oct 5, 2009)

Brmorgan said:


> Hm, didn't know that - can't say I've seen any Dougs east of the Rockies in Alberta before. The main reason is that the elevation is too high in the foothills where trees of any significance actually grow in quantity. They don't seem to like it very much above ~1400m elevation around here.
> 
> By far the most widespread deciduous tree is in fact the Quaking Aspen (or Trembling as I've usually heard it called). An enormous Aspen colony, I believe in Utah or Colorado, is believed to be the largest single living organism on Earth. They can form huge clone colonies since any root that comes to the surface can potentially sprout another tree, and since they grow like a weed the roots can cover large areas quite quickly.
> 
> ...


Yep they even have a sign that say's ""Douglas Fir Trail Canada's most eastern stand of Doug Fir"" it's in Edworthy Park right on the river. I thought I read somewhere that Cyprus hills has some? but I don't know.


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