Anyone have guesses on what kind of tree this might be from?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Northern Cal black walnut would be my best guess? (and to be fair that's not knowledge, that's leaf ID help). I looked for anything else it might be I was less familiar with cause the leaves are right for some type of walnut but didn't realize the trunks of those Nor Cal black walnuts commonly get 5-6 feet in diameter.
Yep, 👍. That one was over 7' ! IMG_20241217_005720.jpg
 
I was going to second Coralillo's guess. Has bipinnate compound leaves, bark looks about right and it gets really big.
Hey Coralillo, weren't you looking for a slab from a tree like that?
Yeah, but walnut wasn't quite what she wanted and even if it was, I think I'd need to take out a bank loan to buy a black walnut slab that size in California lol. Definitely "money is no object" slabs coming off that trunk!
 
Yeah, but walnut wasn't quite what she wanted and even if it was, I think I'd need to take out a bank loan to buy a black walnut slab that size in California lol. Definitely "money is no object" slabs coming off that trunk!
According to my son, that tree was one of the biggest, if not the biggest known black walnut trees in our neck of the woods! It was located on the Sacramento river in a little town appropriately named Walnut Grove. I think it was a three day job to get it down and cleaned up, with a crane and a crew of workers involved
 
According to my son, that tree was one of the biggest, if not the biggest known black walnut trees in our neck of the woods! It was located on the Sacramento river in a little town appropriately named Walnut Grove. I think it was a three day job to get it down and cleaned up, with a crane and a crew of workers involved
Yeah, that's a monster! That's next level cost removal, with all the heavy equipment and skill involved for something that big. I see, just off the 5 there south of Sac. I used to live in Tahoe on and off all through the 90's in my snow bum days, been up and down 80 past Auburn countless times.
 
Yeah, that's a monster! That's next level cost removal, with all the heavy equipment and skill involved for something that big. I see, just off the 5 there south of Sac. I used to live in Tahoe on and off all through the 90's in my snow bum days, been up and down 80 past Auburn countless times.
This son lives in Grass Valley, my other son lives outside of Truckee at Boca Lake.
 
For a bunch of chainsaw hacks, some of you guys are pretty educated :laughing:

I, sir, am an arborist. :yes:
I'm the guy the hacks call when they cannot do a tree or otherwise get into trouble.

barack obama stick out tongue GIF
 
With Google these days, everyone is a klick away from being an expert! I'll post a pic of a tree my son recently was involved in helping to take down, chances are, very few will be able to guess what it is .for the record, I'm in the central Cali region .

Eh. I went to California a couple of times and could hardly identify anything, from the grasses to the big trees. Quite frankly, I was surprised at how completely different the flora was from the Midwest.
 
According to my son, that tree was one of the biggest, if not the biggest known black walnut trees in our neck of the woods! It was located on the Sacramento river in a little town appropriately named Walnut Grove. I think it was a three day job to get it down and cleaned up, with a crane and a crew of workers involved

Where's the cross section photo of that butt?

I'd like to imagine turning that one in as an accessory profit item. Generally, by the time they get that big, they are ruined for veneer or timber value. That tree was so big, even the branches might have made veneer logs.

EDIT: the stump cuts look like the large tree was significantly hollow at the ground level. Some of those branches, however, look plenty big enough to make the desired slab.
 
Black Walnut is singly pinnate, not bipinnate.
View attachment 1226975 View attachment 1226976

I had to learn all that stuff in botany 101. The lab was very comprehensive and it finished up with a practical/lab exam. Had about 50 stations and you had to identify what was shown at each one. Leaves, microscopes set up with slides of plant cells/tissues, cell physiology/identifying cell components/organelles, stages of mitosis and meosis......

Taught by a Professor Emeritus, Dr Schuster.
With Google these days, everyone is a klick away from being an expert! I'll post a pic of a tree my son recently was involved in helping to take down, chances are, very few will be able to guess what it is .for the record, I'm in the central Cali region .

I'm late to this show. From the leaves I'd know it was from Family Juglandaceae. Would have went from there with leaning what ones are in N. Cal.

Ones my woods, we have black walnut, butternut, and a few types of hickories.
 
Both those woods are rather light colored, and both are prone to excessive checking. Cottonwood is a poor quality lumber, in general. The only thing I know for it's use is on disposable/one-time pallets.

It is probably superlative at making ashes for lye production, but that is just a guess.
I think cottonwood is undervalued. My grandpa sided a new barn with it in 1920. It lasted 50 years, and was replaced with lumberyard 1x12 pine. Some of that did not make it as long. The neat thing about the cottonwood was that it was 1x36 to 1x24 boards. Didn't take many boards to cover a side of the barn. It weathers to a silver. And it had cattle rubbing against it too, and that is a rough life for 1x lumber.

I used random width 1x cottonwood to side my garage in 1982. I replaced a few boards where they went clear to the ground, but the gable ends, where they are up above the grass are still good after 42 years. I think I paid 30¢ a bd ft for it. Much cheaper than any alternative covering.

Unless it is where grass keeps it wet, it holds up as well as pine boards. I consider it as good as lumberyard junk lumber. lumberyard pine does not stand up well in the grass either.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top