Tree ID in North Florida
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JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
Any other guesses??
Almost looks like a shingle oak
kinda looks like bayleaf
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
Not sure we have shingle oak here in Florida and I didn't see any acorns on it..
If it was a bay leaf, it was the biggest I've ever seen..
If it was a bay leaf, it was the biggest I've ever seen..
To me, just looking at bark is a fast growing, softer and lighter wood of low btu value, junkier end of oak or close to oak spectrum. More towards Water Oak, than Live Oak in that scale/range..
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Live Oak is my highest oak benchmark of expressing most greatest values of many components. All trees around me are graded as lessers to this high benchmark then. Live Oak thicker , lower growing, double cambium, 'luggier' bark that is harder for mistletoe to invade. They do grow slow, but tenaciously with harder , longer burning, higher btu, heavier wood, that can have slight spiral making hard to split.
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Have seen many 'overly mature' Water (type)Oaks that grow fast, but then get almost elphantitus bloated look , wounds that don't seal before rot ensues, etc. Bur have never seen, a Live Oak that would describe as overly mature, they have exemplary sealing of wounds, less codoms etc. Live oak hinges better etc. too i think.
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Late wood grows slower, and gives the darker seasonal rings of greater density. Harder to screw into etc. Can crack if nail or screw (that will Naturally go to the softer lighter right part)and get the head of nail/screw hitting the harder ring part. Live Oak early spring/summer wood is about as strong as the other tree's denser late wood, and then the late wood of Live Oaks even stronger! Live Oak leaves lots harder to crumple even, compared to Water Oak with kinda watery leaves. The twigs can be as like wire. These some tuff trees!
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i don't have a real answer to the species question, but in my yard more to the working wood side; simply would not sort it that far before cutting unless other utility purpose. Highly favor the Live Oak and close to types of bark in most oaks to sort, unless quick space fill that probably will be removed at some point.
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Live Oak is my highest oak benchmark of expressing most greatest values of many components. All trees around me are graded as lessers to this high benchmark then. Live Oak thicker , lower growing, double cambium, 'luggier' bark that is harder for mistletoe to invade. They do grow slow, but tenaciously with harder , longer burning, higher btu, heavier wood, that can have slight spiral making hard to split.
.
Have seen many 'overly mature' Water (type)Oaks that grow fast, but then get almost elphantitus bloated look , wounds that don't seal before rot ensues, etc. Bur have never seen, a Live Oak that would describe as overly mature, they have exemplary sealing of wounds, less codoms etc. Live oak hinges better etc. too i think.
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Late wood grows slower, and gives the darker seasonal rings of greater density. Harder to screw into etc. Can crack if nail or screw (that will Naturally go to the softer lighter right part)and get the head of nail/screw hitting the harder ring part. Live Oak early spring/summer wood is about as strong as the other tree's denser late wood, and then the late wood of Live Oaks even stronger! Live Oak leaves lots harder to crumple even, compared to Water Oak with kinda watery leaves. The twigs can be as like wire. These some tuff trees!
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i don't have a real answer to the species question, but in my yard more to the working wood side; simply would not sort it that far before cutting unless other utility purpose. Highly favor the Live Oak and close to types of bark in most oaks to sort, unless quick space fill that probably will be removed at some point.
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
Thanks @TheTreeSpyder , good to see a fellow Floridian chime in..I've been in Florida nearly 33 years and this tree isn't something I've ever come across..It is as you described, junky..definitely not in the oak family, I can't see any similar characteristics..
The buds are pretty clear. It is magnolia.
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
I believe @ATH is correct..did some digging and didn't realize the sweeetbay magnolia is also known as the swamp magnolia..leaves perfectly fit the description @Ethobling mentioned, and they do have a pretty unique smell to them..Thanks guys!!
And now you have access to bay leaves without having to buy them (if you use them for soups, etc).
Glad you found your answer.
In the future, one app I have used and had great fun with is the PictureThis app. You snap a picture of whatever plant you are unsure of (even if you know what it is, it will bring up good info on it) and it will identify it. It's only gotten 1 plant wrong out of the 100+ pictures I've taken and it was a fair misidentification. (It thought Climbing Hempvine was Mile-A-Minute.)
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
Thanks for the tip @Ethobling..my wife is always using bay leave in soup..maybe I should gather up the leaves and dry some in the dehudrator..
I'll have to give that picture this app a try.
I'll have to give that picture this app a try.
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
wow @Ethobling, you weren't kidding about that app!! Took a picture of the leaves and it ID'd it immediately..pretty incredible.. Curious, do you have a paid subscription for it?
I do not. Haven't seen the need.
There was a brief time where they were limiting the number of identifications you could do per day to 1-5 (depending on chance), but they seemed to have reverted that, thankfully.
It's a great app. I've taken pictures of a tree canopy where no individual leaves were easily seen and it still identified the tree correctly.
Seek - by iNaturalist is another good identification app.
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
So I went around ID'ing all of the other trees on my property..lot's of water oak, a which I knew, but several which I had no clue what they were..Red maple, pignut hickory and even a huge black cherry. Then I found a patch of swamp magnolia which I wasn't aware of..
Pics? Especially of the Black Cherry...
Yeah, I had a massive Pignut Hickory fall during Hurricane Florence. It was so big it took 4-5 smaller trees with it. It's still propped up off the ground because of the limbs. It still might have some salvagable lumber, but probably not.
JAXJEREMY
ArboristSite Operative
My property is on an old homestead site and I have two of those Hickories, one at each corner of the back of my property..I've always wondered if they planted them as a marker or something. Anyway, they're good size trees, never actually knew what all those nuts were from..now I do.
Here's the cherry tree..bark has a really unique texture..
Old-Feller
Pretty Fart Smeller
Wow! That's crazy the Ironwood out West here is more of a Bush but can grow larger into a tree it is similar to a Juniper in a way, When I was younger we used to cut a lot of it and literally sparks would fly off of the chains and it dulls them very quickly. It weighs a lot and is super hard. You are no longer allowed to cut them anymore.
Yeah, it's a dime a dozen, here, if you are near a creek. I heard it's in the top 3 or so of highest BTUs per cord in the US. Might even be at the top? That would make sense, seeing how hard it is.
It's beautiful in the late autumn. Pretty much the last tree to change color and it stays a lovely gold for a while, assuming there's very little wind.
Edit to add: found it. I've attached the chart. Looks like it's #3 (Hornbeam)
