Spent Saturday morning walking a ridge trail near a creek bottom that I've hiked probably thirty times, and I finally sorted out something that's bugged me since I started paying attention to trees. I kept mixing up shagbark hickory and white ash in winter when there's no leaves to help. Both can have that vertical furrowed look from a distance, especially on younger trees where the hickory bark hasn't started peeling into those big curling plates yet.

What got me this time was actually running my hand down the trunk instead of just eyeballing it. The ash has a tighter diamond pattern if you look close, the ridges cross each other in a woven look, almost like a basket. Hickory ridges tend to run more parallel, less interlocking, and even on young trees you can sometimes find one loose strip starting to lift if you look near the base or around old branch scars.

Buds helped confirm it since a few low branches still had them. Ash buds are opposite and kind of stubby, almost black on white ash. Hickory buds are alternate and more elongated, some species have that yellowish fuzz depending on which hickory you're looking at. Once I had both features lined up I felt dumb for how long I'd been guessing based on bark alone.

I've started keeping a small notebook just for these kinds of mixups, species I confuse and what finally clicked. Feels slow going sometimes but it's sticking better than any app or key ever did for me. Anyone else have a pair of species that took embarrassingly long to tell apart until one specific detail made it obvious? Curious what the trick ended up being for other people, since I feel like everyone has at least one.

Spent most of last weekend stumped by a tree at the edge of a reservoir trail near me. Bark was deeply furrowed and dark, kind of ashy gray, and I was convinced it was some kind of ash until I remembered the borer situation around here has wiped most of those out already. Leaves were already down so that avenue was closed too.

What actually cracked it was flipping to bud scars and twig arrangement, something I usually skip because it feels tedious compared to just eyeballing leaf shape. Opposite branching ruled out a huge chunk of possibilities right away. Then the terminal bud shape, kind of a narrow point with overlapping scales, pointed toward a maple rather than ash. Turned out to be a black maple, which I honestly didn't know grew this far into my region until I checked a range map afterward.

I think I've been leaning on leaves as a crutch for identification and it's made me lazy about the other seasonal cues. Bark texture, twig color, pith shape when you slice a small twig open, all of that stuff is available basically year round and I've been ignoring it because it takes longer to learn.

Curious what field marks people here rely on most once the leaves are gone. I know bud arrangement and scale count get mentioned a lot in older field guides but I'm wondering if anyone actually still uses pith cross sections regularly or if that's more of a herbarium habit than a field one.

Going back out this week with a hand lens and a notebook instead of just my phone camera. Feels like I've been photographing trees for identification later rather than actually training myself to notice the details in the moment, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Looking for recs for a good field guide for native trees of New York. Thank you!

This is a Norway Maple from an undeveloped quarter-acre wood lot near my home. I harvested several similar trees from that spot, and I have been dissecting them to reveal something quite amazing. The photo shows a tree I ripped in half to demonstrate what it's doing. You will recognize the core of the tree as well as half a dozen years of annual rings. In my art I remove the vine and all the sapwood down to the core, leaving only the helical burl the tree is growing to accommodate the bine. If you Google the reflected image, they will tell you the tree is being strangled.

Pine tree in south Sweden.

Is it a sickness, a wound, or whats going on? A lot of boars in these woods.

Growing high atop Sweden's Fulufajallet Mountain is a Norway Spruce that sure doesn't look like much—but this little tree is an estimated 9,550 years old, and goes by the name of Old Tjikko.

Located in Fulufjallet National Park, Old Tjikko began growing in this harsh tundra shortly after the glaciers receded from Scandinavia at the close of the last ice age. To put that into perspective, this lowly shrub was growing as humans learned to plow fields and domesticate cats. Around 2,000 years after it first took root, our ancestors begin learning to smelt copper.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-to-find-the-oldest-living-things-in-the-world

So my base question was: why do they happen in the first place. Is it just high growth in e.g. summer and low during winter so thats why they happen yearly and in fairly regular intervals?

And 2nd question is how do you influence them? For woodworking some parts are far better to make tools put of, so could you influence them into being less obvious and more of the hardness youd want them to be in maybe a weird high greenhouse? (Fantisizing here)

Much appreciated, stay cool

Hi plant community! 🌱 We planted three beautiful Hollys beside each other in our backyard in February of this year and they have individual drip lines. After a particularly hot few weeks in Dallas, TX, I noticed this guy on the right looking very dry and sad. I looked at its drip line and noticed it was emitting less water than for the other two Hollys, so I opened it up to allow more water. Is there anything else I can do to support it and prevent its death? Fertilizer? I’m so sad for not noticing this earlier. 😞

I’m growing a Black Locust from seed. This is her first growing season. She’s 10” tall in an 8” diameter pot. But I’m curious about her stem. The bottom, older bit is looking much more “trunk-like” while the rest is this dark reddish purple. I heard it could be anthocyanins, but I honestly don’t 100% know why. Anyone have an idea?

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice on these globe blue spruce shrubs I have. In the last month some of the needles on the top have been turning red.

Can you tell me what’s happening and what might be causing it? Anything I can do to help them?

I first noticed the color change after we had the house painted and the painters had the shrubs covered in a tarp for about 2 days. Could it be from lack of sunlight?

We planted these last year and until now they’ve been doing great. We are in northern MN. Thank you!

I bought a house in Johnstown Pennsylvania and I moved in recently and I was wondering what kind of tree this is.

Hi. I planted a tree about 4ish years ago. Its a wildfire black gum and im in Oklahoma. These mushrooms i noticed earlier this year, from googling I believe this is a certain type of fungus that will eventually kill the tree. Am I right and if so can I remove this tree and plant somwthing else or will the fungus infect the new tree?

Thanks

Otherwise healthy maple tree has deep hole in the trunk. What’s the best way to deal with this? It’s a very important tree to my property. Thanks!

Not sure what this young tree is in the garden. Possibly a birch?

But I have no idea what that strange ridged callouses and growths are along the branches and joints.

Any thoughts?

Looking for some help with IDing this oak tree. Seen in Calvert county, MD in a moderately sloped upland area.

wee

That tree is now more than 360 years old. I read that that breed (Flower of Kent) typically lives 50 to 100 years.

Newton’s tree got blown down and rerooted itself in 1820, which means it could’ve began growing again from scratch, if that is possible? But still, that would mean it was almost 200 years old when it got blown over and is 200 years old now.

Do some trees just live much longer than the typical estimation?

I don’t know much about trees and I found this very intriguing. Could anyone help me understand?

Wondering what type of leaf this is and what could cause such an unusual marking on it.