Pondering Winter Trees

Beech Trees in Winter

To see a tree in Winter is to see it for what it really is.  

“A Winter tree is an object so intricate and so perplexing that if it hadn’t already been decided that Winter trees were plain and boring, we would be spending hours pondering them, staring at them in astonishment.” – Author: Vivian Swift   

My favorite time in the woods is in the winter and one thing that is fascinating me this winter is tree bark.  It all seems the same, until you start looking closer.  I’m spending time learning a little about trees and bark this winter, I hope you will too.

American Beech – Fagus grandifolia

An easily identifiable winter tree is the American Beech tree.  Growing in rich woods, this slow-growing beauty can reach a height of 60 – 80 feet, a diameter of 3 feet and can live up to 400 years. Beech tree bark is smooth, light to bluish grey, is lighter when younger and gets darker with age.  The bark is so smooth it is often used as a canvas for carving names, although this is harmful to the tree.  As seen above, mature trees can be hollow, providing a great place for hide-and-seek.  

A distinct feature of this tree is its ability for young trees to retain leaves throughout the winter.  These leaves are called marcescent leaves.  Scientists are not sure why the trees retain their leaves but think it may have to do with nutrition recycling, water conservation or protection against animal browsing.  The European Settlers used these retained leaves in mattress because they lasted longer and felt softer than straw.  

I think the best thing about these marcescent leaves is the sound of the leaves blowing in the winter wind. 

American Beech nuts – Photo by Ashley Adamant 

The uses of this tree are many - the wood is used for furniture, tool handles, fuel, and barrels to age beer.  Beech nuts, the seeds of the tree, are eaten by wild turkey, bobwhite, raccoon, whitetail deer, Eastern cottontail rabbit, red and grey fox, many squirrels, and opossums. 

              

   

Eastern Sycamore – Platanus occidentalis  

With stunning white under bark glowing brightly in the winter sun, the Eastern Sycamore is a large lowland tree that is easy to identify.  The bark is a distinctive mottled brown that flakes off, exposing a whitish under-bark.  Considered the most massive tree in the Eastern United States, this tree can grow to a height of 130 feet and a diameter of 8 feet. Fast-growing, this tree tolerates pollution, resists pests, and can live up to 400 years. The twigs are eaten by deer and muskrats.  The wood is used for boxes, barrels, butcher blocks, cabinets, and furniture.  Native Americans used the tree for dugout canoes.  Cavities of the tree are used for nest and shelter by wood duck, opossum, and raccoon.  Some of these cavities are so large they were used as barns or even homes by early North American Settlers.

                             

Honey Locust – Gleditsia triacanthos

You will know a Honey Locust when you see it.  Huge thorns cover the branches and trunks, hiding bark that is dark and somewhat scaley, although smoother on young trees.   These thorns are several inches long and frequently branched.  Because of their size and shape they have been used as pins, spear points and animal traps. Honey Locust seeds are eaten by squirrels, cattle, deer, and rabbits. There is even a beer made from the honey locust pod. The wood is strong and was used for fence posts and railroad ties. The Native Americans used the wood for bowls and bows.   Tree extracts have been used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.  The honey locust tree, in the pea family, is often found in limestone soil on flood plains, old fields and along streambanks.  These trees can be 80 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter, tolerate drought, and can survive up to 150 years. Today planted as windbreaks and hedges, they provide excellent cover for a wide variety of birds.  

Flowering Dogwood – Cornus florida

Recognized for its spring flower, the bark of the flowering dogwood is checkered like an alligator hide.  Reaching a height of 40 feet with a diameter of 18 inches, this understory tree grows on well-drained upland soils and deep mesic soils along streams and lower slopes throughout the Southeast.    It lives about 80 years.  The wood is one of the hardest and heaviest in North America. 

Red berries of a Flowering Dogwood

This is a very adaptable tree.  The bark has been used to make toothpaste, black ink, and quinine. The roots and bark yield a scarlet dye and the wood is used for shuttles, bobbins, tool handles, mallets, sled runners, hay forks and heads of golf clubs.  The bright red seeds are food for song and game birds, skunks, deer, rabbits, and squirrels. Almost all parts of dogwood trees can be used for medicinal purposes: the bark, roots, berries, twigs, leaves and flowers. Native Americans used the root of dogwood trees to treat malaria. The inner bark of the roots contains the alkaloid known as cornin, used to treat ailments such as insomnia, asthma, fevers, muscular problems, whooping cough, toothache, and even canine mange.

White Ash – Fraxinus americana

Growing to heights of 80 feet with a diameter of 3 feet, a white ash is an easily recognizable upland tree.  The trunk bark often displays an interwoven pattern of shallow diamond-shaped ridges and furrows on the long straight trunk.  The name comes from the ash grey color of the bark.  A fast grower, with a life span of 200 – 300 years the ash is a very sustainable tree.  A white ash is the most valuable of the three most common ash species, provides hard, strong timber for furniture, interior millwork, agricultural implements, tool handles, baseball bats, snowshoes, electric guitars, skis, and campfire fuel.  Finches, cardinals, and Grosbeak eat their seeds in early winter.  Beaver will eat bark.  Sadly, the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), also commonly known by the acronym EAB, a green beetle native to Asia is decimating the Ash trees.  In North America, the EAB is an invasive species that is highly destructive to ash trees in its introduced range. The damage of this insect rivals that of chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease.          

Young American Beech trees in the forest 

The more I learn, the more I find the stories of Winter Trees fascinating! Somewhat like the spring ephemerals, I look forward to the return of the winter and the bare trees.  

Take some time to get outside and see if you can find these trees in the forest of Warner Park.  We will be conducting Hill Hikes this winter, it’s a great time to learn about winter trees.  Click here for our winter schedule.  https://www.nashville.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/2023_Winter_Program_Schedule_Graphics.pdf?ct=1669734531