Subscribe to our email newsletter
Popular Discussions
- Clearing the Air: Outdoor Wood Boilers Face Regulation (35)
- Lumber, Chips, and Sawdust: For Sawmills, There’s No Such Thing as Waste (13)
- Autumn Olive (12)
- Tale of the Tick: How Lyme Disease is Expanding Northward (11)
- Indian Pipe (9)
- The Haitian Landscape (8)
- Wood Worse than Coal? (7)
- Forests Can’t Fight Climate Change (7)
- Wood Pellets (7)
- It’s Time to Reconsider Spring and Summer Bird Feeding (5)
- Beware of Encroaching Forests (5)
- First Snow (5)
- Bears Fattening Up for Winter’s Slumber (5)
- Opening Camp (5)
- Wet Weather Wondering (5)
Species in the Spotlight Archive
-
Sassafras
My early knowledge of sassafras brings to mind the legendary blind men describing an elephant. One man touches the tail, another the flank, another the tusk, and in the end, there’s no agreement as to what this “thing” actually is. As a child, one of my jobs was clipping the little sassafrasses that sprouted prolifically from the roots of a… (more)
-
Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida
In forestry circles, monocultures don’t get high marks. Most planted forests have just one kind of tree, and because of this they are often looked down upon as biological Levittowns: boring forests that are of little interest to other species. Sometimes, however, nature does a pretty good imitation of a plantation, even if she does a poor job at keeping… (more)
-
Scotch pine, Pinus sylvestris
Some stands of Scots pine in Europe (that’s what it’s called in its native range) are gorgeous, with straight, unbranching trunks that self-prune nicely, revealing the lovely orange bark that is characteristic of mid-sized stems. But the Scotch pine plantations growing in the U.S. rarely live up to that ideal. Some planted stands are successful, but the species is susceptible… (more)
-
Tuliptree, Liriodendron tulipifera
For the last 45 or so years, I have had to travel to be in the company of a tuliptree, as this species thrives only in more southern climes – from southern New England south to central Florida and west to Illinois. Nonetheless, this tree is dear to my heart. When I was a child in Connecticut, it was the… (more)
-
Butternut, Juglans Cinerea
Healthy butternut trees are now so rare that, before the image of this tree in its full glory fades, let’s bring the butternut tree of 40 years ago to mind. Back then it was a robust member of the tree community, found on rich, moist loams, on limey, rocky soils, and in the dooryards of a high percentage of old… (more)
-
Sweetfern, Comptonia peregrina
Plants in the wax-myrtle family – notably bayberry and sweet gale – are known for their fragrance. But sweetfern may be the most aromatic of all. On hot, sunny days, the scent is detectable from a considerable distance, and the wonderful aroma from a handful of crushed leaves can be almost overwhelming. In winter, with a little imagination, you can… (more)
-
Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis
Michael Dirr, the author of my favorite horticultural book, is a rarity in that he is dubious about sycamore, which he considers to be “overplanted.” Most people love this tree without reservation. The ease of sycamore identification may be what begins the love affair, but it doesn’t end there. In any season, the base of a sycamore trunk is brownish… (more)
-
Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana
In the fullness of summer and in the depths of winter, chokecherry is not particularly noticeable. By early June, it has all but disappeared as part of the anonymous expanse of greenness that edges roads and woods and fills in abandoned fields. In winter, too, the twigs blend in with their surroundings. But for a brief time in spring, usually… (more)
-
Black Birch: Betula lenta
Also called sweet birch, cherry birch, or mahogany birch, this species is perhaps the only tree around that is best recognized by the flavor of its twigs. The inner bark, as any twig-chewing child can tell you, is delicious and fragrant: its wintergreen taste is from the very same oil found in Gaultheria procumbens, a small, creeping forest plant also… (more)
-
Jack Pine, Pinus banksiana
Rare is the day when all the resources that a tree needs are available in abundance. And for jack pine, a far more frugal and less aggressive species than, say, sugar maple, survival depends on gleaning something from nothing – every day. Its specialty is what might count as the tree equivalent of squatting: it benefits from forest fires so… (more)