Tree Identification Help?

[Magicdave]

I don't even know if this will be possible, is anyone able to tell me what kind of wood this is I have used? If it helps it is about 3cm diameter.

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[Valantine]

Looking at the core I would say it's elder

[OakAshandThorn]

Seconded, most likely an Elder ;).

[Magicdave]

Thanks for the help. The tree is only 50 yards from me, there are a good number of the same tree still standing around it, as the leaves start to appear on the trees I'll get a photo and post it to be sure.

[Blundstoned Love]

It's not Elder. No way.

The bark is more like Sycamore. The pith is unusual, but then trees do unusual things from to time.

Pictures of branches/twigs showing arrangement i.e how they come off the trunk/branch would help as would pics of buds (they don't need to have burst).

[Pootle]

I have to agree that bark doesn't look like elder.
Could be one of the acers.
If there are any leaves remaining on the ground that would help. Sycamore leaves can take a long time to break down. They are palmate and often have 'tar spots' on them.

[Magicdave]

I'll nip out either tomorrow or Sunday and get some pictures that will hopefully help.

[Magicdave]

I got a few more pictures, a little later than intended. It's also been suggested to me that it is ash, could this be the case? I included one of the brackets growing on the trunk, not sure if this will help, but I'm wondering if it's possible to tell how long ago the tree fell from these?

I did take a few more of the smaller branches, but they were all intertwingled with another tree that this one landed on.

If anyone can tell the type of fungus from this image that would be great too.

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[Blundstoned Love]

Well I'm still inclined towards Sycamore. It could be Ash but your spoon looks too dark in places - the fungal infection maybe responsible for that - it is almost certainly the cause of the spongy pith in your sample.

If the branches are intertwined can't you extract some, because to be honest these pics don't help very much at all.

That said the leaf litter on the ground in the middle pic looks like Aceracae - Maple family.

[Magicdave]

Thanks, I had a feeling they wouldn't be great. I deleted the other pictures. I'll nip out over the next day or so and get more. If that doesn't help I'll wait till the spring settles in and get some images of surrounding trees of the same sort.

[David_JAFO]

hello,
Nevermind the tree ;) love the grain of the wood in the spoon.
Regards
David
T^

[Pootle]

Yeah sorry magicdave, I got all caught up trying to id the wood and forgot to comment on the spoon! nice work mate.

[Magicdave]

Thanks guys and no need for apologies. I stuck the spoon image up incase the grain helped, I had also forgot about it. I'm more interested in the tree as I want to learn to identify them, I think I've chosen a bad time of year to start learning, that's about to change though.

[Blundstoned Love]

I think I've chosen a bad time of year to start learnin

I disagree mate. Anyone can ID a tree when it's in full leaf, or with flowers, seeds etc present. You know you are getting good when you can ID from a bare branch or just the shape of a bare tree in winter. Observation is key. Once you have a known tree look at it in every season, so you know what it looks like all year round.

[Blundstoned Love]

The spoon is ace BTW

[Magicdave]

The spoon is ace BTW

Thanks.


I disagree mate. Anyone can ID a tree when it's in full leaf, or with flowers, seeds etc present. You know you are getting good when you can ID from a bare branch or just the shape of a bare tree in winter. Observation is key. Once you have a known tree look at it in every season, so you know what it looks like all year round.

When I first read this I disagreed, mainly because (as a beginner) I'm at a bit of a loss every time I start to research a tree with this limited information. But I think your right, I've started to build up a bit of an unanswered knowledge of the questions I want answered. Over the coming months I'll see where they are going, then later in the year maybe I'll start to see it all come back to where I started thinking. Thanks.

Or, maybe I could just always work with Silver Birch. Cop out!

[Blundstoned Love]

Silver Birch is a good one - no way a cop out - it's easy to identify when you can see the bark, but also a good one to learn when you can just see the shape/outline from afar. It's pendulous - Betula PENDULA - apart from Willows no other native trees are.

Apart from oak I reckon it's the easiest tree to identify when nekkid (the tree not you).

The fact that you can ID a silver birch puts you above about 90% of the UK population in terms of tree knowledge - a good base to build on.

Challenge yourself to learn something each week - it soon stacks up.

[Magicdave]

Apart from oak I reckon it's the easiest tree to identify when nekkid (the tree not you).

Seriously, this is the only tree I've been able to identify all year round since I was a kid. I had assumed it was common knowledge. I do see it as a good base to build on, I'm also curious to see where that base ends up this time next year. Thanks.

[bikebum1975]

Gorgeous spoon part of me wants to say ash but bark isn't same. And I'm no tree expert

[OakAshandThorn]

I disagree mate. Anyone can ID a tree when it's in full leaf, or with flowers, seeds etc present. You know you are getting good when you can ID from a bare branch or just the shape of a bare tree in winter. Observation is key. Once you have a known tree look at it in every season, so you know what it looks like all year round.
Agreed :).
Oh, OK, I see what you're saying..."sycamore" as in Platanus orientalis I presume? lol For a second I thought you meant P. occidentalis, which is what most folks here call "sycamore".
And this is why knowing the Latin genus and species can help a lot to sort out confusion...local names can create loads of misunderstandings. One can learn to identify all the native species in his/her region, but of course not everyone shares the same geography and environment; and therefore the plant species will differ.

[Blundstoned Love]

I see what you're saying..."sycamore" as in Platanus orientalis I presume?

Not afraid not - in the UK what we call Sycamore is Acer pseuodplatanus. It's a relatively recent introduction to the UK (200-300 years) but seems (to me) almost omnipresent because it seeds like crazy. I once paid Little Boots a penny a seedling to collect them from our garden reckoning it'd cost me 40p - we have one on adjacent property. Three quid later I called a halt.

[OakAshandThorn]

Not afraid not - in the UK what we call Sycamore is Acer pseuodplatanus. It's a relatively recent introduction to the UK (200-300 years) but seems (to me) almost omnipresent because it seeds like crazy. I once paid Little Boots a penny a seedling to collect them from our garden reckoning it'd cost me 40p - we have one on adjacent property. Three quid later I called a halt.
Oh, OK :). That is planted as an ornamental here, more often in fancy gardens than growing wild, but here we call it "Sycamore Maple" or "False Sycamore" lol :p.

[Magicdave]

I'm not 100%, but I think this is the same type of tree.

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[Blundstoned Love]

I would say hornbeam or beech,

http://drmgoeswild.com/dr-m-talks-british-tree-identification-beech-and-hornbeam/

but the pink buds are bothering me, and the branches don't look like beech. Hornbeam I'm not very familiar with - there is only one I know of locally.

[Magicdave]

I'm not 100%, but I think this is the same type of tree.

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Apologies, don't go by this picture, I don't think it is the same. I was back out this morning and found a tree that I am 100% is the same, it hasn't started to bud yet, I'll get pictures when it does.

[Blundstoned Love]

I was looking at a sycamore this morning and the leaves were really starting to grow and the bud cases had become pinkish. This was not something I'd noticed before and after looking at some pics on Google it seems some do this and some don't.

If you can get pictures of the last 12 inches of a branch, even if the buds have't broken out yet that would help.

I would take some pics of sycamores down here, but I suspect we are a couple of weeks ahead of you so that probably wouldn't be much use.

[Magicdave]

I just nipped out, here's a picture of the last 12 inches or so, the branch in focus and the out of focus one closer, of the tree that I'm 100% is the same. Which is probably something I should say as a novice.

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[Blundstoned Love]

The picture hasn't helped much.

Have a dekko at this:

http://ballinodetidytowns.weebly.com/kidzone/nature-detectives-winter-twig-identification-quiz

What do you reckon?

[Magicdave]

I can see the confusion, it's not that clear comparing with the pictures. I've not been back out to look since I checked out your link, I'll print it out and take it with me soon. But more important, thanks for the link. I'm sure it's going to be of great use in the future. I've been meaning to pick up the Collins Gem on Trees, do you (or anyone) know if this type of info is included, or if any other book has the likes?

[Magicdave]

I had another look, I'm pretty certain I can identify all the trees in the area that are the same as this one. The area is mostly populated with birch, and mostly silver birch. There are other various species, but this one in particular might be the fewest among the lot. It is the only one that isn't showing any sign of expected spring activity yet (any of them). I'm wondering if that may mean anything?

It is a bit of woodland beside a very old cemetery almost at the very edge of the city. For this reason the place is riddled with years worth of teenage trash, I doubt that it means that all this species is dead standing from teen hatred/disrespect, more likely that it is a specific tree that is a little (hopefully) later to flourish than the others.

Something else I noticed, now that it is easier to pick out the individual trees, is that for (maybe around) the 30 - 40ft tall trees there are no branches on any below around 12, maybe 15ft, could this help in identification? The trunk diameters are probably at their max thickness 6 - 7inches.

[Blundstoned Love]

It is the only one that isn't showing any sign of expected spring activity yet

Yes, it does - unless it's dead it is Ash. And looking at the multiple buds scars that seem to be present on the end of the twigs in your last picture I think this is the case.

I'm struggling to picture a 60 ft tree that has a 6 inch trunk tho'

[Magicdave]

Thank you very much, greatly appreciated.


I'm struggling to picture a 60 ft tree that has a 6 inch trunk tho'

Yeah, picturing it I think I have my guesstimation all wrong. I suppose the branches started at least twice my height. And the trees looked to be about 3 times that. I'll update the previous post to suit.

I thin I probably got the diameter wrong too, It's definitely not 5 inches.

[Magicdave]

I noticed today that these trees had leaves on them, so I was going to look it up tonight to confirm. But when I got back I watched this video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbMvPEVxrA

So now I have no need to look it up to confirm 100% certainty that it is Ash. Everything in here all added together.