# Need help with downed tree ID



## rthermit (10 mo ago)

This tree has been down a year or so. Going to cut for firewood. There wasn't much of the top left to help with ID. I started splitting it and it split like nothing. Easiest splitting I have ever done. I was thinking it was in the oak family at first. Black or pin. But the grain and splitting ease had me baffled. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

What handsome wood it has!


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

I’m no expert, but the grain looks more maple than oak


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

I’d make lumber out of it.


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

BUT it looks like all oak leaves on the ground, I haven’t spied a maple leaf yet


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## robin416 (Dec 29, 2019)

Or poplar.

I've split a lot of poplar in the past. It was pretty easy and had grain that looked like that. Burns rapidly too.


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## altair (Jul 23, 2011)

Your area?


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Looks like Sourwood.


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## wiscto (Nov 24, 2014)

I was going to guess Ash. There are oak leaves on the ground, but that tree looks like it was down before last fall maybe, or at least dead before last fall. Emerald Ash Borer casualty maybe? Looks like something else has already been growing in its place.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

The bark looks like burr oak to me, but I can't identify the interior.


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## Amanda_W (Jul 5, 2017)

I was thinking Ash as well.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

It's definitely not an ash. Bark looks like sourwood. Wood looks like sourwood. If it splits very easily, but is stringy, and it is really light when dry, it is sourwood.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

I cut and burn sourwood regularly. The bark screams sourwood but the interior says something else. Never have I cut and split a colorful sourwood, plenty of poplar split colorful but that tree is not poplar......Topside on the Cumberland Plateau.


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## robin416 (Dec 29, 2019)

poplar trees in georgia - Google Search

Poplar trees in GA are also called Tulip trees


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Tennessee's State Tree. ( Tulip Poplar)


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

It looks like poplar to me . 
The color on the split gives it away .


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## rthermit (10 mo ago)

Oh .i am in north central Ohio.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Big poplar can have bark like that, but normally wont have fissures that deep on the smaller high branches. They will be smooth and almost white looking, and blend to grey with white stripes and then fissures. And the wood is yellow. 

I did some looking, and I was absolutely wrong, that is an ash tree. Not the green ash that I am familiar with, but a blue ash. Apologies.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

It is not maple, ash, dogwood or buckeye. Those all have opposite placed branches and buds. This tree does not have opposite branches.

Without having a good picture of the bud scars on the branches, my guess would be elm. The trunk and structure look very similar to elm trees in my area. Dutch elm disease usually takes them out when they get to around that size.


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

That looks nothing like ash to me ,but all our ash trees are dying here so the bark is white is and falling off


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

Danaus29 said:


> It is not maple, ash, dogwood or buckeye. Those all have opposite placed branches and buds. This tree does not have opposite branches.
> 
> Without having a good picture of the bud scars on the branches, my guess would be elm. The trunk and structure look very similar to elm trees in my area. Dutch elm disease usually takes them out when they get to around that size.


 Nope can’t be elm , elm is really rough to split I won’t even take it .


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Wellbuilt said:


> Nope can’t be elm , elm is really rough to split I won’t even take it .


Have you split fresh cut elm, long dead elm or both? The long dead stuff seems to split pretty easy, at least compared to black walnut and sycamore.


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## StL.Ed (Mar 6, 2011)

Does the wood have an aroma? My first impression was sassafras. If so, it might smell faintly reminiscent of root beer.


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

Oak or cotton wood has bark like that. Wood looks poplar/cottonwood....Elm & white ash bark doesn't fissure that deep. EAB causes bark to loosen and slough off in large patches.

If it's to be used as firewood, who cares? If you're buying/selling firewood, species matters because you want to maximize the heat content to cost ratio. But this is free, so there's no ratio to figure.


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

That looks to me like *black cottonwood*. It grows like a weed here. Look up google images of the fissures in black cottonwood bark and the wood grain and varied bands of pale colours of the wood for comparison. Black cottonwood is a member of the poplar family. Once it dries it is light weight, it splits easily and it burns very quickly but burning is about the only thing it's good for. Because the wood is so soft it can rot and go punky fast so I wouldn't recommend it for doing any kind of woodworking or cabinetry.

.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Hackberry splits very easily but the bark doesn't look right for that.


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

Danaus29 said:


> It is not maple, ash, dogwood or buckeye. Those all have opposite placed branches and buds. This tree does not have opposite branches.
> 
> Without having a good picture of the bud scars on the branches, my guess would be elm. The trunk and structure look very similar to elm trees in my area. Dutch elm disease usually takes them out when they get to around that size.


Elm is the worst to split though, IMO. Very stringy. Ethermit mentioned how easily it splits.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

67drake said:


> Elm is the worst to split though, IMO. Very stringy. Ethermit mentioned how easily it splits.


I noticed that later. It just looks so much like the elm laying down across my back yard. I did some reading and apparently some elms are easier to split than others but none were considered easy by the splitters. The ones I have split (with one of those manual hydraulic splitters) have been pretty easy but I am comparing that to walnut and sycamore, which are terribly hard to split.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

@rthermit, could you post a picture of the grain in a cross cut?


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

Danaus29 said:


> Have you split fresh cut elm, long dead elm or both? The long dead stuff seems to split pretty easy, at least compared to black walnut and sycamore.


Sure I’ve cut lots of every thing , I sold 100 cords of wood a year for a lot of years .
even for me it hard to tell just from the bark in a pic 🤗


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## goodatit (May 1, 2013)

red oak


rthermit said:


> This tree has been down a year or so. Going to cut for firewood. There wasn't much of the top left to help with ID. I started splitting it and it split like nothing. Easiest splitting I have ever done. I was thinking it was in the oak family at first. Black or pin. But the grain and splitting ease had me baffled. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> View attachment 107561
> 
> View attachment 107560
> ...


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Wellbuilt said:


> Sure I’ve cut lots of every thing , I sold 100 cords of wood a year for a lot of years .
> even for me it hard to tell just from the bark in a pic 🤗


Is it harder to split a downed elm that has been laying around for a while or one that was just cut? Some people claim it's not so bad if split when green.

I've only split what we've cut. I haven't had the pleasure of splitting hundreds of cords. We never cut live elms, only fallen ones. They sure are stubborn and will stay standing for years after they have died.

I never was real good at identifying trees by mature bark. Some are easy, this isn't one of them.

I did find out there are 2 hackberry trees right at the property line by the creek. Now that I know what to look at, that one is easy.


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## rthermit (10 mo ago)

I'm starting to think cottonwood.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Cottonwood. Light like Poplar, but more white grain, splits easy. I've had a couple really big ones die.


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

Danaus29 said:


> Is it harder to split a downed elm that has been laying around for a while or one that was just cut? Some people claim it's not so bad if split when green.
> 
> I've only split what we've cut. I haven't had the pleasure of splitting hundreds of cords. We never cut live elms, only fallen ones. They sure are stubborn and will stay standing for years after they have died.
> 
> ...


Danaus, is that tree alive and dormant or is it a standing dead tree? It looks like it may be Crack Willow bark (Salix fragilis) - the other small immature standing tree a bit in the background looks like it could be the same thing. Crack Willow bark gets more and more gnarly as it matures into old trees. For confirmation you could do an image search online for trees with _gnarled_ bark or _gnarly_ bark (be sure to use that word as a descriptor) to find trees that have bark with that kind of pattern on it. 

Keep in mind that other species of trees can also have gnarly bark (like old black cottonwood for example) but each species will have fairly distinctive identifying patterns in the gnarly bark. Also look at any branches on your tree to see what direction they grow in - are they hanging down, or horizontal, or pointing up? If your tree pictured has remaining long branches that point diagonally and then hang downward then a Crack Willow is likely what it is.

Look at some of these Crack Willows for comparison with your tree:




__





crack willow tree bark - Google Search






www.google.ca





.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Fraxinus quadrangulata.








The Blue Ash Shines in Winter







bernheim.org






https://www.wood-database.com/wp-content/uploads/ash.jpg


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## robin416 (Dec 29, 2019)

Without leaves from the tree it really is hard to know for certain what it is.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

The stain under the bark gives it away.


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

Danaus29 said:


> Is it harder to split a downed elm that has been laying around for a while or one that was just cut? Some people claim it's not so bad if split when green.
> 
> I've only split what we've cut. I haven't had the pleasure of splitting hundreds of cords. We never cut live elms, only fallen ones. They sure are stubborn and will stay standing for years after they have died.
> 
> ...


 The thing is the trees look different in different areas there are a lot of diffrent type 
also you really need bark , leaves , split wood and smell to get a good ID .


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

If that is elm it won’t burn to good and the smoke stinks , and it will squirt juice when you stick a ax in it


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

@Paumon, the trunk in my picture? It is a hackberry. The layered bark is a giveaway sign. It is live and standing. I'd have to look at the little one again. I can't remember if that is the same or if that is the buckeye/horsechestnut. I have an awful time telling those 2 apart. The trunk pictured is most definitely not a willow. The branches are upright and it does not have willow leaves.



Wellbuilt said:


> The thing is the trees look different in different areas there are a lot of diffrent type
> also you really need bark , leaves , split wood and smell to get a good ID .


It depends on the tree. Some species have a great variety in leaf shape. Others are distinctive wherever they are. I was pretty good at leaf and twig identification, at least down to species level. The bark on the trunk often changes as a tree ages which makes identification a lot more difficult when using just the trunk. When a tree has been dead a while, looking at the leaves on the ground won't help. When you add the possibility of imported trees, identification gets more difficult. 

But still, maple (including box elder), ash, dogwood and buckeye (including horse chestnut) all have opposite branches and leaves. All other hardwood trees have alternate branches and leaves, with the exception of a very few with branch clusters.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Is it possible the tree is a Linden, aka Basswood?


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Danaus29 said:


> Is it possible the tree is a Linden, aka Basswood?


Nope. Basswood has very pale, almost featureless wood. And much smoother bark than the blue ash pictured in the original post.


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

Hmmm , and in different places they have diffrent names 🤣 it hard for me to tell in a pic 
I’m better at cutting and burning them then IDing them


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

Danaus29 said:


> @Paumon, the trunk in my picture? It is a hackberry. The layered bark is a giveaway sign. It is live and standing. I'd have to look at the little one again. I can't remember if that is the same or if that is the buckeye/horsechestnut. I have an awful time telling those 2 apart. The trunk pictured is most definitely not a willow. The branches are upright and it does not have willow leaves.


Thank you, now I have learned something new today and added an interesting new tree to my list. I'd never heard of the hackberry tree and just now looked it up and it has a very limited range in North America. It doesn't grow this far west. Also I learned that its distinctive big bumps, fissures and ridges on the bark are called "warts" and they're thought to help protect the living tree from fire. 


Celtis occidentalis



.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks. I've never seen basswood split. I will dispute the tree being an ash. The branches on that tree are alternate, not opposite.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Paumon said:


> Thank you, now I have learned something new today and added an interesting new tree to my list. I'd never heard of the hackberry tree and just now looked it up and it has a very limited range in North America. It doesn't grow this far west. Also I learned that its distinctive big bumps, fissures and ridges on the bark are called "warts" and they're thought to help protect the living tree from fire.
> 
> 
> Celtis occidentalis
> ...


I knew there were hackberry trees around because we have lots of Hackberry butterflies here all summer. Several species of butterfly caterpillars feed on the leaves.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

We don't have the big hackberries, only the dwarf hackberry, used for pins for oxbows. 

The alternate/opposite identifier is best used for small twigs. The one on the sunny side shades the other one until it dies. You will see a branch on one side and a knot on the other.


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## tricklecreek (Sep 4, 2005)

It looks like box elder, light easy to split and colorful grain, if thats what it is it burns fast and has a colorful flame in a fireplace, gives off good heat but burns like cardboard


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## jimhunsicker (Jan 14, 2016)

wiscto said:


> I was going to guess Ash. There are oak leaves on the ground, but that tree looks like it was down before last fall maybe, or at least dead before last fall. Emerald Ash Borer casualty maybe? Looks like something else has already been growing in its place.


I agree with the Ash ID. Mine grows just like this. Straight up. Leaves come on slow in spring and leave first in the fall. I'd be surprised if it were anything else.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

@Paumon, the little tree you asked about is a buckeye or horse chestnut.


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

Danaus29 said:


> @Paumon, the little tree you asked about is a buckeye or horse chestnut.


Okay. Thanks.

.


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## 012345 (6 mo ago)

The bark looks like sourwood but it's too straight and the limbs don't look right for that.. The limbs look like ash. But... the split wood and the area the bark is off looks like Poplar (Tulip Tree). The limbs look like the tree grew weak and had too much shade of a canopy or close trees to it.


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