Help identifying some trees

[John L Sanford]

I went searching for a walnut tree today on some of our old farm property. There are some areas of what I call "hardwood bottoms", and I think there may be a walnut around. Just searching for what one looks like. Kind of hard to tell right now since there aren't really any leaves.

Here are several bark pictures, and I have no idea if any of these might be it. If you can identify, take a shot.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees1.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees2.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees3.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees4.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees5.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees6.jpg

This is a small sapling I found. Not sure if this is walnut

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees7.jpg

And then I found these by the boat load. I have no idea what tree they came from though. There was nothing around the immediate area that looked anything like a walnut tree, at least from the images I was looking at today.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees8.jpg

Here is one of the nuts broken open. It had a worm hole in it, so the nut was all black.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd198/JSMachine/Wooden%20tool%20chest/Trees9.jpg

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Ray Newman]

Pretty sure the last three pictures -- sapling & nuts -- are Butternut. We had a big Butternut tree next to the farm house in upstate NY. Was planted about 1875 by my great-grandfather and a blight took it the mid-1980's. Beautiful old tree and I hated to see it and the swing go....

[joe milana]

My guess is some variety of buckeye tree. Might be called horse chestnuts in your parts. 5th pic. looks like an ash.

[Bill Rogers]

The sapling is not Black Walnut and I agree with Joe that it is a buckeye variety. I thought that the fifth picture was Black Locust.

[Jim Riseborough]

I want to say the 5th one is a cotton wood tree

[Danny Hamsley]

The first pic is in the white oak group, most likely post oak, Quercus stellata. The second pic is also in the white oak group, likely white oak, Quercus alba. The third pic is a red oak, probably southern red oak, Quercus falcata. It could be black oak, Quercus velutina. The way to tell is to bore a small hole with a pocket knife into the bark and if the inner bark is bright orange, it is black oak. If not, then probably southern red. The fourth pic is white oak. The fifth is ash, probably green ash, Fraxinus pennslyanica, but it could be white ash, Fraxinus americana. They can be distinguished by the leaf scars around the bud or from the wings on the samara (fruit). The sixth is hickory, likely pignut hickory, Carya ovalis. The seventh pic is red buckeye, Aesculus pavia. The eight pic is a hickory nut, probably Carya tomentosa from the thickness of the husk and the fact that it dehisces (splits) to the base of the nut.

Nice pics!

[Jim Andrew]

That #3 is suspicious. But don't see any green moldy stuff growing on it. Here on the edge of the desert our walnut trees usually have some green stuff on the bark. But that #3 might be. Look for a dead limb you can pull down, and see if it is brown in the center. You could also just pick up dead limbs on the ground and break in half looking for brown.

[Jim Laumann]

John

Just a afterthought....

One of the tricks I've found when it comes to identifying trees w/o leaves is to shoot a pic of the branchs in the crown as well as the bark.

Jim

[Stan Terrell]

Speaking as another Georgia Forester; I agree with every thing Danny Hamsley said.

[Danny Hamsley]

If you think that you have walnut, take a pocket knife and bore a little hole into the inner bark. The inner bark will be a bright sulfur yellow. Nothing else like it.

[Jim Matthews]

If you think that you have walnut, take a pocket knife and bore a little hole into the inner bark. The inner bark will be a bright sulfur yellow. Nothing else like it.

Awesome.

I could read Hoadley from stem to stern and never have that mentioned.
To JS - it will be MUCH easier to identify the species by leaves (http://forestry.about.com/library/tree/blyellowbuck.htm) than any other cursory exam.

I'm not sure what the sawyers will tell you, but it seems cheaper to buy just the boards you want from a reliable lumber yard.
Woodfinder (http://www.woodfinder.com/) should provide some local sources.

jim
wpt, ma

[Kevin Presutti]

I'm with Dan on the Hickory nuts, and I have to say that on our property we have trees that are from the similar family but of different varieties. Dan thanks for the insight on identifying the family and pointing out the different varieties. John great question accompanied with some good pictures.

[Danny Hamsley]

Yeah, trees and tree ID have been a lifelong passion.